The Adventures of Bushwhack Jack: 2016-04-30 Waterfalls, Wildflowers, Lizards, and Bees

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

2016-04-30 Waterfalls, Wildflowers, Lizards, and Bees

Waterfalls, Wildflowers, Lizards, and Bees

A return trip to one of my new favorite waterfalls,

Melrose Falls with Brenda,

and a bit of solo hiking in the Green River Gamelands

Henderson and Polk County, NC

Saturday, April 30th, 2016

Brenda and Me at one of my new favorite North Carolina Waterfalls

Recently Mark and I visited what has become one of my new favorite waterfalls. Since this waterfall is on private property, I was asked not to post the name, location, or directions.

Unfortunately on that first trip, I had forgot my camera and had to settle for cell phone shots. So for this weekend, I decided to make a return visit with Brenda.

We got a nice early start to arrive before the sun rose over the ridge and were rewarded with just about perfect photo conditions to capture this beauty!

Next up we headed on over to Melrose Falls (between Saluda and Tryon, NC). Waterfall Rich had recently posted a write-up on his www.ncwaterfalls.com website where I found out that I missed some of the lower drops during my visit this past February.

One of the Lower Drops of Melrose Falls

The lower drop of Melrose Falls is definitely not the tallest of the drops, but in my opinion it is the most photogenic of all the drops along Big Falls Creek.

After exploring the lower drops, we backtracked a bit and headed on up to the rocks overlooking the main drop of Melrose Falls. This one is much more impressive in person!

The main drop of Melrose Falls

Brenda was hoping to finish up by about 11:00am, so we skipped on visiting the upper drops, just above and underneath the railroad trestle.

I still had all afternoon, so for my main hike of the day, I visited the Trails of the Green River Gamelands. I did the loop shown below (counter-clockwise).