Senior Moments

The view from Overlook 1, Tallulah Gorge State Park, Georgia. June 23, 2009.

The picture above was taken from Overlook 1 at Tallulah Gorge State Park in Georgia.  The park contains six waterfalls, which made it a perfect place for Betsy and I to be on our anniversary.  I’ll tell you more about the park and the gorge itself in a future post.  Right now I simply want to say that the picture above was taken about 750 feet above of the floor of the gorge.  And I also want to direct your attention to the white water just to the right of center in the photo.  That white water is all that can be seen of Hurricane Falls from this overlook.

We had to be content with viewing the waterfalls from the rim because access to the floor of the gorge is by permit only.  So we walked along the North Rim Trail taking in the truly magnificent views.

When we got to Overlook 3 we saw a sign pointing to the trail and steps to a suspension bridge over the river above Hurricane Falls.  Since Betsy has more sense than I do, she said she would wait at the overlook while I hiked down to the bridge.  So off I went.

When I got to the bridge I admired the view and (naturally) took some pictures.  Then I noticed another sign pointing to steps leading down to the Hurricane Falls Observation Deck.  Having more curiosity than sense I started down this new set of steps.

Hurricane Falls, Tallulah Gorge State Park, Georgia. June 23, 2009.

Before long I found myself on a deck about five feet above the floor of the gorge with the beautiful view of Hurricane Falls seen in this second photo.  As I took more pictures I decided that the hike down was definitely worth it.

It was about then that I realized that I was now some 570 steps below Betsy and that the only way out was up.  I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but the hike up took much longer than the hike down.  On Sunday I had told my son that I didn’t feel 67.  After only about 200 of those steps up I felt each and every day of those years!