Amicalola Falls to Long Creek Falls and Back

This is my go to hike when I want a long day hike without driving a ton of miles and decided to open this up to the club in case anyone wanted to come with me this weekend. The hike is roughly 30 miles give or take a couple of miles based on the calculations from different people's gps.  Generally it takes somewhere in the range of 10-11 hours going a steady moderately fast pace. With a group it could take a bit longer and I would plan to carry a headlamp in case the last section ends up finishing in the dark.

This is not a hike for beginners or people that have not already completed several difficult D5 or D6 hikes recently.  I will be contacting anyone that I am concerned about.

We will start at the Visitor Center at the base of Amicalola falls and follow the AT Approach Trail up the stairs in front of the waterfall. We will then take the approach trail to the summit of Springer Mountain. From there we will take the Benton Mackaye trail down to Three Forks where it rejoins with the AT. Then we will head roughly 1 mile further up the trail to Long Creek falls where we will stop for lunch.

On the return trip we will take the AT back to Springer Mountain instead of the BMT.  After passing over the summit of Springer for the second time we will head several miles to the intersection with the Hike Inn Trail which we will take back to the top of the falls instead of the AT approach trail. Once we reach the top of the falls we will then take the East ridge trail down to the visitor center instead of the stairs.

From the Park & Ride we will go north on Georgia 400 past the outlet Mall to GA 136. Left on 136 till GA 52. Right until the park entrance on the left. We will start at the parking lot across the street from the Visitor Center

There is a $5 parking fee at the park.