Details about Jack's River Falls - by Bob Lantz www.smallbus.com
The
largest wilderness area in the eastern US (at that time) was established in
an eastern wilderness act passed by Congress in 1975. This wilderness area,
south of the better known Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina,
is the 34,000 acre Cohutta mountain lands in both Georgia and Tennessee. This
pristine Cohutta Wilderness of the southern Appalachians contains lands from
both the Chattahoochee (GA) and Cherokee (TN) National Forests and centers on
Big Frog Mountain. And off the slopes of Big Frog Mountain, two steep and rocky
waterways (Jacks and Conasauga Rivers) join together to define the beautiful
cove-like Alaculsy Valley. The clear, clean, cold mountain waters running off
the forested mountainsides into Jacks River and Conasauga River support a unique
(for the East) native trout fishery. This is a land where man is now only a
visitor.
Eastern
wilderness does not necessarily mean acres of virgin timber. All the east has
been logged, and even the remote Jacks River watershed in this Cohutta Wilderness
had a narrow-gauge logging railroad along that natural accessway over 80 years
ago. That overgrown railroad bed today is a waterside trail grade allowing access
up that river for about 10 miles (but following it requires fording the stream
22 times!) And about 8 miles upstream from where Jacks River joins with the
Conasauga River lies a natural river obstruction of exceptional beauty: Jacks
River Falls. These Falls are described in the guidebook by Tim Homan (The Hiking
Trails of North Georgia) as being "... the most scenic single feature in the
Cohutta Wilderness. Descending in stages, the surging water piles up against
boulders and rock walls, frothing back on itself like upwelling caldrons."
An alternative 3.5 mile access to these Georgia located Falls can be found
from the Tennessee side of the mountain off Forest Service Road 62 at the Beech
Bottoms Trail.
Back
to Pictures of Falls and Friend page 1
Back
to Pictures of Falls and Friend page 2
The
largest wilderness area in the eastern US (at that time) was established in
an eastern wilderness act passed by Congress in 1975. This wilderness area,
south of the better known Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina,
is the 34,000 acre Cohutta mountain lands in both Georgia and Tennessee. This
pristine Cohutta Wilderness of the southern Appalachians contains lands from
both the Chattahoochee (GA) and Cherokee (TN) National Forests and centers on
Big Frog Mountain. And off the slopes of Big Frog Mountain, two steep and rocky
waterways (Jacks and Conasauga Rivers) join together to define the beautiful
cove-like Alaculsy Valley. The clear, clean, cold mountain waters running off
the forested mountainsides into Jacks River and Conasauga River support a unique
(for the East) native trout fishery. This is a land where man is now only a
visitor. 