Waterfalls 1 - North Carolina - Day 4 - To Dillard

Another waterfall day through the mountains.  Hotels have been nice. The one in Brevard did not have breakfast, so we had to go out but that's okay, Brevard is a touristy town so plenty of places to eat. 
Started by taking 64 south to 281 (Whitewater Road).

This photo is what I like about small towns....they are so cute in their decorations.

Brevard

Today is a little bit of north south driving to cover many many waterfalls.

Go from east to west on red line

White Owl Falls: This was crazy! First finding the place to stop was not clear and then the hike inside was not marked. I think these falls are for the die hard hikers. I was not willing to get lost or twist my ankle here so we skipped this. Although photos show it to be a beautiful falls, but for me its not worth it if trail is not clear.  

Whitewater Falls: $3: 0.5 mi hike. This was a proper state park hence the entry fee - but it is on honor system. There was a large parking lot. The hike was all paved and part of it was wooden stairs. The falls were really fantastic. I could put a chair out and just admire them!

Whitewater Falls

From there it was south and north to 130 south to state road S-37-413 (cuts to 107 north)
 
Silver Run Falls – A short hike to the falls. A forest service sign along the road marks the small roadside parking area for 4-5 cars. It's a nice falls. Water was nice and cool. Totally swimmable.

Silver Run Falls

This leads us to Cashiers. One can have food there. But we were full so we went up 64 towards Highland (tourist town) and up north for some falls.
 
Sequoya Falls  –  This is actually on a dam. We did not see a parking lot but roadside parking was okay. Not much to see except to stop, click and move on.

Sequoya Falls

Bridal Veil Falls – This is directly on the road. Just park and take photos. And one can walk in it, around it or not. There is so little water that it hardly qualifies as a waterfall, but water is falling! 

Bridal Veil Falls

Dry Falls – There is a parking area for this and then a short walk to the falls. There was a bit of a crowd here. Falls were with lots of water and looked and sounded great. One can walk behind the falls and get view from the other side too. Really like it to get close and personal with the falls :

Bust Your Butt Falls – They are visible from the road. The reason for the name is that you can slip on them! (about 3 miles from dry falls).

Bust Your Butt Falls

Glenn Falls - This is on a dirt road from 106 off Highlands Hwy 64. There is not a lot of parking as it is a bit of a hike kind of falls. We were tired but we had time, so we squeezed in one more waterfall. And how lovely this was except for all the downhill and climb up! It is a three tier water falls. Go down to point A and get a lovely view, then down more to point B and then another maybe half mile for point C which is the bottom. One does not get view of point A from B. So its like three different waterfalls. The hike is at a bit of grade, but its a nice maintained trail so quite doable. The waterfalls were pretty but could use a bit more water :-)

End of the day!! Get back S on 64 to 106 S -> 246 -> 23 S to Dillard.

To leave this day without mentioning that the drive was quite pretty is to do injustice. The mountains, the wildflowers were everywhere. Although it was getting hot by the afternoon, but it was still quite a pleasant day to be outdoors.

 The last couple days were quite uneventful. We stopped at BAPs, Atlanta and stopped in Gainsville, Florida and then drove back home. Two days of waterfalls were quite nice. And of course Florida sunset on the waters....

Waterfalls 1 - North Carolina - Day 3 - Pisgah Loop to Brevard

 

Take Hwy 110 to 215 south to Blue Ridge Pkwy (east) – will be sort of a U turn and the 276 south – take right -  to get to Brevard (Forest heritage scenic byway – 276 – Pisgah HWY)

https://www.romanticasheville.com/forest_heritage_scenic_byway.htm

Little Bird Falls - There's 2 pulloffs next to a guardrail that's on the opposite side of the road from the river. A short climb up and maybe 5 minute walk leads to this lovely waterfall! Could not find.

Sunburst Falls – 10 mins round trip. I think we managed to see this from the road. Did not see the bridge.

