Desoto Falls, Georgia

Photo by me, May 2018.

Last Sunday I was up and out early to make the drive up to Desoto Falls in far northern Lumpkin County in the Blood Mountain Wilderness. Desoto Falls is located just south of the Appalachian Trail crossing on U.S. Highway 19 at Walasi-Yi.

Photo by me, May 2018.

Desoto Falls is named after Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto who is said to have explored this area in the 1540s. Now it is without a doubt that de Soto did explore many parts of Georgia including the North Georgia Mountains in the 1500s. Hernando de Soto is considered to be the first European to explore the interior portions of the southeastern United States. Historians do have a good idea from the expedition records where de Soto's party explored but there is no exact route known where he did travel. So to claim that armor that was found near the waterfalls is from his party does make for an interesting legend but the claim may be dubious. Nonetheless, Desoto Falls is named after him just as the Desoto Falls in Alabama is too.

Never in my time in the woods have I encountered warnings of "people have died" here and other warnings of potential death, that was until I visited Desoto Falls in the mountains of North Georgia.

The sign above in the photo states, "several people on the waterfalls and fallen to their death." Note that it says several.

This is one of those people that have unfortunately died at Desoto Falls by falling to their death. He was a teenage boy from Virginia that was camping with his family at the campground at Desoto in 2013. He disappeared from their campsite at night and was found the next morning at the bottom of the falls dead.

Photo by me, May 2018.

Yet another sign warning visitors that people have died on these waterfalls by being careless. This sign is at the base of the largest waterfall at Desoto. You might notice the cross on the sign with the blue ribbon. The name on the cross is of the person that I mentioned above that died here in 2013.

With all the posted warnings here you might think Desoto Falls would be the most dangerous place in the state, but it is no more dangerous than any other place out there in the woods. As with any time you spend out in the woods you should always exercise cautious judgement and common sense but most of all enjoy yourself. Nature is wild and can be unpredictable so taking unnecessary risks may result in injury or death any time you set foot into the woods. Accidents will happen and never will you be able to safeguard against every hazard, but you can use common sense to help minimize your risks.

That being said, Desoto Falls is no more dangerous than any other waterfall out there. Yes, it is a huge waterfall and people have died there but you can easily fall and kill yourself on a small waterfall too on the slick wet rocks. So do not let the deaths and warning scare you away from visiting Desoto because it is safe if you use common use and stay on the trails.

Photo by me, May 2018.

If the warnings of death by falling were not enough to scare you, there are the bears that might get you. I saw two warnings posted about bears being active in the area. In the North Georgia Mountains this type of warning is not uncommon to see especially in area near campgrounds where there is food. In all my time hiking and camping in these mountains I have yet to encounter a bear, outside of the Smokies, but I know that eventually I am going to see one. Bears generally do not like humans and will often run away if you make enough noise. Yes, it is possible you might see a black bear out there and if you do here is good advice.

After all the warnings and a little history let's get started on the hike.

Frogtown Creek. Photo by me, May 2018.

The trail leaves the parking lot then passes through a picnic area, follows a paved road along the edge of the campground and then you come to your first water crossing via a bridge over Frogtown Creek.

The last bridge before reaching the upper falls. Photo by me, May 2018.

Once across the creek there is a directional sign pointing you to the trail on the left for the lower falls and to the right for the upper falls. The signage also notes that from that spot it is one quarter of a mile to the lower falls and three quarters of a mile to the upper falls.

The trail to the upper falls. Photo by me, May 2018.

The trail to the upper falls. Photo by me, May 2018.

On the way back to the trailhead. Frogtown Creek is on the left with campground adjacent to it. Photo by me, May 2018.

I decided to do the longer hike to the upper falls first because fewer people were going in that direction. This trail has a couple of additional water crossings via bridge but mostly it follows an old logging road on a gradual climb to the falls. Frogtown Creek will be on your right most of the way to the falls.

The serene and dense forest along the trail. Photos by me, May 2018.

The trail is wide on the old road and an easy hike even in hot and humid conditions on the day that I hiked it. If you are in decent shape you will have no issues on this hike. The trail passes through a dense forest that is relatively young with tall slender timber and thickets of rhododendron in the understory. I strongly advise staying on the trail because it would be very easy to get lost if you wandered too far from the trail into the steep terrain of the Blood Mountain Wilderness.

