My friend Heather and I took a drive north for my birthday to Harrah's Cherokee and its wonderful Chef's Stage buffet. On the way, we stopped at an overlook for the Tallulah Gorge that sits along US Route 441.

The appropriately named Tallulah Point Overlook offers a wonderful view of Tallulah Gorge State Park. The Tallulah Gorge is a 1,000 foot deep canyon that has been carved out of the Tallulah Dome rock formation in the area by the flow of the Tallulah River over the last few hundred-million years or so. And since everything here is named "Tallulah," all of this is located in the town of Tallulah Gorge, Georgia.

The Tallulah Point Overlook sits on the opposite side of the river as the park's visitor center. The building seen in the photo above is the Jane Hurt Yarn Interpretive Center, a 16,000 square foot educational facility named for conservationist Jane Hurt Yarn who was instrumental in preserving much of Georgia's abundant natural landscape. Contained therein are exhibits relating to the history of the gorge and the area.

Zooming in on the parking area for the Jane Hurt Yarn Interpretive Center.

I pointed the camera and started zooming in on various things.

The photos above and below zoom in on some of the overlooks along the walking trails within the State Park.

If you look closely at the photo above, you can see fences and people checking out the gorge below.

Zooming in on the Tallulah Gorge.

The Tallulah River was visible in several places.

There are six waterfalls located along the river as it passes through the gorge.

We wandered around the overlook parking area. Along with a viewing platform located within the overlook building, several other places offered great views.

I believe this area of rock face is referred to as the Vandiver Cascade. A small amount of water can be seen at the top of the photo above. But during heavy rains, this actually looks like a waterfall.

I spotted several other visitors flying overhead.

My guess is that the birds we saw on that day were vultures of some kind. But I'm not 100% sure.

Zooming in on the air traffic overhead.

I actually managed to get a few decent shots.

Zooming in on the air traffic overhead.

Next to the Tallulah Point Overlook building is another long building that looks to be abandoned.

If the remains of the bench seen in the photos above and below are any indication, this place used to be some kind of gift shop or restaurant.

The odd thing about the bench was that it wasn't attached to anything. My guess is that there was some kind of deck under the bench that disappeared long ago.

There may have been a deck or porch attached to the building at one time.

But every thing is gone now.

Zooming in through the boards to what may have been a basement area for the building.

Even though the building appeared to be abandoned, several stained glass windows were present and in good shape.

In fact, the building didn't look too bad from this vantage point, (other than the one end with the bench).

The old Amoco Gas sign makes me wonder what was here.