Sunburst Falls

Wildcat falls – turn right into a gravel drive marked with a small sign that says BR1. About 1 hour hike. There were two waterfalls on this route. I think because of low water, they were not all that impressive. Just be careful here, there were two places where one has to walk in the water to continue the hike.

Turn east (left) into Blue Ridge parkway. Drove on the parkway for a while.

Graveyard Fields (mi marker 418.8) - not much to see here even though it seems like a tourist spot. 

Skinny Dip falls - at Milepost 417 at Looking Glass Overlook) – about 2 miles RT. I am not sure if these exist or not anymore but we completely missed them! Maybe they should not be skinny - hehe.

Take Pisgah Hwy (276) east – kind of a U turn.

Pink Beds – picnic area. Just a nice place to have a picnic.

Sliding rock falls after 7.5 miles of entering 276. Popular on weekends $4. This was fun! Definitely should go during the week when there is less crowd. It was weekend for us and it was busy!! 

Sliding Rock Falls

These falls led to the stream which was quite pretty. It was following the road so we stopped to take some photos...really pretty and I think quite pretty falls too!

Moore Cove Falls - About a 1 mile hike into the forest. The falls were not so great - I would skip it...

Moore Cove Falls

Looking glass falls – quite pretty and can be seen from the roadside. One can walk right by them, only a few hundred meters from the road.

And that was the first day of waterfalls!! We continued on 276 to Brevard, turn right on 64 S to hotel.

Waterfalls 1 - North Carolina - Day 2 - Asheville

Reached Asheville in the evening. They don't say Smokey Mountains for nothing! It was really pretty as we got close to Asheville. It got rainy and a bit foggy to drive.

Smokey Mountains

Not much to do except to have dinner and rest. Went to the art district, but it must have been hidden because I could not see it. No problem, had dinner at White Duck Taco Shop...really interesting menu and place to have dinner. 

White Duck Taco

Now to turn in for the night.

Day 2 - Went to the Botanical Gardens at University of North Carolina. It was not that great. We walked around a bit then it was time to go to downtown Asheville.

Botanical Gardens, UNC

Downtown Asheville was quite dull since it was till 11 am. Maybe it perks up in the evening. Some nice sights but other than that not much to do for us.

Ashville

Now time to go the Arboretum. It was a short drive There were not that many blooms but I am sure it must be nice when there are more flowers blooming or in the fall.

On to the drive to the hotel via mountains. Really beautiful drive. I think there is a name for this peak, but I forgot! 

The lake community was really nice. We reached around sunset. I can imagine living here ...if there was an Indian store around :-)

Time to rest before the waterfalls day tomorrow.

Waterfalls 1 - North Carolina - Day 1 - To Ashville

 What goes up must come down :-) My previous blog was on driving from West Palm Beach to Columbus, now I have to come back to West Palm Beach. This time I made the trip so I could enjoy the waterfalls in North Caroline and the Great Smoky Mountains a bit. I planned out the trip for about 5 days drive. 

First day would be to just get to Asheville, NC. Nothing exciting about that leg of the journey, except a Trump follower holding up the FBI office on gunpoint near Cincinnati and causing a massive traffic backup on I-71. Ugh!! Had to take a detour through countryside to get back on the highway. All in all we did not lose much time and also got to see the beautiful farmland of Ohio.

So here is the trip from Asheville to Dillard. After Dillard, it was just a drive through Atlanta to WPB. Nothing that exciting so I will finish that part in one blog entry.

The goal was to see waterfalls, so I planned some detours and some long routes to make sure we see as many waterfalls as possible.

Some good weblinks:

https://www.romanticasheville.com/forest_heritage_scenic_byway.htm

https://blueridgemountainlife.com/waterfalls/

West Palm Beach to Columbus Day - 3

 Today we are off to Magnolia plantation and then to Charlotte, NC. We will stop in the middle at Columbia, SC, to see the capitol building and some art work. We were on the road by 9 am.  