Photo by me, May 2018.

This is the upper falls and middle falls - a multi-tiered waterfall that plunges off the side of Rocky Mountain.

As with most all waterfalls in the Georgia the amount of water flowing is going to be less in the late spring into the early fall. For the best viewing experience in terms of higher amounts of white water the late fall, through winter and into early spring are the best times to view them.

Photo by me, May 2018.

There was a wooden viewing platform at the base of the waterfall but it was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. All that remains now are the concrete base supports.

Photo by me, May 2018.

Now if you wish to go further up the side of the waterfall, the trail is open according to the U.S. Forest Service. There was no sign or barrier to prevent you from going further up this narrow trail to the very top of the waterfall. This trail had been closed for many, many years after damage from snowstorms and hurricanes but it is considered open now. I opted not to go to the very top.

Now to get to the lower falls which are on another creek and not Frogtown Creek you have to retrace your hike back to the first bridge where the directional sign is located. The trail to the lower falls is one quarter of a mile long.

This trail caught me off guard as to how steep it is even if it is a short trail. This trail rapidly climbs the side of the mountain through a series of switchbacks and stone stairs. This trail is nothing like the easy trail to the upper falls.

Photo by me, May 2018.

From a set of stone stairs looking down the side of the mountain. There were several large trees that were felled during Hurricane Irma that had to be cut and removed off the trail.

Hurricanes and snowstorms can do a lot of damage to the Georgia mountains. Related to to this, here you can see some landslides that I witnessed just north of Helen last year after Hurricane Irma on Georgia Highway 17.

The lower falls. Photo by me, May 2018.

The lower falls once you arrive are smaller than the other waterfall but it is still impressive in person. The wooden viewing deck is still intact here and there are benches to take in the view and rest.

Desoto Falls is a popular destination so despite the potential dangers it is very much worth visiting. The hikes here are relatively short and easy and you can see two waterfalls in one stop.

Vines Gardens

The entrance to Vines Gardens. Photo by me, May 2018.

 
Last week I had the opportunity to take a walk through Vines Gardens in Loganville. Vines was on my list of places to visit, but I kept it on hold until spring which I thought would be the best time to visit. Now that it is becoming late spring, even though it feels like summer already, I remembered this garden and made my way there.

In searching the web may find lots of conflicting information about Vines Gardens. Some will say it is a botanical garden, some a restaurant, some an event venue, some a park, some a private residence. What Vines is, is a public park owned by Gwinnett County and it is free to visit the gardens. The house on the property is an event venue used for weddings and such. It is true that this was once a botanical garden and it was at one time a private residence too. Today the gardens are maintained by volunteers and you can wander around them at your leisure.

Photo by me, May 2018.

The property is 79 acres and features a paved trail of a half mile, a variety of garden types and a lake as a centerpiece. 

 

Photo by me, May 2018.

I entered the grounds and followed the path down a hill and turned right. The lake was in front of me and a white bridge spanned the water with nice views of the lake and gardens. You can get a sense standing on it of the size of the gardens and how peaceful they are.

Photos by me, May 2018.

Along the water's edge was a bed of yellow iris in bloom.

Photo by me, May 2018.

Photo by me, May 2018.

This is the view from the center of the bridge looking across the length of the lake. A gazebo is on the right and a deck overlooking the water is on the shore to the left.

Photo by me, May 2018.

One of the gardens on the property is the "Asian Garden." It was a pretty standard Japanese garden with maples of various sizes and other plantings. This garden is a shady place where the shadows give it a cozy presence.

Photos by me, May 2018.

Photo by me, May 2018.

Photo by me, May 2018.

The Japanese garden was perched on a small knoll and had a winding boardwalk that passed through. The garden had Japanese maples and other trees. As is common in Japanese gardens there was a water feature with a small pond, waterfall and a bridge. There was also a bench on which to sit and take in the shadows and filtered light through the trees. I imagine this garden is especially beautiful in the fall.

Georgia has an ideal climate for Japanese gardens and there are several scattered throughout the state, but most are rather small like this one. I keep hoping someone will come along and build a large Japanese garden in the state. 

 

Photo by me, May 2018.

The next garden is known as the "White Garden." The flowers and blooming bushes that are in this garden yield white blooms as you would expect. This was my favorite garden with the white blooms and the statuary.

Photos by me, May 2018.

Photos by me, May 2018.

