Monday, March 11, 2019

2019-03-07 Waterfalls of the Green River Gamelands

Waterfalls of the Green River Gamelands
Fungi Falls, Turtle Rock Falls, Rainy Falls,
and some other new waterfall discoveries!
Polk County, North Carolina
Thursday, March 7th, 2019

Two fun guys at Fungi Falls

Matthew Perry was in town for the Carolina Nature Photographers Association annual conference here in Spartanburg, SC.  I decided to take Thursday afternoon off from work to guide him to some of the lesser known waterfalls of the Green River Gamelands.

We started with Fungi Falls!  Since the gated access road was open, we were able to drive most of the way there making for a much shorter hike.


Fungi Falls

Fungi Falls Selfie with Matt

Fungi Junior is on the small tributary that joins Ostin Creek just downstream from the main drop of Fungi Falls.  Normally this is just a wet gully, but with good flow, it turns into a legitimate waterfall! 

Fungi Junior Falls
 
Lower Fungi Falls

We explored downstream a bit, but did not find any additional major drops.  Here is the GPS Track from our Fungi Falls Hike.




Next up was Turtle Rock Falls and Rainy Falls.  Andy, Jennifer, and I found these a couple weeks ago and I wanted to show them off to Matt while the water flow in the area is still way above normal!  I was also hoping to find the Sun Shade for my camera lens that I lost here during my initial visit a few weeks ago.

Turtle Rock Falls

Hepatica

Matt at Turtle Rock Falls

Mud Daubers inside Turtle Rock Cave

Me at Turtle Rock Falls

 Rainy Falls

Matt at Rainy Falls

Here is the GPS Track from our hike to Turtle Rock Falls and Rainy Falls.  The squiggle area is Turtle Rock Falls, and the track ends at Rainy Falls.



I noticed that the next stream to the SouthWest flows over the same cliff face as Turtle Rock Falls.  So we decided to check it out!  We found a few nice cascades and a couple of smaller low flow waterfalls, but nothing really spectacular!    

Nice cascade along an un-named tributary stream

Nice cascade along an un-named tributary stream

Sharp Rock Falls

Rock Tree

Pretty Low Flow Waterfall

Another little low flow waterfall


We finished up our afternoon with pizza and beer at the Purple Onion in Saluda, NC

It was an awesome day to be outside!
And Matt did find my missing Lens Sun Shade at Turtle Rock Falls!

My complete set of photos is posted here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8146392@N05/albums/72157679222131018

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