Hen Wallow Falls & Max Patch

Sunday morning, we broke camp and drove just outside the campground to park at the hiker parking.  From here, we got on the Gabes Mountain Trail and began hiking towards Hen Wallow Falls.  Near the start was a footbridge over Rock Creek, the trail from the campground intersecting just past.

From here, the trail was mostly uphill, but gradual, so not too strenuous.  A pleasant relief after the past couple days' hikes.  In about 2 miles or so, we reached the split, where a spur trail leads steeply down to the base of Hen Wallow Falls.

The water tumbles down a steep rock face, but unfortunately today, the water level was very low.  I climbed around the rocks to get pictures from different angles.  The base of the waterfall was particularly scenic, even if there wasn’t much water here.

Just past the waterfall was an interesting cave formed by falling rocks.  It looked too dangerous to try and climb into the cave and generally caves are off-limits to protect bats.

After some pictures, we started hiking back.  After climbing up to Gabes Mountain Trail, there was some nice cliffs near the split.

Then it was all downhill back to the car.  From here, we headed back into North Carolina, getting off I-40 at Harmon Den and driving up towards Max Patch.  It was not surprising that this area was extremely crowded, but we were able to find a spot at the parking lot.  We did just a short loop trail around Max Patch, but it took a while as we kept stopping for pictures.

Max Patch is a grassy bald, so there were no trees or bushes to obscure the view.  Looking all around, the views were phenomenal.

Although it was just a little bit before peak color, the views were just amazing.  There were also a lot of woolly worm caterpillars all around the grassy bald.

We had to be careful not to step on them.

 Finishing up the loop, we drove back down the mountain and continued driving east.  We stopped in Morganton for Las Salsas for dinner before completing the drive home.