Cliffs in the USA?

[winchesterpooja]

Hello!

This might seem slightly stupid, but can I get the names of some cliffs in the USA, which if you jump from you fall into a river? Basically, the ravine needs a water body you can swim across.

Comments

[road_rhythm]

Oh, hey, fun things to do in a river in Virginia! It's like you knew I was coming.

orange_fell's suggestion of Mather Gorge was one of the first that occurred to me, but while there are rocks at a suitable angle over the river there, I don't know how swimmable you'd want to call what's in between. The currents through the gorge are varied, fluctuating, and genuinely dangerous, and, yes, even if you're good you can get dead trying to swim them. The river is narrow there, but unpredictable.

Also, if this is for SPN fic (guessing by your handle/icon), the park is crowded year-round during the day and pretty well patrolled even at night, though it's easy enough to walk in when it's closed (especially from the north). A Winchester jumping into the Potomac at that point would attract a lot of attention doing it. And probably collide with a kayak halfway across.

Red Rock Overlook, approx. 20 miles upstream in Leesburg, would offer more privacy, and the river there actually is swimmable. It's not very deep, so if they jumped from the topmost point of the cliff they might have problems, but there's a modest little footpath that hugs it down a slope and several points along it where it would actually be possible to jump in and swim, though maybe not to enjoy the experience.

Finally, there are a couple of rocks on the Maryland side of the Potomac just east of/downstream from Harper's Ferry (say, 3 miles along the tow path from Brunswick) from which it is possible to take a modest dive (10-12') into a pool immediately below and then enter a chain of canoe-navigable rapids, eventually crossing the river by a combination of swimming, body-surfing, and rock-hopping. I know, because I have actually tested this. For SPN fic, no less.

/hardcore geeking

Re:

[winchesterpooja]

Ahh, the website kept hiding your reply from me for some reason. And YES, it's SPN fanfic. :D I'm not worried about locals because the fic is kinda in this dystopian set-up where all the humans are clustered around ghettos around the country. And one of the TFW will not survive this jump (they jump together) so I love Mather Gorge for the terribly dangerous currents. ;)

And, wow, that's a lot of research! I did some location scouting too, but not for landmarks since I'm from a different country. But there are areas designed after actual places I've been to. :)

Thanks!

[road_rhythm]

Oh, well, if it doesn't need to be safe, then that opens up your options considerably. One advantage of Mather is that there's no shortage of reference pictures on the web. If you wanted one great, dramatic swoop, a running leap from the top of Red Rock would give you about a fifty foot clear drop. The river itself is tame there, but it'd be a coin toss whether you survived landing in the shallows (especially if you were to strike the large, flat rock right at the base).