Black Mountains Waterfalls

Sunday morning, we woke up early and broke camp and departed Hot Springs.  We drove up into Tennessee and then back into North Carolina on US-19W.  Just a mile or two across the state line, we made a stop to see Big Creek Falls.  It's essentially roadside, but hard to see through the foliage.  A scramble path led to a big rock with a nice frontal view.

I then climbed down to the creek for a view from the base.

The pool looked very inviting and I bet it would make an excellent swimhole.

It was a really scenic waterfall for being right along the side of the road.  Continuing on, we drove through Burnsville and took NC-80 towards the Black Mountains.  We took a short detour on Whiteoak Creek Road and followed to the end.  Whiteoak Creek Falls was just ahead.  First, we scrambled down to the base.

Back at the road, we found another path to get down to the middle section.

A little further up was another path down to the upper section.

It's not possible to see the entire thing from any one spot, but a nice waterfall nonetheless.

The light was poor unfortunately.  After some pictures, we headed back.

Our next stop was the trailhead for Roaring Fork Falls at the Busick Work Center in the Black Mountain-South Toe River Area of Pisgah National Forest.  There were quite a few cars in the parking area and we got the last spot.  Hiking down the Roaring Fork Falls Trail (#195), we saw several groups coming back.

There were some old concrete structures, maybe magazines to store explosives.

Where the road crossed Roaring Fork, we took the path up to the base of Roaring Fork Falls as the last group was leaving.

We got the waterfall to ourselves.  I scrambled around on the rocks to get some pictures.  It's a really beautiful waterfall.

We had lunch here as a few more groups arrived and then headed back to the car.

From here, we drove to our last hike at the South Toe Trailhead Parking just outside Black Mountain Campground.  We hiked into the campground and got on the combined trail heading upstream on South Toe River.  At the second split, we took a right on Setrock Creek Falls Trail (#197) and made the short hike to Setrock Creek Falls.

The water level was up and the lighting was good so I could finally get a decent picture of the waterfall.

Then we hiked back down the trail and went right towards Briar Bottom Campground.  Past the campground, we took River Loop Trail (#200) and continued following the river upstream.

Some self-heal, a medicinal plant, were flowering along the trail.

Near the halfway point, we had to rock hop across Camp Creek.

Wild bergamot was flowering all around.

Shortly after, the trail crossed the river on FR-472.

Across the river, the trail headed downstream on the opposite side climbing up a ridge above the river.  Some rosebay rhododendron was blooming.

Before we left, I took a short hike around the Devil's Den Nature Trail (#192).

I spotted some Japanese meadowsweet, an invasive species.

Then we started making our way home.

Driving down from the parkway on NC-80, we pulled off at Buck Creek Falls.

It's on private property but it's visible from the road.  The view isn't great unfortunately as its mostly blocked by foliage.

From here, it was about another 3 hours to get home.