Surprisingly, there was no one else here (and yet we had seen someone at Dismal Falls the day before!). The fall foliage surrounding the waterfall was gorgeous, the best fall color we had seen yet. And there was even a nice rainbow, adding more color to the scene!
Amazingly beautiful...this was definitely worth the detour. We spent some time here, enjoying the beautiful falls and rainbow and made a quick run up to Turtleback Falls before heading back to the car.
The foliage along this stretch of Horsepasture River was absolutely beautiful.
But we couldn’t spend too long as we had to meet our friends and had more waterfalls to get. So we hiked back to the car, passing several groups of people heading towards the waterfalls.
I guess we weren’t the only ones who wanted to visit this falls today, just the earliest to arrive. Back at the car, we left Gorges and headed back to Brevard. We stopped at Subway again to get our lunches for the next couple of days and then met our friends at Davidson River Campground, where we would be camping tonight. After setting up our tents, we headed north on US-276 and turned onto Forest Service Road 477 (Avery Creek Road). In about 2.5 miles, we came to a pulloff under some power lines and started hiking on Buckhorn Gap Trail (#103). Some incredibly mature person defaced the first letter on the trail sign to form a profanity. The orange-blazed Buckhorn Gap Trail leads about 2 miles to the waterfall. It’s also an equestrian trail and there were several spots where the trail fords a creek, but log bridges were available to cross without wading. After about two miles, we took the Twin Falls Trail (#604) to the waterfall. Although there are two falls, it’s not possible to see both at the same time.
We first went to the one on the left (on Henry Branch) and had lunch here. This is definitely the more impressive of the two.
We climbed around at the base of the falls and got some pictures, before heading to the other one (on an unnamed tributary of Henry Branch). The water level was not that high and this one was mostly obscured by foliage and downfall.
We got a couple pictures and then started making our way back to the cars. Once back, we drove back to US-276 and continued north. Past the Cradle of Forestry, we turned right on Forest Service Road 1206 and then another right on FSR 476 and followed this to the end. We parked here and set off on our last hike of the day to see High Falls on South Fork Mills River. We started off on South Mills River Trail (#133) for about a mile to concrete bridge.
At this point, we got off the main trail and followed another unlisted trail that crossed Billy Branch and continued following the river. In about another mile, the trail appeared to end at the river. According to our directions, we needed to cross the river. The water level was not too high, though it was very cold, so we crossed here, expecting to pick up the trail on the other side. After wading through the frigid knee-deep water, we got to the other side, but could find nothing that looked like a trail. We bushwhacked upstream for a ways, but the going was extremely slow and it was getting late and the sun would be setting soon.
Finally, we gave up and turned around making it back to the cars right at sunset. Carefully reviewing the maps and directions, we realized that we had crossed the river at the wrong place. We needed to continue up another quarter-mile to the correct river crossing. I guess we’ll have to come back for this one. Before heading back to camp, we drove into Brevard for dinner at Twin Dragons China Buffet and then returned to Davidson River Campground. It was quite cold this night, but we didn’t even bother with a campfire.
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