2019-03-09 Team Waterfall Adventure

Team Waterfall Camping Weekend

Buckeye Falls, Hospital Rock, Buck Hollow Falls, Rainbow Falls

Jones Gap State Park, SC

Saturday, March 9th and Sunday, March 10th, 2019

 

Group Photo around our campfire

For this weekend, Team Waterfall reserved the group campsite along the Hospital Rock Trail at Jones Gap State Park, SC  We would use this as home base for our weekend adventures.

Our main goal for Saturday was to make it to Buck Hollow Falls.  Mission Accomplished!  Here are some of the photos from Saturday's Adventure!

Lower Buckeye Falls

Looking downstream from Lower Buckeye Falls

Kitty and The Badger

 Middle Buckeye Falls

Hospital Rock

 Team Waterfall heads off trail!

Kitty and Boone

Darrin on a Rock

Waterfall on Buck Hollow Creek

 Descending down Buck Hollow Creek

Darrin photographing the twisted vine

 Twisted Vine

Waterfall on Buck Hollow Creek

Snail

Buck Hollow Falls

Hanging out at Buck Hollow Falls

Buck Hollow Falls

 

Waterfall on unnamed tributary of Buck Hollow Creek

 

Waterfall on unnamed tributary of Buck Hollow Creek

Waterfall on unnamed tributary of Buck Hollow Creek

 Buckeye Falls

 

Me at Buckeye Falls

 

We all made it back to the campsite safely after our hike and enjoyed an awesome evening around the campfire!

 

 

Hanging out around the Campfire

Sunday Morning after packing up camp, I decided to hike up to Rainbow Falls!  This is a well designed trail that gains about 1,200 feet of elevation over about 2.5 miles  (5.0 miles out and back)!

 

Middle Saluda River at Jones Gap State Park, SC

 

Along the Rainbow Falls Trail

 Along the Rainbow Falls Trail

 

Rainbow Falls

Rainbow Falls Selfie

 Rainbow Falls

Rainbow Falls

 Rainbow Falls

It was a wet and foggy weekend full of waterfalls, friends, and fun!

My complete set of photos is posted here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8146392@N05/albums/72157679422373658

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.

Fungi Falls GPS Track

Click here for interactive link

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.

Turtle Rock Falls and Rainy Falls GPS Track

Click here for interactive link

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

GPS Track

Click here for Interactive Link

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

2019-02-23 Introducing Turtle Rock Falls

Introducing Turtle Rock Falls

Green River Gamelands

Polk County, NC

Saturday, February 23rd, 2019

Introducing our latest waterfall "discovery"

Me, Jennifer, and Andy at Turtle Rock Falls

Andy had identified a few spots with good waterfall potential along an un-named tributary in the Green River Gamelands of North Carolina.  Since the area has been receiving record amounts of rain, we thought it would be the perfect day to explore this normally much lower volume stream!

So Jennifer, Andy, Boone, and I ventured out into the unknown of a cold and rainy Saturday in search of new waterfalls!

 Turtle Rock Falls

We started from Green River Cove Road (35.3025, -82.2629) with plans of bushwhacking upstream following the path of least resistance!  The rain was coming down mcuh harder than what was predicted, but the bushwhacking was way easier then we were anticipating!

In fact, it was so easy that I would classify the hike to Turtle Rock Falls as "Amy Approved".
There is pretty much a "trail" the entire way! 

We had come up with the name Turtle Rock Falls before we even got there!  A short distance downstream there was a huge boulder that we all thought looked like a giant turtle.  Since all our cameras were safely packed inside dry bags, all three of us managed not to take a photo of the Turtle Rock that we named this waterfall after!

Andy at Turtle Rock Falls

The Main drop of Turtle Rock Falls is only about a half mile from the road and it far exceeded my expectations!

Turtle Rock Falls

Boone at Turtle Rock Falls

Turtle Rock Falls

There is also a really cool cave along river right.  It made for the perfect spot to safely hang out and wait for the heaviest of the rain to pass!

 Jennifer, Me, and Andy hanging out in the cool cave by Turtle Rock Falls

 Jennifer taking a photo of Turtle Rock Falls

After a nice break, we decided to continue upstream!  Climbing up from Turtle Rock Falls was one of the few difficult sections of this adventure.  This can be avoided by backtracking a bit before heading upstream!  Once we got up the old roadbed, it was easy going from there!

This route takes you high above the creek, but with the open forest we were able to see the creek most of the way to make sure we didn't miss anything significant.

The next waterfall is about another half mile upstream.  This one is also very nice, but much more difficult to get down to and to photograph.  There is really only enough room for one Tri-Pod at a time, so keep your group size small if you plan on visiting this one!  

Rainy Falls

Since Andy was the one to pick out these spots on the topo map and plan this little adventure, we gave him full control over the naming rights!  My suggestion of Green Dragon Falls was rejected in favor of Rainy Falls!

 Green Dragon Rock (near Rainy Falls)

  
The total hike was only about two miles, leaving plenty of time for another adventure!  However we were all soaking wet!  So instead of more waterfalls, we decided to go with dry clothes and a few beers at The Purple Onion in Saluda, NC!  The perfect way to end an awesome day!


Here is the GPS Track from our Adventure!

GPS Track from our hike

Click here for interactive link

My complete set of photos is posted here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8146392@N05/albums/72157707141756244