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.

Yadkin Valley Hikes

Saturday morning, we left the mountain section of Pilot Mountain State Park and headed to the Yadkin River section.  This section would be much less crowded on a nice Saturday.  We parked at the Corridor Trail parking on Hauser Road and started along Yadkin Islands Trail to Yadkin River Park Road.  Hiking along the road, there were a lot of wildflowers blooming.

There were some real big patches of daisies.

At the picnic area, we got on Horne Creek Trail and followed its namesake downstream.

More wildflowers blooming along this trail as well.

Bladder sedge, green-and-gold and a lot of jack in the pulpit.

The ones here, as seems to be typical in the Piedmont, were green and white as opposed to the green and black seen in the mountains.

After a mile or so, the trail crossed the railroad tracks and followed along Yadkin River.

There were a lot of spiderwort flowering along the river.

There were a number of blackberry bushes as well.

At the end of the trail we got on Bean Shoals Canal Trail and had a view of the river and islands on the other side.

There were some American strawberry bush flowering, but they had not yet produced the showy berries.

We followed the river further downstream on Bean Shoals Canal Trail.

The trail followed the remains of the canal construction.  In the 1820s, a project to build a canal around the shoals was started but never completed.

We followed the trail to the end past the shoals.

On the way back, we took Yadkin Islands Trail to make a loop back.

From here, we drove to Elkin and parked along Main Street so Alex could get another hike for #MST40hikes.

We followed Main Street and picked up Elkin & Alleghany Rail Trail following Big Elkin Creek upstream.  There was a dam right at the start.

The trail then led through Elkin Municipal Park and then led under highway 268.

After this point, the trail became a little more rustic.

There was another scenic dam on the creek here.

The trail crossed the creek on a footbridge and then led past the reservoir.  I scrambled down to the creek for a view.

From here, the trail followed a private gravel road out to Collins Road, where we turned around.  Hiking back to the start, we stopped at Angry Troll Brewing for dinner.

After dinner, we headed back to camp and I took a hike on Grindstone Trail up towards the top.  There were some nice mountain laurels blooming on the hike up.

Closer to the top, I saw some dwarf bristly locust flowers.

At the summit parking, I went out to the Little Pinnacle Overlook for an evening view of Pilot Mountain.

Then I hiked back down.

Sandy had started a campfire and hung around the fire for a while before going to bed.