Elkin Waterfalls

Last weekend, we headed to Elkin for a wedding.  We left Friday evening and stayed at the Hampton Inn in Jonesville/Elkin.  The wedding wasn't until the evening, so Saturday morning we headed to Carter Falls for some waterfalls before the wedding.  We started on Carter Falls Trail that descends towards the creek.  It had been rerouted since our last visit and made a wide switchback at the top of the falls.

It was a steep descent to the base of Carter Falls.

The water level was way up and the creek was brown with sediment.  It was rather stinky as well.

After some pictures, we climbed back up and took Powerhouse Trail to continue downstream.

There was a Lower Carter Falls a short ways downstream.

It's only about 8 feet high, but creek wide with a big boulder in the middle.

We then took Powerhouse Trail back to the trailhead.  The Mountains-to-Sea Trail continued from here past the campground and through a pine forest.  There was a footbridge over Grassy Creek.

The trail then ran through some fields and cow pastures.

The trail currently ends at Isaac's Trailhead, here we turned around.

It was still pretty early so we made another stop in Stone Mountain State Park at the Widow's Creek backback parking area.  We hiked Widow's Creek Trail up to the campsites to see Upper Widow's Creek Falls.

The water level was up but the lighting was poor and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  We had a snack here before making our way back.  There were some trout lilies along the creek.

Back at the trailhead, we made a quick stop at Widow's Creek Falls.

The lighting was just as bad.

After our hike, we went into Elkin and had lunch at Angry Troll before the wedding.