But despite the low height of the falls, it was nearly 100 feet wide, spanning the entire river and the water was really flowing, and it turned out to be pretty impressive after all. Interestingly, the water appeared to be two different colors. The upper cascades were a murky brown color, while the lower cascades were white. I got some pictures of the falls from the front and side, before we headed back to the vehicles.
Along the way, we saw a turtle along the trail and a huge yellow mushroom.
Grace is in a mycology club and helped us find and identify many of the interesting mushrooms and fungi that we saw along the trails.
Back at the vehicles, Jim was almost out of gas. On the way out, we stopped at the first gas station, but since they didn’t take credit cards, we only got $20 of gas, not wanting to waste all our cash. From here, we drove through Walhalla and up SC-28 to the Yellow Branch Recreation Area. From the parking area we hiked the Yellow Branch Falls trail down to its namesake waterfall. Right away, we had to make a couple of easy stream crossings over Yellow Branch Creek. Well-placed rocks allowed for easy rock-hopping without getting our feet wet. The trail continues through the a nice hardwood forest with a couple of wooden footbridges before reaching the falls. The only steep part was right before reach the falls.
And what a magnificent falls it is! The waterfall is a beautiful series of countless cascades flowing over dark rock.
With such a contrast, it almost looked magical! We spent quite a bit of time here, climbing around on the rocks and getting wet under the cascades.
Although there were no other people here, we weren’t alone. There was a large number of blackbelly salamanders living in the water beneath the falls.
They were camouflaged well and blended right in with the rocks, so we didn’t see them at first. One was hiding in a hole in an old log, with just his little head poking out.
We also saw a water snake basking on a rock here.
When we finished, we hiked back to the cars and made the quick drive across the street to Stumphouse Tunnel and parked for Issaqueena Falls. According to legend, Issaqueena was a Native American maiden who fell in love with and married a white settler. Upon learning of an impending attack by the Cherokee on the settlers, she tried to warn them, but was chased by the Indians. She faked her own death by pretending to jump off the falls, but actually jumped down to a ledge below and was able to hide from her attackers. No jumping for us; we would just hike down to the falls. We hiked past the top of the falls and down to the wooden overlook and had lunch here.
The views of the falls aren’t that great from here as the tree branches and foliage obscures the view. After eating our lunches, we took the short but very steep trail down to the base of the falls for some better pictures.
We were alone at the bottom of the falls for a little while, just long enough to get some good pictures, but soon more and more people made their way down here.
As the base got more and more crowded, we decided it was time to leave so we made our way back up to the cars. We drove through Walhalla again, taking SC-183 to SC-11 to our next hike. Along the way, we found a gas station that took credit cards and restocked on gas, Gatorade, and ice. From SC-11, we took Oconee Station Road past the historic site to the trailhead for Station Cove Falls. This one is a short hike, maybe a half mile, and so there were quite a few others along the trail and at the falls.
Station Cove Falls is a beautiful 60-foot cascading falls. Similar to Yellow Branch Falls, it was very scenic, but the crowds of people took away from the serenity of the falls.
We got a few photos and then made our way back as we started to hear thunder. About half way back, it started to rain, and not a light drizzle, but a heavy downpour. Since the sun was out when we had started, we had not brought rain gear for this hike. Worrying about my non-waterproof camera, I ran quickly back to the trailhead and took shelter under the sign until everyone was back and ready to go. We continued on Oconee Station Road to Jumping Branch Road and looked for our turn. We were supposed to turn on FS715A, but we didn’t see it, so we turned on FS715. This was a wrong turn and we were unsure of where to go. The torrential rain didn’t help either. We drove up and back on Jumping Branch Road until finally we saw an unmarked gravel road. On closer inspection, there was a sign with 5A. It looked like someone had blasted the top two numbers off with a shotgun. So we proceeded down this road to a parking area at the end. There were a couple of cars here and some people were hiking back to them. They confirmed that this was indeed the trailhead for Lee Falls and that it was spectacular waterfall, though a bit difficult to reach. We started out on the first of several open field crossings. The rain had lightened a bit, but it was still coming down and walking through the tall grass in the fields, we were getting soaked. At the end of the field, we had to cross a creek. The water was high enough that we were going to get our feet wet, but we were already soaked anyway. Then another field and another stream crossing and then another. Everything was so wet at this point that it didn't matter how many times we had to walk through the creek. Finally, after the third field, we headed onto what looked more like a trail heading through the woods. There were more stream crossings and the trail got narrower and harder to follow. As we got closer to the falls, we saw a snapping turtle in the middle of the trail. I had never seen one completely out of the water before (although it was raining enough that the trail was practically underwater). We carefully moved him off the trail and continued on to Lee Falls.
The area around Lee Falls was very beautiful – almost like a tropical rainforest, and even more lush with the light rain. Unfortunately, the wet rocks and stinging nettle made for treacherous maneuvering to get good pictures.
It’s also hard to get the entire waterfall (there are two distinct streams) as well as the cascades below.
We stayed here for a while, and then made the very wet trip back to the cars. By the time we made it back to the parking area, the rain had stopped although it was extremely humid. We dried off as much as possible and then took a windy forest road to SC-107 and went to Cherry Hill Campground to set up camp. It was still relatively early in the evening, so after quickly setting up camp at site 29, we headed out to knock out two more waterfalls before dark. We drove just a short ways up SC-107 to Burrells Ford Road (FS708) and proceeded down to the parking area for King Creek Falls. From the parking area, we hiked down the forest road past the campsites and took the King Creek/Foothills Trail upstream on King Creek. After crossing a bridge, the trail continued up King Creek for half a mile or so of a scenic stretch of the creek with several nice cascades along the way.
King Creek Falls is a very impressive 70-foot waterfall with powerful cascades.
After a few switchbacks, we made it to the Spoonauger Falls. This 50-foot waterfall has much less water flow than nearby King Creek Falls, but was still really pretty and in a beautiful setting.
The water cascades down a stepped rock with the late afternoon sun providing perfect lighting.
But it was getting late so we didn’t have a lot of time. After a few pictures, we made our way back to the car and headed back to camp. According to the GPS, there were no restaurants closer than 30 minutes away, so we made camp food and tried to get to bed early after taking advantage of the warm water showers. Unfortunately, it was a noisy night with a generator going, dogs barking, and snoring.
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