Foxfire Night Hike - Anna Ruby Falls (White County, Georgia)

The past few years living in Georgia, I've discovered a lot of really interesting things in the natural world. Few are as amazing as the foxfire of Anna Ruby Falls. During the spring each year along the walls of this valley, a gnat larvae known as orfelia fultoni glows a dim bluish-gray light to attract prey. I've had the privilege to attend the night hikes at Anna Ruby Falls to witness this phenomena a couple of times in the past, but it's one of those things that's worth seeing many times and so, when my schedule allows, I try to make it up for the natural event.

Leaving my house immediately after work and grabbing some food on the road, I arrived at the entrance to the park about 10 minutes before the designated meeting time. After checking in and parking my car, I took advantage of the restrooms while everyone gathered. It seems that we'll have a pretty good crowd this evening. At the appointed time, one of the organizers begins a safety talk and covers our agenda for the evening. Afterwards, he points in the direction of the waterfall and we're off. With darkness not quite settling in just yet, I wanted to get a couple of pictures of the waterfall and Smith Creek which forms from the confluence of the twin waterfall. I'm in excellent shape right now and I reach the observation deck at the top of the trail a good ten minutes before anyone else (and I'm not even breathing hard). 

I take a few minutes to take in the natural beauty of this place and snap a few pictures, while the others start to arrive and we wait for darkness together. The foxfire is very feint and only really visible once the sun has fully set. Around 9:15 pm, we begin hiking back down the paved trail the way we came using red-lensed flashlights to help ensure we don't walk off into the creek. That said, some people make far too much use of them and it makes it challenging to see the foxfire. I do spot a few examples though. Our guide mentions that an area just above the parking lot where we started is the most densely packed and before long we're there. 

*Note: Photo courtesy of Google

After getting ahead of the group a little bit and only flash my red lamp for a couple of seconds every twenty or so feet, I see exactly what he means. A section of rock here which marks a natural spring that flows into Smith Creek is covered with hundreds of the larvae. They form a sort of arc from the ground and up the rock some fifteen or twenty feet. It's breathtaking! I wish the camera on my phone could do them justice, but they are so feint it would take several minutes of perfectly still exposure to capture them. Still, my eyes were able to appreciate the site.

Now back at the parking lot, I thank our guide for the organizing the event and head back to my car. From past hikes up to the falls, I know this out and back is about 0.9 miles, but I didn't track it today. I also noted the very limited number of blue ghosts fireflies we spotted along the way. They also love this environment and in years past, I've seen many of them in this valley, while only a couple this evening. It has been a little cooler than normal for this time of year, I'm sure that's playing into their biological calendars.