Brush Creek and Pipestem

It had rained all night, but lightened a bit by morning.  Since there had been so much rain, we headed back to Mash Fork Falls for a couple pictures in higher water.

It was definitely a lot higher than it had been the previous evening.

Then we continued to Brush Creek Falls.  After getting our stuff together, we started hiking down the trail.  It wasn't long until we came to Brush Creek Falls.  It's a big one and I could tell it was spectacular from the top.

We continued on the trail a bit and found a path leading down to the base.

The force of the waterfall was very impressive.

After some pictures, we continued on the trail.  There were some white wood aster blooming along the trail.

It soon entered Brush Creek Preserve and followed its namesake downstream passing by some massive cliffs.

Falls Trail continued to the confluence with Bluestone River and then turned right to follow the river downstream about a half-mile to the end where Whiteoak Creek flowed into Bluestone.

Whiteoak Creek Falls was just upstream.

It was a pretty nice waterfall, but hard to see all the sections.  I made it up to the middle section.

From here, it was a tricky rock scramble to the upper section and the rocks were very wet and slippery from the rain.  I decided against going up any further and we just enjoyed the waterfall from the base.  Hiking back, we spotted some common self-heal flowering along the trail.

As we passed Brush Creek Falls, it was now quite crowded, so glad we arrived early.

Next, we headed to Pipestem Resort State Park and parked at the Nature Center.  Just behind the Nature Center were some historic log cabins that had been relocated to the park.

County Line Trail began just behind here and descended steeply at first, then leveled off.  Some pearl oyster mushrooms were growing on a tree.

We also spotted some shrubby Saint John's wort flowering.

In just over a mile, we made it to the overlook for Indian Branch Falls.

With summer foliage, the view from the overlook was poor.  I scouted around but sheer cliffs prevented any reasonable way down to creek level.  We will have to try again without the dog.  Just above the waterfall were some nice cascades on Indian Branch.

The view of the top of the falls here was better than the view from the overlook.

Our next stop was at the Canyon Rim Center, where the aerial tram runs down deep into the gorge.  But we weren't staying at the Mountain Creek Lodge and so got on the Canyon Rim Trail.  This trail led steeply down for just over half a mile to Heritage Point.

The views here were just great.

We could see Mountain Creek Lodge far down below.

Dark clouds were rolling in so we started heading back, but got caught in a small downpour.  But it didn't last long and when we got back to the Canyon Rim Center, Alex had an ice cream cone!  Then we headed to McKeever Lodge and had pizza for dinner outside.  Heading back, we made one more stop at the trailhead for Pipestem Knob Trail.  A short paved trail led up to the lookout tower on Pipestem Knob.

The views from up here were fantastic.

No one else was up here so we hung out for a while enjoying the views.  A couple bugs were crawling around at the top of the tower.

A leaf beetle and a leaf-footed bug were enjoying the tower as much as we were.

After a while, we headed back.

From here, we headed back to Camp Creek State Park.  After settling into camp, I went for a hike on the Blue Jay Spur that started from our campsite.  It headed up steeply to meet with Farley Ridge Trail and drop back down.  I took Horse Bypass Trail to head back to camp.  A number of wildflowers were blooming in the evening light, including some beautiful coneflower.

I also stopped for a picture of the Campbell Millstones.

It was just a short hike on the road back to camp.

Sandy had built a fire and then we went to bed.