This garden feels very delicate with all the white blooms and I missed the peak of the blooms that had come earlier in the spring, but there were still enough left to enjoy. There are white azaleas and honeysuckles and plants I am not familiar. The honeysuckles had already turned from their white color to their golden shade indicating they were ripe.

Photo by me, May 2018.

This large piece of statuary was of a nymph blowing a horn  atop a base that reminded me of a tiered wedding cake with cherubs encircling her. It adds a sense of formality to this garden before entering the rose garden that follows it.

Photos by me, May 2018.

Photo by me, May 2018.

From this perspective in the garden you can see the house that was built on this former estate across the lake. I do not believe I have every seen so many windows on a house that is not all that large. It had more windows than actual walls.

Photo by me, May 2018.

There is a small grove of trees that provide a gallery effect between the nymph statue and the rose garden like a visual pass-through.

Photos by me, May 2018.

A statue of a lion peers from the grove of trees into the rose garden. The variety of statuary was the best feature of all the gardens.

Photo by me, May 2018.

The rose garden was in bloom. Roses have such a distinct smell and any time I go through a rose garden I have to take in the fragrance.

Photos by me, May 2018.

Photos by me, May 2018.

This garden had a few different varieties of roses and I particularly liked the vivid pink one. Spanning the garden walkway were two rows of Doric columns. The rose garden had a feeling of the Mediterranean about it with the columns, the statuary and the towering trees that appear to be cedar that serve as a backdrop.

Photos by me, May 2018.

Of interest to children or young at heart adults there was a sizable model town set up with a train set. The train only runs on certain days of the month according to a sign. It was not running the day I visited.

Photos by me, May 2018.

I followed the path along the shore of the lake that is on the same side as the house and found even more color. The mountain laurel that was blooming had such vibrant colors. Rhododendron is most often just a very dull green bush or small tree, but when it blooms the colors are incredible. Along the path were also more iris and azalea in bloom.

Photo by me, May 2018.

One last glance of the lake looking across to the rose garden.

Photo by me, May 2018.

Vines Gardens exceeded my expectations in its beauty. I am so glad that I visited in the spring when so many things were blooming. I look forward to seeing it again, maybe in the fall.

May Blooms In Oakland Cemetery

The main gate at Atlanta's Oakland Cemetery. Photo by me.

After walking in Grant Park on Sunday I felt like I needed more exercise and went over to Oakland Cemetery. Oakland is not only a Victorian cemetery, but is also a city park. Spring is a good time to walk through the vast sea of graves and tombs because of all the flowers and the weather is not too hot yet by Georgia standards.

Photo by me.

Photo by me.

I stopped my walk to smell the roses. These roses remind me of my childhood home. We grew these exact same roses in their delicate light pink shade. These roses are faintly fragrant and come with nice sized thorns, I know because I cut myself many a time as a child on that rose bush. If not pruned these roses will grow into massive bushes. The one at my childhood home was humongous and covered one entire corner of our house.

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Photo by me.

These are a different variety of roses that were in bloom at the grave of Margaret Mitchell Marsh and her husband. Margaret Mitchell as she was better known was the author of a little book you might have heard of called, Gone With The Wind. She was killed in 1949 on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta when she was run over by a drunk driver by the name of Hugh Gravitt.

The daughter of Mr. Gravitt published her own book in 2013 from her family's perspective about the accident that killed Margaret Mitchell. In her book she alleges that Margaret Mitchell was possibly murdered by her own husband John Marsh by pushing her in front of the car driven by Gravitt. She claims Gravitt was railroaded in court and it was not her father's fault that Mitchell was killed by his car. I have not read the book, but it sounds like a modern day conspiracy theory/nonsense cooked up to sell books to me. The reviews on Amazon make the book sound rather laughable.

Photo by me.

Photo by me.

Photo by me.

There were so many blooming plants and bushes that I did not take time to stop and photograph them all. I did stop to admire these beautiful irises that were in their full grandeur. That deep purple color is so rich.

Photo by me.

I stopped by to take a look at the massive sculpture of a sleeping lion cradling the Confederate flag. The sculpture is for remembering the unknown Confederate deaths during the American Civil War.

I enjoy walking in Oakland Cemetery for the peacefulness of the place and various sculptures that adorn the graves. Oakland is one of my favorite places in Atlanta.

