An Exciting Day In Tallulah Falls

Whatta Day.  First of all, Ed and Madonna McGarry, who are our neighbors on East Traveler Street, dropped in for a visit.  So we took them for a tour of the entire Gorge; when I say entire, I mean entire.  We did the North Rim Trail, the Interpretive Center (including the movie), and down 310 steps to the Suspension Bridge.  They went down the other 221 steps to the observation deck while Judy and I hung out at the bridge.  Then we went up 347 steps to the South Rim Trail.  It took us just a little over two and a half hours of hiking to cover it all.  I just couldn’t resist taking more pictures. 

    While we were hanging around the Suspension Bridge, I snapped a couple of photos of the Ranger’s viewing station where I was perched on Sunday afternoon and shared the photos with you yesterday.  The yellow arrow marks the spot in the first picture; the second picture is a “zoomed” in shot.

The spring wild flowers are about to pass us by, however, there were some still blooming.

In an earlier blog entry I mentioned the endangered Persistent Trillium that only grows in Northeastern Georgia.  The blossoms have gone by, but here is a picture of the plant itself.

About fifteen minutes after Ed and Madonna left and just as we were sitting down in our recliner’s for a long afternoon’s rest, we heard a loud ka-bam thud followed by another loud ka-bam.  We knew it was an accident involving a semi and figured it must have included another vehicle as well.  We ran out to see what had just happened and there laid a semi on its side. 

Fortunately no other vehicles were involved and thank goodness that there was no one coming in the opposite direction because the truck had rolled on its side and skidded 3/4 quarters the length of a football field up hill in the opposite lane.  The driver had a few cuts and they did take him away in the ambulance but, essentially, he was able to walk away from the accident.

Here are some photos of the accident and process of righting the rig.

     

It took almost three hours to clear the highway, in the meantime, traffic was diverted through the middle of Tallulah Falls.  Well, as you can see, we had a very eventful day.  Here’s just one more photo to bring our attention back to the beauty of this corner of Georgia.  Hope ya have a great day.