More Spring Beauty

Since George and I 'walk the yard' every morning --checking out all of the new blooms,  you can only imagine how many pictures we both have taken.  Even though it is still March,  these past two weeks have been some of the best I can ever remember when it comes to gorgeous weather --and LOTS of Spring blooms.

If you missed last week's blog post showing some spring flowers in our yard,  click HERE to see those pictures... Today,  I will share more with you.  The picture above is a combination of some Daffodils, red Tulips,   Dad Adams' Daffodils,  a little of our pink Phlox (in the background) and some of our white Candy Tuft.  Below are more.  Please click on the pictures for enlargements.

I love this batch of white Tulips, named Purissima.  They are located in the 'road' flowerbed out front.  Aren't they pretty?

We have two Red Bud trees in our yard... Both are gorgeous right now --especially the one near the road.  I was standing below this tree --looking up at that beautiful blue sky. The sun was in a perfect place to bring out the colors.

This picture shows the gorgeous yellow Forsythia in the side yard toward the back.  Like I said,  everything is blooming and is just breath-taking!!!!

Here's another picture of the Red Bud tree... I was standing in the road looking back toward the house.  Isn't this just awesome?  The bees LOVE the Red Bud blooms.

 Do you like red tulips???  These red tulips (on the other end of the 'road' flowerbed from the white Tulips)  are appropriately named  Red Dynasty.

Finally,  I stood in the street and took a picture looking back toward the house.  Besides the Red Dynasty tulips, you can also see two of the three round flowerbeds,  the container roses,  and the two 'rose' flowerbeds --which now are ablaze with Spring flowers. (The roses won't bloom until May probably--although everything is blooming early this year... SO???? Who knows!!!) 

I hope you aren't getting too bored with my Spring flower pictures... I guess,  when you work in your yard for several years like we have done,  and begin seeing so many rewards of your labors,  it just becomes extremely exciting!!!  AND--you want to share this joy--which we enjoy doing.  Hope you like them!!!

Hugs,
Betsy

Horsetrough Falls, Georgia

Us at Horsetrough Falls

As most of you know,  George and I took three trips in a month (one to North Georgia,  one to Arkansas, and  one to West Virginia).   Today's post is another one from our Valentine's visit to North Georgia.  Please take a peak back at this post (click HERE) --to see what we experienced that day while searching for Horsetrough Falls.

This area is near Helen, Georgia (White County) and Unicoi State Park.  We began traveling on Forest Rd. 44 (called the Chattahoochee River Road)  at an elevation of 3100 feet in the snow... We drove down that forest service  road for almost 5 miles ---DEEP into the mountains.

We drove and drove and drove (it seemed--since we had to drive slowly on that bumpy and steep mountain road) and finally came to the Upper Chattahoochee River Campground.  We parked there and took a nice little hike into the woods (about a mile one way).  Since the campground was closed,  we had to park outside the campground and walk across the Henson Creek to the other end of  the campground in order to get to the trailhead.

There was NOBODY around that cold, wet, foggy, snowy day in Georgia---so we had the entire area ALL to ourselves... (That's what we love!!!!) ..... And since you know how much we LOVE waterfalls,  you can just imagine the joy we had when we finally came to Horsetrough Falls.  What a fabulous area ---and a HUGE waterfall in the woods!!!

Hope you enjoy our pictures... Be sure to enlarge them for bigger pictures.

Here is another picture of Forest Road 44---which we had to travel on, in order to reach Horsetrough Falls...   The snow disappeared and the fog lifted as we traveled down the mountain toward Chattahoochee Gap.  But the road was steep and bumpy!

After reaching the trailhead,  we crossed a footbridge over the Chattahoochee River.

Here is a picture of the Chattahoochee River from the bridge.  Isn't this area just gorgeous?  I love the Rhododendrons.

I took this picture of George at the viewing platform where we saw Horsetrough Falls.

George took a picture of me at the same location.  Wish you could have seen that area.  We felt like that waterfall was there JUST for us!!!! Usually when we find a waterfall deep in the woods like this,  it is not such a LARGE one.  This one was huge!!!!

As we headed out,  I took a picture of George on the little bridge.  This was a gorgeous little hike!!!

Finally,  here is a picture of Horsetrough Falls from the viewing platform.  Depending upon which book I read,  Horsetrough Falls is from 70-100 feet tall.

Hope you enjoyed seeing our pictures of Horsetrough Falls...   We have found out (since we got home) that there was another waterfall not far from Horsetrough Falls.  SO--we'll go back to that area sometime...

We recently purchased two new waterfall books:
"Waterfall Hikes of North Georgia" by Jim Parham
"Waterfall Hikes of Upstate South Carolina" by Thomas E. King
I don't know how many waterfall books we have --but I'll admit that we do have quite a few!!!!!  The books help so much in trying to find information,  directions,  etc. when searching for waterfalls.   Without these books, we would never have been able to find all of the back-woods areas we have seen.    As I say alot,  SO MUCH JOY.

Hugs,
Betsy