Blood Mountain Creek
to Dicks Creek
| Difficulty | III-V |
| Length | 1.1 mi |
| Avg Gradient | n/a |
| Gauge | Chestatee River Near Dahlonega, Ga |
| Flow Rate as of 43 minutes | 145 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | February 18, 2006 |
River Description
A steep, narrow creek that ends in a long, rocky, woody, foliage-laden and nearly unrunnable set of falls/rapids (see photos below). Takes a lot of rain to be runnable and runs off very quickly. No known information on any other rapids: if you have information, please add to the 'comments' section below or email the streamkeeper.
DIRECTIONS: From Turner's Corner, take Highway 19 west just over 1/2 mile and turn on Dick's Creek Road. (Look for the 'Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church' sign.) There is no road access to runnable portions of Blood Mountain Creek. Dick's Creek Road is closed just above the ranger station, well below Blood Mountain Creek, from January 1 to mid-March: the rest of the year, there are two options for access, neither of them easy:
1. Drive up Dick's Creek Road (which, as the sign says, is 'not maintained for passenger vehicles') to the upper gate, about 3 miles uphill of the ranger station. Because the area above it to the left is Blood Mountain Gap Wilderness, the road beyond the gate is never open to vehicle traffic. Per Robert Bridges of the USFS/Chattahoochee National Forest, the road nears Blood Mountain Creek about 3/4 of a mile beyond the upper gate.
2. Hike up along the creek from the bottom of the falls/rapids, where Blood Mountain Creek flows under a concrete bridge on Dick's Creek Road. There is an unmaintained path up the hill on river right - per comments below, Kyle Bergner has hiked up about .5 mile without finding very runnable water. Blood Creek runs into Dick's Creek just yards below the concrete bridge.
River Features
Put In
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportBlood Mountain Creek has a final rocky drop
Blood Mountain slide from above at low flow
Just ran Blood Mtn. Creek yesterday, the gage on the chestatee read 8000 cfs. It was pumping but a good. Top portion is still full of strainers, hope to work on cleaning it out for the next rain. We were able to run from the drop above the cascades all the way down to the camp site, except for the small drop below the lower blood falls. It was some amazing water being 15 mins. from my house. have some video footage will try to post it. if you would like to help clean it let me know Kayakerd@yahoo.com
Per USFS, the gate on Dick's Creek Road at the ranger station will be open for the season as of March 17.
I'll go up this weekend and take some pictures of the higher up stuff. Its pretty sick. I've gone probably .5 miles up from Blood Mtn Falls, and its all pretty dicey. THere is another water fall that you could run at high enough levels (3000 CFS on the Chestatee) up at the top, but I am not sure if there is anything past that.
New Streamkeeper: Rick Bellows, chestateer@yahoo.com.
This is a great spot known to us NGCSUers as either slidding rock or the rock slide. Currently the first falls are blocked up with wood from last year's hurricane season. If anyone wants to help me clear this area out anytime, preferably someone with some chain saws, email me at kyle.bergner@us.army.mil
And yes, there are actually two HUGE pot holes in the last drop on river right. I'm talkin, 6-7 feet deep and at least 3 feet in diameter.
Summer of 2002 Bill Alexander,Myself and Justin Barr run all three drops in that order.The bottom two had to be run together.Bad pothole in bottom drop.
At the ford is a camping area river left on blood mtn creek. The last rapid before dicks creek is an unrunable boulder drop. The drop is full of wood and sieves out in places. Above that is a small pool, and above that is a 25 or 30 foot falls that is similar to boxcar on the NF French Broad.