Archive for the ‘Waterfalls’ Category

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A Hiking First (For Us)

August 1, 2008

As I’ve mentioned several times, Betsy and I collect waterfalls.  We’ve been to 278 different waterfalls since our visit to Fall Creek Falls in 2001.  Some of the waterfalls have been big and well-known (Niagara Falls) while others are small and have been found mostly by accident.

Getting to many of the waterfalls involve a hike.  We’ve visited most of the roadside waterfalls in the area we know about, so our waterfall visits usually involve some hiking.  Although we don’t hike real long distances, hiking is something that both of us enjoy.

In June we visited our good friends Judy and Charlie Jones, who were camping at Cades Cove Campground in the Smokies.  Judy and Charlie like to hike and have probably done more hiking than we’ve done.  But Judy always worries about running into a bear on their hikes.  We kidded her about that, because Betsy and I had never seen a bear on any of the hikes we’d taken.

After leaving Judy and Charlie, Betsy and I decided to hike to the nearby Crooked Arm Cascades.  We knew from our guide book that the hike would be about 1.5 miles and was moderately easy.  Since we were in the Smokies in the early summer, we knew the scenery would be beautiful.

We had only gone about half a mile along the trail when we saw a mother bear and two cubs cross the trail up ahead of us.  We stayed back and still until they had moved away from the trail.  We were able to watch them for five minutes or so without any problems, but we had lost our excuse for teasing Judy about bears on the trail.

To see more of our hike to Crooked Arm Cascade click HERE.

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Searching For New Waterfalls in the Smokies

July 28, 2008

It was hot yesterday (Sunday) here on the Plateau, so I took advantage of that great excuse to stay indoors as much as possible.  One of the things I did was work through some pictures we had taken earlier this year, but which I had not yet had a chance to organize into albums.

One day in April Betsy and I drove to the Smokies to search for some small waterfalls that Betsy had found on the internet.  One (Whiteoak Flats Branch Falls)we had seen from Little River Road, but Betsy found that there were a couple of small cascades above the base that could be seen from the road.

We found a couple of new small waterfalls, Rush Branch Falls, near the Townsend Entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Cane Creek Twin Falls along Little River Road.

We didn’t find Meigs Creek Cascade.  We hiked the trail that leads to the cascade, but we didn’t go far enough to reach the cascades.  That experience led us to invest in a hiking GPS unit.  We’ll probably go back there some time in the future.

The nicest waterfall we found on this visit was Mannis Branch Falls.  We must have gone right past it a dozen times — it’s just off Little River Road, but you need to take a short walk to the river to see the falls.

To see more of our visit to the Smokies click HERE.

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A Very Pleasant Surprise

July 22, 2008

As I mentioned, Betsy and I went to her hometown, Big Stone Gap, Virginia, over the weekend to attend a family reunion.  We had a nice time and I’ll probably have more to say about it in the days ahead.

Now that we have a GPS unit in the car we have travelled more back roads on our trips.  Our GPS — Miss Bar-Beak — knows where we are even on the back roads and can get us to where we want to go.

By taking the back roads we get to see some beautiful scenery that we otherwise would not see.  Sunday we were driving through the mountains when we saw a little green sign that said “Elrod Falls” and had an arrow pointing to the right.  Betsy and I looked at each other and asked “Do you think that’s a waterfall?”  Neither of us knew, but we decided to check it out.

We turned around and took the road designated by the sign.  We had a couple of false starts because that was the only sign we saw, but we finally got on the correct road and went further back into the mountains on a gravel road.

The road ended at a picnic area and a short path led us to Elrod Falls.  Since this part of the country is in the second year of a drought we were surprised to see a fair amount of water coming over the falls (see the picture above).

We met a couple who lived in the area at the falls and they said there was much more water in the late winter and early fall.  It looks like we’ll be going back there again!

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An Anniversary Trip to a Special Place

July 18, 2008


A couple of days ago I told you about a waterfalling adventure that Betsy and I had in the rain.  We try to do a better job of scheduling our hikes and we are usually fairly successful.

A special place for the two of us is Fall Creek Falls State Park here in Tennessee.  Fall Creek Falls is about an hour from here, so we get to go back there fairly often.  Fall Creek Falls contains five beautiful waterfalls and has several hiking trails.

The reason Fall Creek Falls is so special to us is that we went there on a date on April 21, 2001.  We had dated a couple of times before that day, but by the time we left the park we realized that we were falling in love.

We try to get back to Fall Creek Falls at least once a year.  After we both retired, we try to get back there on April 21.  Although we didn’t do any hiking on that first visit, we now hike at least on trail each time we go.  Of course we also make a point to visit as many of the waterfalls as possible.

This year April 21 was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful hike and day at the park.  To see pictures from Fall Creek Falls, click HERE.

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A Rainy Day Waterfalls Trip

July 16, 2008

Betsy and I ‘collect’ waterfalls. Since we fell in love at Fall Creek Falls back in 2001, we’ve visited as many waterfalls as possible. We now have 277 waterfalls in our ‘collection’.

We do most of our hiking to waterfalls in the winter or spring, since that’s when most waterfalls have their greatest flow. Besides that, our lawn and flowers keep us busy in the summer.

We do try to do our hiking in good weather, but we’re not always successful. Earlier this year Betsy did some research on the internet and found two waterfalls at Lula Lake near Chattanooga, Lula Lake is owned by a private organization and is only open to the public on the first and last Saturday of the month.

We decided to go visit Lula Lake the last Saturday in March. It was cloudy when we left the Glade, but absolutely pouring by the time we got to Chattanooga. We went on to Lula Lake anyway and, because there were very few people there we were able to drive fairly close to the falls. We got soaked anyway.

On the way home we decided to swing by Lowry Creek in the Cherokee National Forest. Lowry Creek has a series of small waterfalls that can be reached by a relatively short hike along the creek-side. The trail was muddy (and steep) but definitely worth the effort.

To see pictures of our rainy day visits to waterfalls click HERE.

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