Tallulah River
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- For the town, see Tallulah Falls, Georgia.
The Tallulah River is a short river located mostly in Rabun County, Georgia. It cuts through the Tallulah Dome, a rock formation caused by the double folding of the Earth's crust millions of years ago. The erosion of the river's water has created Tallulah Gorge, with rocky granite cliffs and several waterfalls.
Tallulah Falls is actually comprised of five separate falls: Ledore, Tempesta, Hurricane (the tallest), Oceana, and finally the smooth "sliding rock" at Bridal Veil. These fall a total of 150 meters or 500 feet in one mile (1.6km), and are the centerpiece of Tallulah Gorge State Park.
Just above the falls is Tallulah Lake, created in 1913 by a hydroelectric dam built by what is now Georgia Power. The dam still collects and redirects most of the water via sluice or pipe around the falls to a generating station downstream, except for a few hours each day. The hours when water is released are very popular for recreation, such as kayaking and whitewater rafting.
Eight different ecosystems exist in and around the canyon-like gorge, including one which supports the Persistent Trillium, a species of trillium which grows nowhere else.