A Saturday

It was a Saturday morning without a plan or a need for one. This past Saturday I cooked oatmeal for breakfast, had my coffee and put my feet up. It was going to be a lazy morning as I listened to Bill Evans Trio's album Sunday At The Village Vanguard. It might not have been a Sunday but I could pretend. Mellow was the mood as the morning came by, through and over me. There was no rush to do a thing as the dense humidity was building outside and the hot temperatures were brewing across the city.

I wanted to be the smooth notes of the piano and the bass and not be bothered to be bothered about a thought of anyone or anything. So the morning was just what I wanted as if I had ordered it out of an expensive catalog made of thick, slick paper.

A walking trail at Mason Mill. Photo by me in May 2018.

A beaver dam on the South Peachtree Creek. Photo by me in May 2018.

It would be late afternoon when the peak of the heat had climaxed before I decided to go beyond my door. I went for my regular walk at the South Peachtree Creek Trail near home. I did it from end to end and back again to make my goal of four miles for the walk.

I enjoyed the walk through the trees, over the creeks, to the sound of the singing birds and with the fading sun. My lazy Saturday was not so lazy after all.

Strange Days Indeed

I woke up early this morning and went out when the moon was still full in the constellation of Virgo and enjoyed the quiet of the city. Now the sun is rising as I sit down to write this with my coffee after breakfast. I have not written here this week so I thought I would take some time this morning to put down some words.

Inman Park Festival drinking, 2013. Photo by me, April 2013.

Later today I am headed to my favorite festival of the year in Atlanta and that is the Inman Park Festival. I used to do this festival with my former friend Rod, but he's moved to Arizona. We would spend the day at the festival people watching and enjoying the day with beers in our hands.

I dedicated six hours to watch that Netflix documentary, Wild Wild Country, that has been getting so much press lately. The film is about a cult that moved from India to a remote area of Oregon in the 1980s and built a commune. It is a wild story including attempted murders, poisoning an entire town, 90 Rolls Royces, greed, power and sex. However, it did not need to be six hours long and could have used a better framed editorial perspective instead of letting so many lies go unchallenged. It was not a very good documentary series. Of all the big stories of the 1980s I do not much remember this cult and their activities but then again this was in Oregon and no one paid much attention to Oregon then and that was a world away from where I grew up. I think people are acting as if this was a bigger story now and than it was at the time. It was probably a blip on the radar screen of new stories that would get buried in the last ten minutes of the national evening news.

The fashionable 80s cult in Oregon. Wild, Wild Country.

The part that I found most interesting were the clothes the cult members had to wear. If you were a member of this cult you had to wear the same color as everyone else. When it was India they all wore orange and when they came to the United States they changed colors to a more burgundy color. Their clothes were the coolest thing about this cult. They look so fashionable and stylish in their cult clothes and notice how skinny everyone was. The food we ate in the world was much more healthy back in those days. No one in my family was overweight and it was uncommon then to see overweight people, unfortunately diets and lifestyles have changed and now so many people are overweight. 

 
Here's one of my favorite of John Lennon songs, Nobody Told Me, from which I borrowed a lyric for the title of this post.



Strange days indeed...have a great weekend.

Rebellious Birds, Stalin Wets The Floor, Boring Isn't & Shadows

This Sunday morning outside my front door I listened to the cardinals sing and watched them feed and play or maybe they were fighting for territory, I'm not sure.

Every year about this time the cardinals come through in their pairs, they are always in pairs or couples, and they sing, feed and nest in the cedar trees. I enjoy the cardinals.

The cardinal was the favorite bird of my late grandfather on my mother's side of the family. He had bird feeders and enjoyed watching the birds. I like the cardinal too for it is red and that's a rebellious color in nature's color palette.

The cardinal is a common bird in the eastern half of the United States and what I find most interesting about them is that the male is more red and brightly colored than the female. The female cardinal is a more subdued red and has brown feathers too. I suppose the male is more red so that he might attract more potential mates but that's only a guess on my part.

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Last week I watched The Death of Stalin. The film is a comedy set around the death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the power struggle that ensues.  It was mediocre. There was so much absurdity around the real death of Stalin and the characters that surrounded him that there was plenty of comedic material to work with yet this film never takes full advantage of it. The pacing is glacial at times and the film drags along in several scenes and you must wait forever to find any humor. The film is banned in Russia which isn't surprising. I wish the film was more absurd because to portray Stalin and his absurdity you need go full throttle absurd to even reflect an ounce of how crazy his reign truly was.

