In my last blog post, I talked about our early morning excursion to Overlook #6 and the surprises that that morning had brought to us.

Well, there were more surprises in store for us that day . . . and one precarious experience that was unlike any other in my landscape photography escapades and one I will not soon forget!

By the time we left the visitor center, it was well into mid-morning. The colorful light of golden hour was long gone. But at least we had our gorge passes! We could now hike through the entire gorge any time we wanted.

Most folks got their passes to enjoy the swimming hole and natural waterslide a mile down the gorge at the last waterfall. And most of them would probably be heading there immediately. But because our main goal was photography, we decided to wait until later in the day to go through the gorge. We didn’t necessarily want gobs of people in our photos, so perhaps if we timed it right, most folks would be gone by the time we made it to the last waterfall.

So, to pass the time, we did some scouting for sunset.

Overlook #1 offered some nice open views. Definitely worth coming back to later in the day.

Inspiration Point offered some open views too. But it didn’t have the same photogenic properties like the first one.

We also decided to explore a little bit of the gorge before lunch. We wouldn’t go very far. Just down to see the suspension bridge and one of the waterfalls that was at the base of the 531 steps that takes you down into the gorge.

That was a lot of steps! Once down there, it felt like you were in another world. The sound of the rushing water, the steep walls ascending on either side, the cool breeze that came off the water, the giant boulders and rock cliffs. Throw in a well-constructed wooden suspension bridge and it was a gorgeous place to be!

And the waterfall at the bottom was beautiful too. Samuel, one of the photographers in our group, got a better photo of Hurricane Falls than I did. He was able to photograph it at just the right time when some clouds came floating by. I never had that opportunity, though I did wait for it for a long time. 🙂

Perhaps it was in part because I was preoccupied with a water snake we found close by. 🙂

While finding a nice snake in an uncluttered environment was exciting, it had nothing to do with the precarious experience that would happen later that day. I’ve seen and photographed plenty of snakes. 🙂

By this time, it was getting close to noon. We were ready for lunch. Especially after descending, and then ascending all 531 steps back to the rim. But we had had a taste of what it was like in the gorge and I was pumped about our afternoon hike!

By 1:30pm, we were back in the gorge. And it had definitely warmed up! August in Georgia is hot, even in the mountains. I hoped that my 32oz water bottle, filled completely to the brim now, would be enough for the entire afternoon, even though the ranger had suggested “3 or 4 water bottles” earlier at the visitors center. But how could I bring that much water? I didn’t have room for it. In my effort to pack light, I had left behind everything but what could fit in my camera bag. So, I hoped that what I had would be enough.

I had also traded my hiking boots for water shoes. Not only are water shoes excellent for waterfall and stream photography, they would come in handy for crossing areas that couldn’t be jumped. And as it turned out, they came in handy right off.

To begin the hike through the gorge, one had to get across the river at the base of Hurricane Falls. And to accomplish the crossing, one must have an extraordinary ability to jump, or . . . one must be fine with getting his feet (or more) very wet. Thankfully, due in part mostly to our gallant bag hopper (Timothy), we were able to get all our equipment safely to the other side of the river where the actual trek through the gorge began!

We took our time picking our way along the rocks between the edge of the river and the vertical walls of the gorge. We would look for interesting things to take pictures of, and if we wanted the silky water effect, we would wait and wait until some clouds came floating by. Our waiting was usually in vain, though. Not too many clouds were in the habit of floating by that day.

We were tired, hot and sweaty by the time we reached the last waterfall, Bridal Veil Falls. A dip in the swimming hole would feel very nice, just now!

But sadly, there was still a party going on at the falls. You could hear it (and smell it) when we were getting close. Should we try to photograph it anyway? Should we just skip it and head back up to the rim? Better yet, what if we just hung out upstream for a while? It was only 3:00pm. We set our packs down, took some sips of precious water, and spread out looking for places to dip our feet in the water or frame up some new compositions and wait for more clouds to float by.

After about 45 minutes, we received word from our scout (Timothy), that it sounded like the party had moved on! Would the swimming hole be all ours now? I was pessimistic.

But sure enough, when we arrived, there were only 4 or 5 people left. For several in our group, the photography gear was promptly set to the side. It took me a while to warm up to the idea of getting soaked from head to toe in my clothes, but boy I’ll tell you, peer pressure sure is a powerful thing!

What a jolly time we had. The 60 foot slope was truly an amazing waterslide. Algae grew thick and slippery. The pool at the bottom was deep and wide. And oh how cool and refreshing the water was!

We could have spent the rest of the day there. But by 4:30pm, I knew we had better pack up and leave if we were going to have any chance of eating dinner before catching a sunset. And we were all going to need a good dinner that day! So, we gathered our stuff together and began an analysis of how we would get our equipment across the river.

At first, I thought it would be no problem. We were all thoroughly soaked now. It wouldn’t matter how wet we got while crossing. Plus, it looked like there was an easy way to get across. There was a waist-high, underwater “wall” that the water spilled over from the pool at the top of the waterfall. An underwater shelf at the base of this wall allowed one to walk along it through the pool with ease. All I had to do was carry my gear above my waist in one hand, use the other hand to guide myself along the wall, and then walk along the shelf through the water to the other side.

