A Visit To The “Office”

Yesterday we shared our photographs of the Rim Trail Overlooks with you and one of those pictures showed you our “office” window.  So we figured that you might like to see the view out of our “office” window.  Well, here it is!!! And, while we’re at it, we might just as well show the “office” where we spend our time slaving away.  Again, you can read the photograph captions by placing your cursor over the picture.The Jane Hurt Yarn Interpretive Center has a gift shop, a small museum depicting the history of Tallulah Falls, displays showing animals native to the Tallulah Gorge area, and a theater where a fifteen minute movie plays every half hour.As we stated in an earlier journal entry, Tallulah Falls was a popular tourist attraction in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s.  With the further expansion of the railroads, other attractions began to draw the crowds away from the Tallulah Gorge area.  And, then, in 1921 a series of fires pretty much wiped out the village of Tallulah Falls which further precipitated a decline in tourist visits.  

In 1970 the Great Karl Wallenda performed another of his death defying feats by walking a cable that was strung at 1000 feet above the gorge floor.  Half way across he stopped and stood on his head on the cable.  This was the beginning of restoring the Gorge as a tourist attraction in Northeast Georgia.In 1911 Helen Dortch Longstreet, widow of Confederate General James Longstreet, made the first attempt to have Tallulah Gorge protected by the state but, it wasn’t until 1993 the State of Georgia designated almost 2700 acres as a State Park.  In 1996 the Jane Hurt Yarn Interpretive Center was completed and today the park hosts hundreds of visitors a day during their peak season.  The park is opened all year around with the winter season being the slowest time due to the adverse weather conditions.

Well, alrighty then, this afternoon we return to our “office” to assist visitors with their “hiking plans”.  Guests show up with little to no knowledge of what there is to see, where to go, or how to get there.  It is our job to assess their capabilities and recommend a hike that is suited for them.  We check their foot gear, talk to them about the physical requirements of the various hikes, and determine how much time they want to spend hiking.  From that information we can recommend a hike for them - there are easy hikes, moderate hikes, and strenuous hikes to choose from.  As you can tell, this is most definitely a rough gig ;-)