Sunday, August 14, 2022

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....

Saturday, August 13, 2022

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.

Friday, August 12, 2022

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.

Thursday, August 11, 2022

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: