Check-in Day - March 4, 2025

We arrived at Amicalola Falls State Park and went straight to the visitor's center so Bob could check in and get his official hang tag. He's hiker #646. We watched a short, very funny video, featuring a man in a bear costume, about how to be a good hiker.

Next, Bob got his official photos.

He is holding his hang tag.

The famous arch entryway.

We eventually walked through that arch to hike the 600 steps to the top of the waterfall. It was steep but we took a lot of breaks.

What? You mean the arch isn't the start?

The sneaky thing about the trail, is you can't just start at the official starting point on Springer Mountain, Georgia. You have to get there first. As you can see from the sign, that's 8.5 miles. The hike up to the waterfall was 1.1 miles. So for his official day 1, the next day, Bob knew he had to hike 7 plus miles just to get to the start.