Icy Cascades

Monday, Sandy and I took Alex up to Virginia to find some icy waterfalls.  It was very cold over the Christmas weekend, and although it didn't snow, the temperatures were low enough that water would be freezing.  We left early and headed up to Cascades Day Use Area in Jefferson National Forest and met up with Casey at 930.  We got on Cascades Trail and at the first bridge, we crossed to take the lower trail up the to the falls and stay close to the creek.  There was a lot of ice on Little Stony Creek.

Hiking up along the creek, there was lots of ice along the little cascades.

Even without the snow, it made for a really beautiful scene.

We stopped numerous times along the trail to view the scenic icy spots.

There were some enormous icicles along the creek in a few spots.

The last portion of the lower trail before the waterfall was pretty treacherous with ice on the trail.  Even Alex was slipping and having trouble.

Soon, we could see Cascade Falls.

Although not completely frozen, it was really beautiful surrounded by ice.

There were some wicked icicles all around.

After enjoying the view, we hiked up to Upper Cascade Falls.

It too was very icy and beautiful.

After some pictures, we started heading back and took the upper trail back to the parking to make a loop.

We said bye to Casey and then drove to Pearisburg for dinner at La Barranca before driving home.

The Cascades

Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel with Chris, Mel, Heather, and Danny and then checked out. There was a plan to go to Cascades Falls on Sunday, but Casey and LeAnna were busy with family stuff, so Sandy and I headed there by ourselves. We headed west on US-460 to Pembroke and turned on Route 623 into Cascades Day Use Area. After paying the day-use fee, we began our hike. Normally, I would hike the lower trail to the falls and the upper trail back to make a loop. But we weren’t sure if Casey and any others would be arriving later, so we hiked in the opposite direction to maybe run into them. We hiked the upper trail which follows an old roadbed upstream along Little Stony Creek high above. It’s up on a ridge above the creek, so we couldn’t see the creek while hiking, but there were some nice rock formations along the trail.

We also saw a cute little chipmunk on some big rocks along the trail here.

When we got to the split to go down to Cascades, we continued on the trail another half-mile to Upper Cascades. There’s a split in the trail and we went right to head to the Upper Cascades.

This was my first time to the area when the waterfalls weren’t frozen, so it was interesting to see them in their normal state. Due to the rain over the past day, the Upper Cascades was flowing quite well.

We climbed down the wet rocks to get to the base for a picture of the waterfall. The water level was high enough that it was hard to get far enough away to get a picture of the entire thing. What a difference a rainy night had made!

After some pictures at the base, we climbed back up to the top for a view of the waterfall tumbling down the ledges. Then, we started hiking back. Back at the split, we turned left to head down to Cascades. This 70-foot waterfall is truly spectacular – one of the best in Virginia, in my opinion.

And this was my first time seeing it when it was not frozen. It started to rain while we were here, but Sandy had an umbrella so I could get a couple pictures of the waterfall without getting the camera wet.

Then we started hiking back along the lower trail, following Little Stony Creek downstream back to the parking area. The creek is rocky and has many small cascades and drops downstream from Cascades and the rain had stopped shortly after we left the waterfall.

We saw a small waterfall on a small tributary of the creek. I imagine that this waterfall only exists after a good rain. We stopped at a couple more points along the creek on our hike back to view the pretty cascades.

Near the trailhead, we saw the old sawmill boiler that was used for power when the area was being logged.

Soon, we made it back to the parking area and started making our way home.

Frozen Cascades

Sunday, we headed up to Virginia to see the (hopefully) frozen Cascade Falls, located in the Cascades Days Use Area in Jefferson National Forest. It had been three years since I last visited here; the last two winters just weren’t cold enough to freeze a waterfall. But this year, we had gotten some unseasonably cold weather and conditions were good for the Cascades to freeze. We left the carpool location in Chapel Hill just after 730 and made our way up to Virginia. Casey, who had stayed with his parents in Blacksburg, was meeting us up there and said that there was quite a bit of snow on the ground. As we crossed into Virginia on I-77, there wasn’t much snow to be seen. But by the time we were heading towards Pembroke, it was looking a lot snowier. Cascades Drive, which leads to the recreation area, had not been plowed and was quite slippery. They did plow it, however, right after we arrived. After paying the day-use fee, we got ready and started our hike along the lower section of the Cascades Trail.

This scenic four-mile loop is a National Recreation Trail and was quite beautiful with snow on the ground and the creek.

We started off on the lower section of the trail, which runs right along Little Stony Creek. Although frozen in places, the creek was still flowing, but the snow and ice along the rocky creek was gorgeous.

The hike to the falls is only two miles, but it took a while to make it there. Not because the snow on the ground made treacherous hiking; with Yak-Trax, the hiking was pretty easy, even on snow and ice covered stairs. Rather, there were so many places to stop and get pictures of this winter wonderland.

The ice forming around small cascades on the creek was beautiful and a few sections of rocky cliffs along the trail had massive icicles hanging from them.

After a while, we got to Cascade Falls. Although not completely frozen, the mostly frozen waterfall was a magnificent sight.

The right and left sides of the falls were solid ice, with liquid water flowing down the middle. The basin below the falls was mostly frozen, but likely not solid enough to be safe to walk on.

We ate lunch here and took many pictures of the falls from various angles.

Before heading back, though, we wanted to stop for one more waterfall. We headed up to the old road bed, but instead of turning to head back down to the parking lot, we turned the other way, continuing to head up. This unmarked trail leads to Upper Cascades, another waterfall a half-mile or so up from Cascade Falls. The trail leads to the top of the falls and there isn’t much of a view here.

So we climbed down to the base to view the falls from a better angle.

Like the larger waterfall downstream, this one was only partially frozen, but the ice surrounding the falls was gorgeous.

It’s possible to get real close to this one and see all the icicles up close.

We got some shots here and then headed back up to the trail, stopping for a while to make a snowman and have some fun in the snow. We don’t get much snow down in Raleigh, so we took the opportunity to have some fun in the snow while we could.

Then we slowly made our way back to the parking lot. Rather than take the old road bed back to finish the loop, we returned along the lower trail to enjoy the sights along Little Stony Creek once more. Once we regrouped at the parking area, we headed to Blacksburg for dinner at Cabo Fish Tacos and then headed back to the Triangle. A wreck on I-77 closed the highway, which made for a very long drive home.