2009-04-18 Waterfall Wandering with Amy's Cousin Rick and his wife Cali

Waterfall Wandering with Amy’s Cousin Rick and his wife Cali
Saturday, April 18th, 2009

Photos are posted here:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/571205278BbHVmo


Amy’s Cousin Rick and his wife Cali came down from the flat lands of Delaware for a visit this weekend. We decided to show them the mountains and take them on a grand tour of some of the area waterfalls.

First up was the Lake Jocassee Overlook at Duke Power’s Bad Creek Hydro-Electric site. This spot offers up a great view of Lake Jocassee, which I consider to be one of the most beautiful lakes anywhere. From the overlook, you also get a distant view of Lower Whitewater Falls.

From there it was on to Whitewater Falls, one of the areas most spectacular waterfalls. The short and easy walk to the viewing area should make this a must see for everyone. I took a few obligatory shots, but the bright sun made photo conditions less than ideal.

Next up would be some lesser-known waterfalls. Slippery Witch Falls is on private property, but since we didn’t see any no trespassing signs, we parked at a small pull-off on Upper Whitewater Road and hiked the short scramble path down to the base.

About 2-miles further up Upper Whitewater Falls is Twin Falls on the Thompson River. This one is a beauty, but it won’t be long before it is completely destroyed. The waterfall and surrounding area is part of a new development. Construction has already started on the first multi-million dollar monstrosity. The land immediately south of the waterfall has been stripped of all trees and a massive concrete foundation has been poured. I guess for a little while longer, we can still pretend we have a spare $600,000 and check out the waterfall from one of the still vacant lots that are up for sale.

After that, we backtracked back down to NC281 and visited John’s Jump and DEW Falls (Dorothy Ehrlich Walker Falls). While nothing spectacular, both of these small waterfalls are short and easy hikes, well worth the visit if you are in the area.

We failed on our attempt at White Owl Falls. From a previous visit, I remembered the “trail” being fairly easy to follow, but it seemed completely different this time. Rather than continuing on the bushwhack that we seemed to have gotten ourselves into, we abandoned our attempt and instead decided to move on to our next destination.

Eastatoe Falls near Rosman, NC is another one of my favorites. It is on private property, but fortunately the owners are gracious enough to share their beautiful waterfall with visitors. There was also a nice display of wildflowers on the short easy hike to the waterfall.

Our final stop of the day was Twin Falls on Reedy Cove Creek in Pickens County, SC. This one has become quite popular over the last few years. So even though we had to share it with a large crowd of visitors, it was still a nice ending to a great day of Waterfall Wandering!

Photos from today’s adventure are posted here:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/571205278BbHVmo