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Tom Boring. Photo by Eggleston.

On Saturday I read and thoroughly enjoyed this essay in Oxford American about famous photographer William Eggleston and his friend Tom Boring. The essay is a story of chaos, decadence and debauchery that only true Southerners can achieve. I love tales like this.

I am well familiar with the photography of Eggleston as he may be the most famous living American photographer at the moment and his wonderfully crazy life but I was not familiar with Tom Boring.

Tom Boring it seems was just as colorful and outlandish if not more so than Eggleston. You would expect Eggleston to have crazy friends especially in his younger days and so the essay introduced me to what might have been his closest friend. Tom was a fellow southerner living in Greenwood, Mississippi from a good background, served in the navy and became a dentist. I could never do justice to Tom's story like the linked essay does but I certainly want to know more about him now after reading it.

There's also a mystery about Tom's death in 1980. It seems Tom may have had enemies and his burned and beaten body was found in the ruins of his burned down house in Greenwood. The local police didn't seem to give a damn about the murder and now claim the records from that time were also lost in another fire. Sure...

I want to know more about Tom Boring, someone should write a book.

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And finally...

Photo by me, March 2018.

I couldn't get enough of the shadows this morning on my dining room floor. I stood and admired them for several minutes and finally took a photo. The sun on the wood floor and the shadows of my palm plants made me think of a hot summer day in Florida. The chair legs at the top of the photo make me wonder what has taken place in this room. Of course I know what takes place there because I eat there but if I weren't familiar with the room and chairs I would wonder about the people that have sat there in those spots. 

 

Insta-Glamour

  Wonderful it was looking at these photos in The Cut from someone I had never had of before. Antonio Lopez was glamorous and knew glamorous people and that shows in his photographs. Looking at the photos which were made with an inexpensive Instamatic camera they look current because of today's trendy use of filtered photos made to look old through applications such as Instagram or Lightroom. Lopez's photos though are authentic and are shot on 110 and 126 film like the first film I ever used in the early 1980s. However, my photos are nothing even remotely as interesting or glamorous as his since he was a glamorous person that knew glamorous people in a glamorous time in New York and Paris with disco and outrageous fashion dominating that cultural period.

Lopez wasn't a photographer by trade but instead he was a fashion illustrator. He did work for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Interview, Elle and the New York Times. He was however friends and neighbors with the legendary photographer Bill Cunningham. Lopez was actually friends with lots of famous people from the 70s and 80s jet set from Jessica Lange, Grace Coddington, Pat Cleveland, Jerry Hall, Karl Lagerfeld, Grace Jones to Tina Chow among others. Being surrounded by that much intense star power in that decadent time will provide plenty of glamour to photograph.

You can view more of his photos at the Danziger Gallery website and in person too when a show opens next month displaying his photography.

Though I am aware of and familiar with all the names surrounding Antonio Lopez, I wasn't familiar with him until today. He died at the age of 44 in 1987 from complications from AIDS. He was another victim of that time when AIDS was new and ravaging the creative world unabated.

A documentary covering a time in Lopez's life in the late 60s and 70s has been made and I will have to go see it. The film is called Antonio Lopez: Sex, Fashion and Disco.



Here's a review of the film in The Guardian.

Living In The Absurd

It has been apparent since January of 2017 when the orange nut job became president that our government was not to be trusted in anything they say or do. We are watching our freedom and institutions die every day before our eyes and nothing is being done about it. The Democrats are a feckless bunch and the Republicans as have been for decades are only out for the money and covering their own asses at the expense of us the people.

Just before the Soviet Union collapsed under Gorbachev the people there no longer believed in their government; they knew it was all absurd lies and so they didn't trust their leaders. After the collapse under Yeltsin all of the industries were gobbled up by oligarchs and power was consolidated into the hands of only a few. This may be what becomes of the United States. What was once unthinkable is now possible and that is that this country is over as we know it.

I'm a fan of the films that BBC documentarian Adam Curtis has been doing for years in trying to make sense of and offer a better understanding of the world we live in today. In one such film, Pandora's Box, he spends an hour discussing what I had written about above in regard to the Soviet Union before the fall. The film like many of his other BBC films is widely available on various video streaming sites such as YouTube.