Five waterfalls in a gorge two miles long and nearly 1,000 feet deep, where the flow is set by a published dam release schedule rather than by weather.
scheduled release dates
Big water window
in a typical year
Flow controlled
What drives it
Tallulah River
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 02178400
Georgia State Parks
Managed by
their rules govern
Trail status, closures and safety rules belong to each falls' managing agency, named and linked on every page.
The season
What fills Tallulah Gorge Falls, and when
This is the clearest case on the site of a waterfall running on a calendar instead of a forecast. Georgia Power releases water on published dates: aesthetic releases at 200 cubic feet per second, and whitewater releases at 500 on Saturdays and 700 on Sundays. Check the schedule, not the rain.
Typical best flow: scheduled release dates
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What the agency itself says
During aesthetic releases, the flow is 200 CFS. During whitewater releases, the flow is 500 CFS on Saturday and 700 CFS on Sunday.
Gauge: USGS 02178400 TALLULAH RIVER NEAR CLAYTON, GA, upstream of the reservoir, so it shows the basin rather than the release. The gauge reads the river, not the brink of the falls, so treat it as the trend line rather than a turnstile.
Source: USGS Water Services (National Water Information System). Instantaneous values and daily statistics services. U.S. Geological Survey data are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain. Gauge verified 2026-08-27.
A flow-controlled falls when the schedule favors it: Shoshone Falls with the spring Snake River coming over the full brink. The dry season photograph of the same falls is the other bookend. “Shoshone Falls near Twin Falls, Idaho” by Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
Getting there
Access, in the agency's words and ours
Free permits are required to reach the gorge floor and are limited to 100 per day. The staircase route is strenuous.
Pictured: Cumberland Falls, Kentucky. Tallulah is a chain of five drops in a much deeper gorge, and its flow is scheduled rather than natural. “Cumberland Falls rainbow” by James St. John, CC BY 2.0
Common questions
Tallulah Gorge Falls flow season FAQ
The reliable big-water window is scheduled release dates. This is the clearest case on the site of a waterfall running on a calendar instead of a forecast. Georgia Power releases water on published dates: aesthetic releases at 200 cubic feet per second, and whitewater releases at 500 on Saturdays and 700 on Sundays. Check the schedule, not the rain.
This page reads the USGS gauge on Tallulah River (TALLULAH RIVER NEAR CLAYTON, GA, upstream of the reservoir, so it shows the basin rather than the release) live in your browser, and shows the latest flow next to the median USGS publishes for today's date, so you can see where today sits in the year. The gauge reads the river, not the brink, so treat it as the trend rather than a turnstile.
It never truly dries, but between releases the flow is modest by design. The release calendar is the thing to plan around.
Tallulah Gorge State Park (Georgia State Parks). Free permits are required to reach the gorge floor and are limited to 100 per day. The staircase route is strenuous. Trail status, closures and safety rules are theirs, and their page is linked on this one; nothing here overrides what they publish.
In their own words: "the trail is not recommended for hikers aged 8 or younger. The trail is very strenuous, including 1,000 stairs." That sentence is Tallulah Gorge State Park (Georgia State Parks)'s, quoted verbatim, and their page is the place to check before you go.
Yosemite Falls in May, running on snowmelt that will be gone by late summer. The National Park Service tells visitors the falls can be dry by August, which is why every falls page here starts from its watershed. “Tourists below Yosemite Falls (39832011431)” by Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0
Flow windows are typical-year climatology drawn from the driver and the agency language quoted above, not forecasts. Live readings and per-date percentiles are U.S. Geological Survey data, public domain; the above-or-below-typical line is our comparison and is labelled as such. Access, trail and safety information belongs to Tallulah Gorge State Park (Georgia State Parks). National picture: waterfall season across the US → Hero image: “Cumberland Falls rainbow” by James St. John, CC BY 2.0
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