The fourth stop on my North Georgia Road Trip was Anna Ruby Falls near Helen. This was the second of two waterfalls I visited on the trip and although Amicalola Falls was taller, Anna Ruby Falls was definitely the most beautiful of the two. Located off of Georgia Highway 356 just north of Helen, it’s a part of the Chattahoochee National Forest and operates as part of the US Forest Service, but you go through part of Unicoi State Park to get to it. It’s easily one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been and is right up there with the view from Hogpen Gap for the most beautiful spots on my North Georgia Road Trip.

After you get to the Visitor’s Center parking lot, you take a half mile paved trail that runs along Smith Creek to the falls. The walk along the trail is beautiful, with plenty of great views of Smith Creek flowing down the rocks of Tray Mountain. Even for my coastal flat-lander legs, the trail was fairly easy with only two steep sections, so it’s not a difficult walk.

At the end of the trail along Smith Creek, you’re rewarded with a truly breathtaking site; you come around a corner and there in front of you are the twin waterfalls of Anna Ruby Falls cascading down Tray Mountain. To your left, Curtis Creek spills down the mountain and to the right, York Creek does the same. At the bottom of the falls, they form Smith Creek, which you walk along to get to the falls. An observation deck is also at the end of the trail and offers spectacular views of the falls