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Dukes Creek Falls Recreation Area

Dukes Creek Falls is in the Chattoga Ranger District in Georgia. The trail is written to be .8 miles in length one way, and the same distance back, for 1.6 miles, but my app showed we walked 2.3 miles. The trail winds its way down to Dukes Creek Gorge. There is a 300 foot falls from Davis Creek into Dukes Creek Falls, and several smaller cascading falls. From Helen, Georgia take Highway 75N for 1.5 miles. Turn left on Alt 75 and travel 2.5 miles. Turn right onto Russell Scenic Highway and travel 2.3 miles to the parking area. There is a $4 per person fee.

From the roadside there are peaks of beautiful mountain views.

We had been trying to get to South Carolina, but did not make it the day before and camped nearby at Jenny's Creek Campground. They had given us a few places to visit and this was the first one. We said several times that "Georgia really showed up" as we enjoyed everything we visited in this area of Georgia.

The sign says the observation deck is .1 mile and that the falls are 1.1 miles. We walked 2.3 miles, which is just a little further than the sign indicates.

The trail is nice and easy to walk on.

In the beginning and at the end are some boardwalks.

This is the view from the observation deck, which is very far away and not all that exciting.

The mountain views are great though!

The trail turns into this type of surface for much of the trail as it zig-zags back and forth going downward.

At a lower level you walk by a creek. When we came back, we realized this was actually a waterfall. We saw people getting in the water on our way back. It looks much different one direction from the other.

Nearing the end of the trail, it narrows a bit, but it is still an easy walk.

These flowers were everywhere! I thought they were mountain laurel. We do not have them in Missouri.

As the boardwalk goes down, you can begin to see the falls.

At the end you can go down to the left or straight. We went straight first and saw two waterfalls, and then we went right and along the stretch was a waterfall with a large drop, and another one at the end, which I believe was the same as we saw in the lower section.

Here you can see the two falls on the lower end. There were a lot of people in the water and children walking around on what seemed to be a dangerous and slippery place, but I suppose they had been here before and were locals.

I tried to get in front of the camera more and had people take photos of us with my phone.

This is the large drop waterfall (I am assuming 300 feet) that you can see along the deck if you choose to go right.

This is the waterfall view at the end of the right boardwalk.

This is on the way back. There are signs of Hurricane Helene.

We made it to the parking lot!