The drive was kind of small roads and in less than an hour we were at Magnolia plantation. It is an old plantation turned into a tourist spot. I had two minds about but I really did want to see it. The tickets were about 70$. We spent about 3 hours here. We did not go inside the house, just looked at the gardens and walked on the huuuge property. The gardens were nice. There were lovely bridges on the canals. Some alligators to be seen. Lots and lots of flowers. The house itself was not as big as I was expecting. The gift shop on the other hand was big. I did buy some gifts. I wish I had bought something for myself.

Magnolia Plantation

Bridge on a Lake in Magnolia Plantation

We left in the afternoon and in less than two hours we were in Columbia. We parked near the capitol building. It was just meh. We could have gone in but did not. 

I had three main things on my list here. A mural and two sculptures. All were worth it! 

Mural that makes it seem real

Biggest fire hydrant

Chain holding the buildings together

There was nothing much else to do so we went on to Charlotte, NC. I had one stop there at Metalmorphosis. It was definitely worth the stop. 

Evening was going to be dinner with a friend. All in all good day.

This was also the last day of tourism as tomorrow is just the straight drive to Columbus, OH.

West Palm Beach to Columbus - Day 2

 The drive to Charleston was about 3 hours. It was okay....not too scenic but not bad either. We went to the old part of town first to see the Liberty Square - it was a little overrated. There is one style of bridge that is so popular here. And it is really pretty to look at and photographs wonderfully. 

After Liberty Square we drove towards Rainbow Row. Parked on the road for free and walked towards the Customs Office. It was a nice old building. Opposite that was the market, which was really about 3 blocks of one huge building of local artist shops. So much shopping to do and nothing I could buy (don't need anything!). We walked back to the car. Saw the Pineapple fountain and walked through the park to the Rainbow Row, nice colored houses, were nice. They were pale colored but still look nice. 

It was about 2 pm, so we drove to the White Point Garden, also called the Battery. It was a nice promenade to walk on. There was no one out there as it was weekday and afternoon. We had our quick lunch of pooris and then walked around. There were a lot of flowers blooming. There was nothing much to do in the city. Small city, historical houses but gets boring soon.

We decided to drive to Angel Oak, about 15 miles away. It was through cities, really pretty drive. Angel Oak was also amazing! It was a live oak tree more than 600 years old. It was really huge and just lying on the ground all over. I had put this on the back burner, but I am glad we got the time to see this. 

We drove back to the hotel. Had dinner at Juanita Greenerg's Nacho Royale. It was good place to eat! Went to Patriots point to watch the sunset. Lovely bridge watching and again many many bugs out there! 

West Palm Beach to Columbus - Day 1

It is time to go to Columbus. Since I am driving this time, I was planning to stop in a few places to sightsee to break the boredom of driving and also enjoy some vacation. It has been a long time since I have travelled!

The Plan

The plan was to stop at Jekyll Island, see the driftwood beach, go on to Charleston, SC and then off to Charlotte, NC. The final day would be to go to Columbus, OH. I have to find hotel for three nights. The total trip was four days. I could have had a longer vacation...but another time. 

First Day

Drove from West Palm Beach to Brunswick which is west of Jekyll Island. I did not know explore what was on the island except for the driftwood beach. So booked a hotel in Brunswick, which actually turned out to be okay. Brunswick was about 5 hours. We started by late morning and reached the hotel by 5ish. Drove about 30 mins east to Jekyll Island. I did not know that the island was inhabited. It has a hotel, shops and homes. There was a 7$ fee to get on the island. The main beach was lovely, but I wanted to see only the Driftwood beach. We drove up and down the island, but the beach was kind of hard to find. It was not easy to find. 

Finally we found it, it was a short walk from the main road. It really is quite something to see - out of the world. The wood pieces were everywhere. Really pretty and spooky. We spent good time there and then drove back just in time for sunset. The flowers around were lovely, but the bugs were out too! Many many mosquitoes! 

That was the it! The first day. Room was okay. Lunch and dinner were pooris today. Nothing creative. Tomorrow on to Charleston.