Gwinnett is Great for Waterfalls

Water Levels Update: typical spring levels currently, depending on recent rain.
Spring Color Update: still not much to speak of above the Piedmont (and barely any there).

There were two water towers that were seen along Interstate 85 in Gwinnett County in the Atlanta metro area–which I often passed going to north Georgia for waterfalls. One of the towers said “Gwinnett is Great,” and is the reason for the title here (the towers were taken down last year). Scott & I decided to take advantage of perfect early spring weather, and visit some waterfalls we learned about in another blog I found recently from someone else who is visiting local waterfalls. Based on her description, we decided to check it out, especially since they weren’t far away.

Freeman’s Mill Park is a relatively new Gwinnett County Park the primary goal of which is to preserve a historic grist mill. The mill looks nice, though it isn’t yet restored inside; however, we were interested in the waterfall nearby. There was a man-made fall created by overflow from the former dam for the mill. Though I tend to prefer natural falls to man-made, it was a nice setting, looking appealing even with full sun on the scene (usually not great for waterfall photos), and filters allowed me to get a long-exposure shot that I was pleased with.

Both of us had seen a few posts about the area, and knew there was another waterfall there, which we saw across the creek. We got across to it, and checked it out. I would be careful about this, since I don’t know about access to this, though there were no posted signs around telling of it being private. There we came across another waterfall, almost 20 ft tall, a nice sloping natural fall. Again sun made it difficult waterfall photography conditions, but I think Scott was pleased with this shot. I think this setting in spring greenery–and on a day with even lighting–could be really beautiful for waterfall photography. We looked around the area, and Scott had heard there was an upper waterfall, so we continued up beside the fall to explore further.

Sure enough, we came across the upper fall after a few hundred feet of mostly walking along the creekbed (once above the lower fall). This fall was really impressive, and more dramatic than we expected it to be, being more than 30 ft series of steps. It also had really beautiful rock colors. However, the sun really did a number on any photo that was taken of it, providing way too much contrast. Again, I think that with spring greenery, flow, and even lighting, this could produce a really amazing waterfall shot. We’ll just have to come back later in the spring to try…

Read Full Post »