Hiking Upper Creek Falls, part 1
Blue Ridge Trip '24 #21
Jonas Ridge, NC - Thu, 5 Sep 2024. 3:30pm
Our hikes so far today have been easy. Waterfalls Park was like, well, a walk in the park. Otter Falls was a bit more difficult, but really just a leg-stretcher on the way back up the canyon. Our next hike, to Upper Creek Falls, would be more of a workout, with over 400' of gain- all on the way out. Yup, this is another "upside down" hike.
Upside down hikes start out easy, going downhill. We followed a clear footpath through the forest. It started descending, steeply, down the side of the canyon to the creek. The Upper Creek. That name means there are likely two, maybe three, blandly named creeks in this area. 😂
A small family had begun hiking the trail just ahead of us at the top of the canyon. We caught up to them as they arrived at the creek crossing. They started looking around for a fishing hole to drop their lines in, though, while Hawk and I were looking for waterfalls. There were a few cascades upstream from our crossing, but the interesting part was just downstream from us.
This cliff was interesting. This cliff that the creek flows over. Yup, that means there's a waterfall below us. Fortunately the trail continues on the other side of the creek- the map on AllTrails shows this, and it's in plain sight that there are trail blazes on the other side-and leads downstream.
The path downstream veered away from the creek at first. That's typicaly for descending over a cliff; the path goes outward to wall of the canyon to slope down the sides. Soon enough it cut back toward the creek aga, descending steeply. We scrambled over a large, tilted rock and stepped carefully down to a vantage point looking up at Upper Creek Falls.
While down here we noticed another pair of hikers who'd arrived ahead of us. They were sitting on a flat rock lower down the side of the canyon, near the creek. Nature's big enough for all 4 of us, so we didn't bother them and they didn't bother us. Thought we did wonder if may their perch was better than ours and if we should covet it. 😂 Well, they got up to leave eventually, so we scrambled down to where they were to check it out.
Keep reading: continued in next blog....
Jonas Ridge, NC - Thu, 5 Sep 2024. 3:30pm
Our hikes so far today have been easy. Waterfalls Park was like, well, a walk in the park. Otter Falls was a bit more difficult, but really just a leg-stretcher on the way back up the canyon. Our next hike, to Upper Creek Falls, would be more of a workout, with over 400' of gain- all on the way out. Yup, this is another "upside down" hike.
Upside down hikes start out easy, going downhill. We followed a clear footpath through the forest. It started descending, steeply, down the side of the canyon to the creek. The Upper Creek. That name means there are likely two, maybe three, blandly named creeks in this area. 😂
A small family had begun hiking the trail just ahead of us at the top of the canyon. We caught up to them as they arrived at the creek crossing. They started looking around for a fishing hole to drop their lines in, though, while Hawk and I were looking for waterfalls. There were a few cascades upstream from our crossing, but the interesting part was just downstream from us.
This cliff was interesting. This cliff that the creek flows over. Yup, that means there's a waterfall below us. Fortunately the trail continues on the other side of the creek- the map on AllTrails shows this, and it's in plain sight that there are trail blazes on the other side-and leads downstream.
The path downstream veered away from the creek at first. That's typicaly for descending over a cliff; the path goes outward to wall of the canyon to slope down the sides. Soon enough it cut back toward the creek aga, descending steeply. We scrambled over a large, tilted rock and stepped carefully down to a vantage point looking up at Upper Creek Falls.
While down here we noticed another pair of hikers who'd arrived ahead of us. They were sitting on a flat rock lower down the side of the canyon, near the creek. Nature's big enough for all 4 of us, so we didn't bother them and they didn't bother us. Thought we did wonder if may their perch was better than ours and if we should covet it. 😂 Well, they got up to leave eventually, so we scrambled down to where they were to check it out.
Keep reading: continued in next blog....