I had an extra vacation day because I chose to work one of my previously scheduled vacation days. I had been watching the weather all week and was pretty confident that the mess of rain that was causing disasters throughout the week would move through by Thursday night.
It did and we decided to see if we could catch some of the late Autumn colors. We caught some but the Carolina leaves were either mostly done or washed away by last weeks rain.
Our plan, leave early Friday and head to Greenville, SC. We landed at GSP, Greenville Spartanburg International. Like our last trip, the service was great and being an air carrier airport, Avis is right there. We quickly checked in, got our car and were off to Caesars Head State Park.
The park is known for it’s overlook and hiking trails. I also figured we could scope out where the best leaves might be. Leaf reports were a bit ambiguous as to what to expect We arrived at the park and headed to take a look. Great day, but the leaves at the lower levels seemed to have been trashed by the weather. The 3000 foot level seemed more promising.
I had scoped out some waterfalls at different levels to hike mixing leaves with falling water seemed like a good idea. We loaded back up and headed to Looking Glass Falls. As we worked the back roads North heading from South Carolina to North Carolina, we crossed a bridge and CC remarked the river looked very nice. There was a parking area so I pulled in to take a look.
We had stumbled upon Triple Falls. The sign said the hike was .5 miles so off we went. The trail was still damp but was mostly gravel base so not too mushy. It started flat but then headed up at a pretty steep grade. We trudged a bit more and were rewarded with some spectacular falls.
The rain which had been so miserable, had swelled the falls. Talking to a local, we apparently were seeing the falls at a peak time, he said the leaves were better higher up. Even though we had a great view, the path headed further up and we decided to see if there was a better view. Up we went a few 100 yards and came upon stairs. The stairs went down.
CC remarked that every down stair would require an up stair later. I questioned this logic but in the end I believe she was correct. The stairs lead to the base of the falls. The views from the flat rocks were excellent. After some pictures, we trudged up and then back to our car. Hooker falls is also accessible from the same lot but it required 2 miles of walking and the pictures were not impressive.
We were soon back on the road heading to Looking Glass Falls. These falls are high value, not because they are the best falls or the best views but due to ease of access. You basically park yards from the falls. You can just look or for a bit of work take the stairs down to the base for a closer look.
We took the stairs and met three nice monks from Burma. We took pictures for them and chatted a bit. Then we were off to our next falls. Along the way we had splashes of color as we drove but no consistent mass of foliage. In many places we were too late or the season was likely not happening.
Our path took us up onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is has great views and overlooks. It was also cooler. Now Thursday night it was 88 at 6PM at home. When we left it was 44 at the airport and arriving in Greenville it was 40. On the Parkway the elevation kept the temperatures in the low 50s.
Some places that were shaded had ice against the rock faces. We drove along the parkway stopping at overlooks and eventually arriving at Skinny Dip Falls. It is supposed to be .4 miles each way but my pedometer says it is closer to .6 miles. Also they are cute falls but the path is only so-so and it was squishy in places.
The falls don’t have great views and with the extra water, many places that might have a better view were not safe. We walked out thinking meh. Too much work for not enough view. We had one more shot a mile down the parkway. Graveyard Falls which did not have great write ups but we took a chance.
The lot had great mountain views. The path was .2 miles to a fork then .2 miles either way to the upper or lower falls. We took the lower fork and this time the distances were right. A bit wet in places but great views.
We went back to the fork and headed for the upper falls. About 50 yards in it became a mud bog and we decided to turn around. It was time to head back to town so we headed East across the parkway. The parkway is great but not all drivers are. The speed limit is 45 and it is a good road. The problem is you have drivers that think 30 is a good speed and hit the brakes randomly to boot.
Combine this with no passing zones and it can be slow going when you want to head out. After being behind some frustrating people we left the Parkway and headed back to Greenville. I called an old friend and found out we just missed seeing his wife as she was departing on a business trip.
We arranged to meet Downtown to catch a show at "Cafe and Then Some". This is a dinner theatre that has been running since 1978. They create locally sourced shows that are a mix of comedy and music with lots of local references. They had just started the Christmas show and it was not quite done. The actors were still on book and they improvised a bit and interacted with the audience more than normal.
No comments:
Post a Comment