Hiking Waterfalls Park
Blue Ridge Trip '24 #20
Newland, NC - Thu, 5 Sep 2024. 2pm
After hiking at Otter Falls this morning we drove west, around the base of Grandfather Mountain- which we hiked yesterday afternoon. Grandfather's nearly 6,000' peak was shrouded in clouds at noon. It's a good thing we were only looking for lunch. As we ate at a restaurant in nearby Banner Elk the clouds burned off- not just around Grandfather Mountain's summit but those over pretty much everything in the area. We enjoyed a sunnier drive as we headed to our next hiking destination, Waterfalls Park.
Otter Falls was in the oddly named town of Seven Devils. This time we're in a blandly named town of Newland (but at least it's not named Bland) at the oddly named Waterfall Park. ...Okay, that's more bland than odd, too. The town has a small set of waterfalls on a creek, and they've nicely made a small park around it. There's also a grave memorial in this park, so possibly the land for the park used to be privately owned but then was donated.
A short trail leads up past various small tiers of waterfalls. Signs indicate that Boy Scouts built it and the fire department maintains it.
The trails continue farther up the canyon around the stream. We explored them for a bit but realized they were all diverging from the creek, and returned back down to appreciate the falls again.
This little park in an out-of-the-way small town had a decent number of visitors this afternoon. There were two other small groups when we arrived, and it looked like 3 more by the time we left. The visitors split into two categories: Those who, like us, were there to see the falls by hiking the trails; and those who were just there to sit at the picnic tables on the grassy lawn below, content to enjoy the falls as background sound. There may come a time in my life when I can't to venture further than the gravel path to a picnic table.... I plan for it not to be anytime soon. In beauty I walk.
Newland, NC - Thu, 5 Sep 2024. 2pm
After hiking at Otter Falls this morning we drove west, around the base of Grandfather Mountain- which we hiked yesterday afternoon. Grandfather's nearly 6,000' peak was shrouded in clouds at noon. It's a good thing we were only looking for lunch. As we ate at a restaurant in nearby Banner Elk the clouds burned off- not just around Grandfather Mountain's summit but those over pretty much everything in the area. We enjoyed a sunnier drive as we headed to our next hiking destination, Waterfalls Park.
Otter Falls was in the oddly named town of Seven Devils. This time we're in a blandly named town of Newland (but at least it's not named Bland) at the oddly named Waterfall Park. ...Okay, that's more bland than odd, too. The town has a small set of waterfalls on a creek, and they've nicely made a small park around it. There's also a grave memorial in this park, so possibly the land for the park used to be privately owned but then was donated.
A short trail leads up past various small tiers of waterfalls. Signs indicate that Boy Scouts built it and the fire department maintains it.
The trails continue farther up the canyon around the stream. We explored them for a bit but realized they were all diverging from the creek, and returned back down to appreciate the falls again.
This little park in an out-of-the-way small town had a decent number of visitors this afternoon. There were two other small groups when we arrived, and it looked like 3 more by the time we left. The visitors split into two categories: Those who, like us, were there to see the falls by hiking the trails; and those who were just there to sit at the picnic tables on the grassy lawn below, content to enjoy the falls as background sound. There may come a time in my life when I can't to venture further than the gravel path to a picnic table.... I plan for it not to be anytime soon. In beauty I walk.