Shining Rock & Courthouse Falls

Saturday morning, we had breakfast and headed towards the Shining Rock area.  Heading north on NC-215, we crossed the Blue Ridge Parkway and parked along the side of the road here just a half-mile past.  We got on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail westbound here and headed into Middle Prong Wilderness.  After crossing Bubbling Spring Branch, the trail paralleled NC-215 for a bit and then turned away.  In about a mile, we came to an easy stream crossing at the confluence of two streams that formed the headwaters of West Fork Pigeon River.  At this point, we got off the trail and bushwhacked up along the right tributary to Mount Hardy Falls.  This waterfall is on a small tributary and wasn’t flowing well.

Moreover, the bright sunlight shining on the upper portion while the lower portion was in dark shadows made a good picture impossible.  I think there is a better view from further up the MST, but the conditions were poor, so we just started hiking back.  As we got closer to NC-215, we took a scramble path down to the road and walked down to the trailhead for Wildcat Falls.  Hiking past the campsite, we rock-hopped across Bubbling Spring Branch and followed the old road, which is Flat Laurel Creek Trail (#346).  Right after the stream crossing, we passed a small, but scenic cascade on a small tributary.  The cascade was in the shadow, so I could get a decent picture of this one.

Unfortunately, that was not the case with Wildcat Falls.  The water level was low and the sun was shining right on it.  A concrete bridge led over the creek in the middle of the waterfall.  A picture from the bridge was difficult because of the bright sunlight.  I climbed down below the bridge to try from there, but the bright sunlight and dark shadows from the bridge made for a lousy picture.

So we started heading back.  We took the same path up from NC-215 back to MST and just before we got back to the start, turned off the trail and followed Bubbling Spring Branch upstream.  There’s no real trail, but it’s pretty easy to follow.  We crossed the creek several times and finally just creek-walked up to Lower Bubbling Spring Branch Falls.

Then we climbed up the river-right bank and went a short ways further to Upper Bubbling Spring Branch Falls.  Both waterfalls had low flow, but the lighting was better.

And the water level was up, compared to the last time I was here, so I actually got some decent pictures. Then we headed back to the car and started driving back south on NC-215.  We turned left on Courthouse Creek Road (FSR-140) and drove about 2.5 miles up this road.  There wasn’t much parking at the trailhead for Kiesee Falls, so we drove a short ways further to a pull-off and parked here.  It started raining, so we waited for the rain to die down a bit before starting our hike.  We hiked back down FSR-140 to a curve in the road where an overgrown trail headed into the woods.  A yellow Closed to Vehicle sign indicated that this was the right path.  We followed this path for about a half-mile to a fork – the right fork led to Kiesee Falls and the left to Upper Kiesee Falls.  Since Kiesee was the harder waterfall to visit, we went right first.  Almost immediately, we had to bushwhack around rhododendron and then picked up the path again.  It became more overgrown and difficult to follow as we continued.  Finally, we got to a spot where it led down to creek.  We had to jump to get to the other side of the creek and then bushwhack upstream a short ways.  Upon getting to a small waterfall just below Kiesee Falls, the trail got really hard.  We had to first scramble up a steep cliff face.  Finally, I could see Kiesee Falls in the distance.

But there was no way to get closer.  The cliff face was wet and a small waterfall was flowing down the middle.  This part is difficult under the best conditions and it had started raining heavily when we got here.  At least I could see the waterfall, if not get a good picture, so we turned around.  Back at the fork, we turned right and followed the path further upstream.  In about a quarter-mile, when we were almost directly above Kiesee Falls, a path split to the right and led down to Upper Kiesee Falls.  The last segment was a steep section of wet rock, but after Kiesee Falls, this one seemed like a breeze.  I rock-hopped across the creek for a picture and then we started heading back.

Back on FSR-140, we continued past the car to the gated FSR-5031.  We hiked along this road for just under a mile and took a side path to the left down towards Chestnut Creek.  We came out at the base of the falls and stopped for a break.

This is a really scenic waterfall and we spent some time climbing on the rocks and getting pictures.

Then we headed back to the car.  Since we were so close, we decided to get one more waterfall.  We continued a little further on FSR-140 and parked at the trailhead for Courthouse Falls.  It’s just a short hike to this beautiful waterfall.  Several groups of people were swimming in the pool at the base of the falls.  Recently, a huge tree had fallen and damaged the stairs leading to the base, but it was not too much trouble to get down.

After a couple pictures, we headed back.  We drove into Brevard and got take-out from Hawg Wild BBQ and headed into Pisgah National Forest for a picnic dinner.  Since we had Alex this weekend, we couldn’t eat inside restaurants.  After dinner, we headed back to camp.