Lula Lake Land Trust only sells tickets to the general public on the first and last weekends of each month. Reservations must be made in advance and fifteen bucks buys one parking space, excluding over-sized vehicles like buses and passenger vans. They stagger the entry times and we booked their opening at 9:00am. Visitors must be gone by 5:00pm.
We were the second car in line at the gate that didn’t budge until 9:00am. Only 85 passes are sold per day. The main trail to the Lake and falls overlook was a gravel road for the first 1.5 miles.
The land trust was created to protect 12,000 acres in the Rock Creek Basin on Lookout Mountain in Georgia. Logging, trash dumping and overuse by the public was destroying the area.
What Lula Lake lacks in size it makes up in beauty. It’s a pretty spot.
The staggered start and limited passes meant we encountered no crowding at the lake or falls.
The lookout for the top of 125-foot Lula Falls was on the gravel road. The tough sledding would be getting to the base of the falls.
The trail down to the bottom of the falls was rugged and steep. Our directions and trail map stressed taking this trail going in and another trail coming out. Of course, lots of folks ignored that.
We eased down jumbled rocks in a narrow gorge toward the falls bottom.
The scattered rocks we picked our way through, made us wonder when more of the massive stones would plunge down from the jagged sides.
The view of all falls is always better from the bottom than the top. It can be a challenge to get down there and back, but the grandeur and wonderful feeling is worth every step.
The steps on the designated trail back out of Lula falls gulf was much steeper and slicker than anticipated. We began to understand why so many folks chose to take the “in trail” to hike out. The steel bones of a car by the “up trail” was a reminder why the property had to be protected from land abusers. Lula Lake was only 40-minutes from our house, but that gravel road and the limited available time to hike there may keep us from making regular visits. Still, it was beautiful.