Falls

The stunning drop of Amicalola

Tucked here in the mountains of North Georgia are some of the most beautiful waterfalls you could ever wish to see. The mountain streams carry the runoff of the rains and the rocks give each tiny droplet an encouraging nudge, sending it on its long journey to the Atlantic or the Gulf.

One such place is in Dawson County. Amicalola Falls drops 729 feet to the rocks on the bottom. Surrounded by a state park with miles of hiking trails, cottages, a lodge, picnic shelters and, of course, the highest waterfall in Georgia.

It's all open right now and, if the past is any indication, quite busy with folks enjoying the fall weather.

Me and some of my trusted researchers at Anna Ruby Falls

Down the highway a spell you'll find a shorter, but no less impressive, set of falls. Anna Ruby Falls (not to be confused with the subterranean version that you can "see" in Chattanooga) is the confluence of Curtis and York Creeks as the form Smith Creek somewhere on the way down. 

You enter through Unicoi State Park and then pass through the gate into the Chattahoochee National Forest. There's a parking area, a nature trail, a mock up of an old moonshine outfit and a small visitor center.

And it's all locked up tighter than a drum.(But Unicoi is open)

While our legislature and governor in Atlanta might not be perfect, they are open. So are the governments in each of the other 49 (not 56) states. Composed of a total of roughly 7500 state legislators and 50 governors, every last state has a functioning government. 

But in all of those 50 states, waterfalls, monuments, historic home places, battlefields, museums and mountains are closed. Locked up. Sorry about your luck.

Without getting into how much of the closure is warranted and how much of it is a temper tantrum by a President suffering from acute Washington Monument Syndrome (look that one up) I really want to express my disappointment in the inability of the property owners to access public property because Washington can't get it together. 

But I'm proud that the states are all operating. From conservative Texas to socialist Vermont, they're all open.

Here's my idea. Let's contact our representatives. No, not those turkeys in Washington. They quit listening back somewhere around the Jackson administration. Get in touch with your state folks and thank them for being open. Encourage them to investigate the possibilities of adopting some of these federal sites from their unfit stewards. 

Our people rely on these sites and the people that visit them to support their businesses and livelihoods. We need these places to preserve the stories of our history, our culture and our land. And we need to access them to learn, teach and remember.

Before anyone suggests that the states can't afford such a burden, the National Park Service is 1/16 of 1% of the federal budget. When they actually bother to pass one. The states are paying for them anyway and all of them are suffering from the loss of tourism dollars due to closed parks. 

Let's trust our parks to the people that can manage to keep them open.