Tuesday, February 5, 2019

2019-02-02 Bald Rock Sunrise and some Dupont Area Waterfalls

Bald Rock Sunrise and some DuPont Area Waterfalls
Greenville County, SC and Transylvania County, NC
Saturday, February 2nd, 2019

Group Photo at the Other Real Dupont Secret Falls
L to R:  Me, Jennifer, Andy

"There are Falls along this Southern Stream,
Westward as you go
There is sunlight and moss in the trees
Down the Seven Bridges Road"

For well over a year Andy has been eyeing a spot on the topo maps near DuPont State Forest, NC.  Our main goal for the day would be to find out if Andy's exceptional track record of finding waterfalls would continue! 

In addition to Andy and his dogs Boone and Kona;  Jennifer would also be joining us on this adventure! 

But first, I decided to get up early so I had time to stop along the way and check out the sunrise from Bald Rock (aka Graffiti Rock).  It was not the greatest sunrise I have ever seen, but still worth getting up early for!

 Just before Sunrise from Bald Rock

Bald Rock Sunrise

Bald Rock Sunrise

View of Table Rock from Bald Rock

Sunrise through the Trees

Zooming in on Greenville, SC from Bald Rock

After sunrise, I continued my drive up the mountain into North Carolina.  I still had a little time left before meeting Andy and Jennifer, so I made another quick stop at Merry Falls.  This one is visible from the road, but a short scramble takes you down to the base for a much better view!

 Merry Falls

 Merry Falls Selfie

Merry Falls

According to my GPS track, our main hike did take us across some private property.  Therefore I am not going to post any details as to the location of these falls or the route we took to get there. 

We were successful in finding some "new" waterfalls, but based on the No Trespassing sign at the uppermost drop, we were obviously not the first humans to stumble across what we are calling Seven Bridges Road Falls!   Note:  We were careful to stay on the Legal Side of the No Trespassing Sign!

View from Seven Bridges Road

View from Bridge #2 along Seven Bridges Road

Lower Seven Bridges Road Falls

Ice at Seven Bridges Road Falls

Group Photo at Seven Bridges Road Falls

Upper Seven Bridges Road Falls

Upper Seven Bridges Road Falls
We were careful not to go past the No Trespassing Sign!

Looking downstream from Upper Seven Bridges Road Falls


On the hike out, we explored another smaller tributary stream.  We did find a nice little drop, but nothing really worth going out of you way for!

 Andy using a rope to descend down a steep bank

Nice little drop along an un-named low flow tributary

Boone!


We still had some time left, so we did another short off trail hike inside DuPont State Forest.  Jennifer had found this waterfall years ago.  As far as we know, it does not have a name!

 DuPonts Other Real Secret Falls

 Jennifer at DuPonts Other Real Secret Falls

 Group Photo at DuPonts Other Real Secret Falls

DuPonts Other Real Secret Cascades

DuPonts Other Real Secret Cascades

This was an awesome day of waterfall wandering!  It was a bit too sunny for waterfall photography, but we were fortunate enough that most of the waterfalls we saw were nicely shaded!

My complete set of photos is posted here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8146392@N05/albums/72157678419443898


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