Saturday, January 1, 2022

First Day Hike at Opossum Creek Falls

On New Years Day, we headed up to meet with the Badger and friends in South Carolina.  We drove south to Clayton and took US-76 east into South Carolina.  Immediately after crossing Chattooga River, we stopped at the river access parking.  The paved Bull Sluice Trail (#522) led a short ways to an overlook of Bull Sluice.


It's more of a rapid than a waterfall, but scenic and worth a quick stop driving by.


After a couple pictures, we headed back.


From here, we continued to Turkey Ridge Road/FR-755 and drove to the trailhead for Opossum Creek Falls Trail.  Here we met with Badger, Kitty, Rodney and Steven and set off down Opossum Creek Trail (#5203).  In just under 2 miles, we reached Chattooga River and turned left to follow the creek upstream to Opossum Creek Falls.


It's a real nice waterfall and we stopped for a break.  Badger, Kitty and Steven climbed up to the upper section, but we stayed at the base.


I climbed around in the creek for some pictures from different angles.


We had lunch here and when the others made the climb back down, we started hiking back.  About a mile from the trailhead, we got off the trail and made the steep bushwhack down to the base of Camp Branch Falls.


It's a pretty nice waterfall, about 20 feet and worth the short bushwhack to see, especially in high water conditions.


Then we scrambled back up to the trail and finished up the hike.


After saying good-bye, we headed back to Franklin and went to El Charro for dinner.

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