Labor Day Waterfalls

Monday morning, we broke camp, said good-bye to our friends, and then headed east. We went north on SC-107 and cut over to SC-130, stopping at an overlook where we had lovely views of Lake Jocassee in the early morning light.  We then took NC-281 and US-64 into Brevard, NC and then followed US-276 back into South Carolina. Right across the state line, we parked at the trailhead for Raven Cliff Falls at Caesars Head State Park. Although it was still fairly early in the morning, the parking lot was already almost full. Raven Cliff Falls is a popular area, especially on a holiday. We ended up getting one of the last parking spaces. After paying the day-use fee, we started hiking the red-blazed Raven Cliff Falls Trail. In about 1.5 miles, we turned right on the blue-blazed Gum Gap Trail and followed this for another mile or so. Due to the greater crowds here, we fortunately didn’t have to deal with the spider webs along the trail - someone else had come through first and cleared them. We did walk through a nice area of rhododendron tunnels and saw more interesting mushrooms along the way, however.

At the next split, we turned left on the pink-blazed Naturaland Trust Trail and hiked down to the top of Raven Cliff Falls.

Unfortunately, the trail ends after the suspension bridge over the top of the waterfall. I was hoping to be able to get a little closer to the waterfall, but it wasn’t possible. There were some very nice cascades above the waterfall, however.

So we started hiking back.

Where Gum Gap and Raven Cliff Falls Trails intersect, we turned right to go to the overlook for the waterfall. The view here, however, isn’t very good.

The waterfall is quite far away and the view is mostly obscured by foliage. If it wasn’t on the WC100 list, it probably wouldn’t be worth the time to visit. But now Sandy had completed the challenge. We took a picture or two and then headed back. Back at the car, we drove back into North Carolina through Brevard and got on I-40 east. Since it wasn’t too late, we decided to hit one more waterfall on the way. We got off the interstate at exit 112 and headed into Valdese to McGalliard Falls Park. It was just a short walk to the top of the falls where an old grist mill and water wheel are located.

We had to go past the mill and take a steep path to the creek and then rock-hop back up to get to the base for some pictures.

For being in a city park, it’s a rather nice waterfall. We got some pictures of the waterfall and the old mill then headed back up.

It was a just a short drive into Morganton for dinner at Las Salsas, then made our way home.