A weekend excursion to Dawson's Amicalola Falls

This past weekend the call to do something different won out. I went with a very special person in my life to the Amicalola Falls in Dawson County, Georgia. The price to visit is a state park fee of $5. We parked the vehicle and began our journey at the Visitors Center. Everywhere you look is a picture worth taking and the soft sound of cascading waters gently tickles your spirit as God's architecture surrounds you.

The center is designed to make you aware of the animals that live in the area. First is a display of poisonous and nonpoisonous snakes. Then on to a display of black bears, groundhogs and birds. I am thinking, Surely they're  not coming out with all these people around.

I like to watch Animal Planet, but I have seen enough to know it's all better on television.

The rangers running the center are friendly and inviting to every guest that comes. There were children looking at the snakes to the bears with wonder in their eyes as they then look at their parents. Boys were thinking, This is cool, and the little girls were saying, "Mom, are the snakes going to come out to bite us?" or "Is that bear alive?" As we purchased some things, an older gentleman greeted us with, "Hello kids, what can I help you with?"

Nothing like good ol' Southern hospitality. It is not dead as some will claim. After you leave the center you drive up to begin your hike up the falls. There is a reservoir at the foot that welcomes the fly fishermen. It appeared to be a lot of work to me, but apparently up there it is trout they are fishing for, and that is their preference.

A trail winds around this shallow reservoir and there you begin to walk the first path. A creek cascades down a  neverending supply of rocks. At first you just walk the path and follow that creek, which gets a little wider the further you progress up the trail and it begins to go up. The air is clear and the smells of nature relax you.

A quarter of the way, stairs begin and the sign says "172 steps." Strenuous to any person, but at different lengths there is a place to stop and sit a spell, which I took advantage of. We sat down and enjoyed the view and started the first really steep steps when I looked down and I saw a bumper of an old car. The chrome was peeling back from it, but a car bumper indeed.

I stopped and looked around, and there was only mountain all the way up. So I looked back down and notice that the body of the car is buried under dirt, but is rusted to the point it is flat. But the bumper is intact. I then look straight up, and there is no road up above.

It is funny how your imagination is caught into the things that defy explanations. I found mine running. How,what where and when? I gathered my thoughts and continued to climb up the steps, still thinking of the car and what its story was, but continuing to climb.The scenery's beautiful, and it is getting better with each step. I am still having to stop and take breaks.

I finally reach the top. There are falls that are so beautifully spread over the boulders and water continually crashing down over the rocks.

Nature has a way of making you feel taken away and very small. This was one of those moments. Man has accomplished some awesome things, but God has crafted such phenomenal creations to explore and experience. I would put this one as a must-do. I took pictures, and I posted them with this article. They are a fraction of the beauty that is displayed here.

On the way back down the steps my mind wondered back to the car as I stepped over it once more and stopped, almost in disbelief as to what  it was and how it came to rest there. We stopped and took pictures of it. We watched people come down the steps, and I asked them what they thought of it. Before I knew it there was a lot of us standing there talking about "what if." The biggest questions were the year and make of the car? As we walked away they were all still standing there discussing the possibilities.

It was then I decided to do this article and ask you, "Is there someone out there that may know an old story about the car that went over the falls?"

Surely someone heard about it at  some point. Let me know with a comment if you do.