Before trying that, however, I thought of a better way. Just above that first pool at the waterfall was another pool. A nice shallow one! I could walk through it no problem. With my camera bag strapped to my waist, I could use both hands to balance myself, or even get down on my hands and knees if needed.

Now, I was smart enough to remember that there was lots of algae growing around this waterfall. Plus, one thing I had learned that day was that granite rock is very slick when wet. So, instead of setting off across the shallow pool with all of my camera gear at first, I decided I would “test the waters” with only my tripod in hand. There would be no damage to a tripod if it got wet in the test crossing.

So, I stepped into the shallow pool. And almost immediately, I dropped to my knees. The algae was so thick and slippery that there was no way I could manage to stay standing. Then there was the current. Even though it was a shallow pool, the entire force of the river was flowing through this pool. I was almost instantly swept forward into the deeper pool below. And even though the deeper pool was only waist high at the wall where the waterfall began, it was much deeper over here by the shallow pool. Like, a can-not-touch-bottom kind of deep. Not exactly the place I want to end up with a camera bag strapped to my waist!

So, I abandoned the shallow pool idea and went back to the deeper pool. With a little less confidence than before, I stepped down onto the underwater shelf in the waist-high water, tripod lifted up above my head. I sighed a bit in relief. There was very little algae. And the wall was perfect! I could walk through the water here without feeling insecure.

That is, until I got to mid stream. At that point, the way the currents worked, it felt like there was someone lifting up my feet. I struggled to keep my balance with only one hand to steady myself. Then the water got deeper. It was chest high now. And then the shelf abruptly ended! I was very close to the other side by now, but I had to feel around with my feet to find where to step next. There was a rock . . . and there’s another. I was almost up to my neck in water now. I slipped. The tripod dunked beneath the surface of the water. I half swam, half scrambled my way to the finish line, panting, soaked once again from head to toe.

No sir! This was not the route I was going to bring hundreds of dollars worth of equipment across the river!

I was perplexed. I had run out of options. And it wasn’t just my equipment. It was 5 or 6 other photographer’s equipment that needed to get across too! Would we all have to risk it? Did we all really have a 50/50 chance (or worse) of loosing our equipment on this supposed-to-be-fun excursion? My heart began to pound. I had never been in a situation like this before!

Across the river, a photographer or two, with backpacks loaded, were stepping into the shallow pool.

“No!” I shouted above the roaring waterfall. “It won’t work!!”

But I was too late.

Splash!

Down went one unfortunate adventurer. Another managed to finish their scramble to a giant rock halfway across the river, pulling their backpack from the water.

“Wait, wait! Don’t cross there! It won’t work!!” I was standing now, shouting at the top of my lungs, franticly looking for a way to get back across the river to the main group.

I found a way across the rocks to the giant, halfway rock. I took the damp backpack and carried it to safety on my side of the river. I looked back. What were we going to do?!

And that’s when someone pointed further upstream. Rocks. There were more rocks! Soon a bucket brigade was formed. Some in the water. Some on rocks. Our precious gear began to be carefully passed along to the halfway rock, and then on to my side of the river.

It was the most precarious experience (at least for my photography equipment and the equipment of everyone else who was there) that I had ever been in up to that point. To add to the drama, in the middle of the whole thing, another one of the photographers attempted to cross the shallow pool. When I saw him begin to lose grip mid-stream, I jumped in to offer him a hand. He didn’t end up needing my help, but the attempt just got my heart racing all over again.

In the end, as we all sat dripping and panting on the correct side of the river, everyone felt it had been quite the thrilling adventure! We smiled, and laughed, and congratulated each other on accomplishing a very dangerous crossing (at least, for our equipment). And as it turns out, the one backpack that got soaked was the one that had no equipment in it! Clothes, jackets, shoes, and even snacks are all items that can dry out. As far as I know, no one’s equipment was damaged in the crossing.

And it also turned out that one of the photographers had brought a portable water purifying kit. We were all able to drink our fill and get our water bottles filled to the brim before starting off on the last leg of our journey: the trek from the falls back up to the rim.

It was a grueling, 800ft climb straight up the side of the mountain. But we made it! And oh how wonderful it was to have a large, tailgate dinner waiting for us. We all gathered at Overlook #1 to enjoy golden hour and sunset together, thankful that we all had working equipment to finish photographing the day.

Thank you, Lord, for your mercy and protection all along the way. From circumventing dehydration, to preventing equipment from getting ruined, You prevented anything serious from happening. We chose to take risks, and didn’t deserve to come out without damage, but Your mercies abounded, allowing us to conclude our adventure with good memories of enjoying and exploring Your untamed creation.

To see more photos of our time at Tallulah Gorge, you can view the workshop gallery here. And if you would like to join us for our next photography adventure, sign up for updates here. The next EXPLORE Meetup is being planned in the glacial gorges of western Indiana in October. See you there!