On Sunday, I hiked down to both falls so that I could say that I've seen all of the big waterfalls in the park and to hike the last bit of trail there that I hadn't seen.
One thing that was nice is that once I took a left turn off of the main Stone Mountain Loop Trail, the crowds of people completely vanished. In fact, I didn't see another person the whole time I was at both waterfalls!
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| This is a small cascade on the Stone Mountain Loop Trail. I almost always stop here for a while when I'm hiking that trail. |
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| Wide trail leading to the two waterfalls. |
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| Middle Falls. Like almost all of the waterfalls in the park, this one was more of a sloping cascade than a vertical drop. |
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| At Middle Falls. It was a pain to get to the base of the falls. |
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| A carpeting of blazing leaf color. |
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| The Lower Falls. |
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| View on the way back. |
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| Fall colors in the picnic area. |
Wow, really great fall colors. And blue sky to boot! Nice waterfalls -- makes me think of Sliding Rock (near Brevard), which I remember going to long time ago. BTW, I'm curious. The trail sign said one of the trails was "One Way". Is that for real? Not made for two-way traffic?
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Kent: The one-way trail means out and back. There's not a connection to a loop. You just hike down to the waterfall and return to the intersection.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the trail does continue, but apparently not as an official trail. It may continue down to private property...I'm not sure.
One nice thing is that I didn't encounter anyone else on that part of my hike, at all, despite the fact that the park was generally quite crowded that day.
Sliding Rock on the Davidson River is similar. Different type of stone, but quite like this one. Not the volume of water that they have at Sliding Rock, either. Sliding Rock is another spot that is just way too crowded for me nowadays. Gorgeous area, though, and some of the best hiking and backpacking in the state is there.