Middle Bridge Waterfalls

Monday morning, we again woke up right at sunrise, broke camp and started out on our first hike of the day. Conveniently, Rainbow Falls is accessed through Jones Gap State Park, so we didn’t have to drive anywhere. And getting an early start, we would beat the crowds. It is a holiday, after all, so we expected that the parks would be crowded. From the parking lot, we hiked along the Jones Gap Trail as it ran along the Middle Saluda River for a short ways. At one point, Justine stopped ahead of me and was looking backwards. She signaled for me to turn around and I saw rays of early morning light bursting through the dense foliage in a very pronounced beam.

We continued a short ways further along this trail, before taking a bridge across the river and got on the red-blazed Rainbow Falls Trail.

The trail is relatively flat at first crossing Cox Camp Creek a couple of times heading upstream, and then really getting steep as it moves away from the creek. After a seemingly endless number of stairs, the trail leveled off a bit as it went past some huge rock cliffs with water flowing down the sides.

I don't think that these are any sort of permanent waterfall, but with the substantial amount of rain we had this weekend, they were pretty cool. Past these cliffs, the trail was fairly level as it approached the base of the falls. There were some nice cascades just before reaching the falls and a couple of tricky stream crossings, but soon we made it.

Having seen a few pictures of this waterfall, I was not expecting to be too impressed. Boy, was I wrong. Perhaps it was the very wet summer and recent rains or maybe pictures just don’t do it justice.

Either way, this was an amazing waterfall, my favorite of the weekend. The waterfall plunges over a cliff with a freefall of near 100 feet. And the high volume of water flow was creating lots of spray and nearly hurricane-force winds. The spray and strong winds made taking pictures difficult, but nonetheless, this is definitely one of the most impressive waterfalls I’ve ever seen.

When I walked up the rocks to get a little closer (without the camera, of course), I ended up getting completely drenched, even more than I had been from all the rain over the weekend. At one point, I couldn’t go any further, because the wind was so strong, I was afraid I’d get blown over on the wet rocks. When we were done, we started making the hike back down. Although we had the falls to ourselves, we saw quite a few people hiking up the trail on our way back down.

A nice thing about camping at the park is you can get an early start and beat the crowds. Needless to say, these people were huffing and puffing making the climb up, but we assured them that it was worth the effort. Back at the car, we left the park and got back on SC-11, stopping at Wildcat Wayside on our way back to Caesars Head. Wildcat Branch Falls is a nice cascading waterfall right on the side of SC-11 between US-276 and Jones Gap.

Wildcat Wayside, where the falls are located, is part of the Middle Bridge Wilderness, along with Jones Gap and Caesars Head. There is a nice-sized parking area here along the highway and a vendor had set up a truck selling boiled peanuts, ice cream, and other snacks.

We stopped for just a couple minutes to take some pictures then headed towards Caesars Head State Park on US-276. We parked at the parking area for Raven Cliff Falls and headed out on the trail for our last waterfall of the weekend. The trail is about 2.2 miles one way and moderate. There is a kiosk at the trailhead with a map as well as maps at the two intersections with other trails, so it would be hard to get lost. Along the way, we saw a cute little eastern newt on a tree.

He seemed to get real still when we got close to take pictures, but his bright orange color makes for lousy camouflage. A the end of the trail, we reached the overlook for Raven Cliff Falls. Raven Cliff Falls is a huge 400-foot waterfall and the viewing deck is very nice.

Unfortunately, it’s quite far away, so it’s hard to get an idea of the magnitude of the falls. There used to be another viewing deck that was closer, but I think it was destroyed by storm. It’s also possible to hike down to the falls, but there’s nowhere to really get a good view. And we were tired from all the hiking this weekend, so we sat and had a snack for lunch at the overlook before heading back. Victory! 17 named waterfalls in four days.