November 8, 2015 - Falls Creek Falls, SC

Cindy and I decided to head back to South Carolina today in hopes of finding late season fall color.  Anything left in November is a bonus.  I haven't been to Falls Creek Falls since 2006, so that's where we headed.  This waterfall is another of South Carolina's finest and is very near Jones Gap State Park.  Both are less than 45 minutes from our house. Directions and trail info can be found on my site here.

We passed quite a bit of late season color on our way down and our hopes were high that there would be some around the waterfall.  There were no other vehicles in the parking area when we arrived which is always a good thing.  The first part of the hike is a steady uphill climb.  The trail then levels out in an area of open woods with large boulders scattered about.  Time for a 10 second timer shot!

me and Cindy on a big rock

The last time I hiked to this falls, my friend Harry and I found a smaller waterfall on an unmarked side trail and I wanted to go back to check it out.  If I had taken the time to look at my old notes I would have seen that there's another one a very short distance up creek from this one - duh.

small waterfall on Falls Creek

I had also forgotten that the main trail from here up to Falls Creek Falls is quite steep.  The fall color in this area really picked up and by the time we got to where we had glimpses of the waterfall through the trees, there was a lot of color.

lower section of Falls Creek Falls

This hundred foot waterfall is in 2 sections and we decided to hit the upper part first.  Unfortunately, a lot of the leaves on the trees next to the waterfall were gone, but it's still an amazing site.

We spent quite a bit of time up here mainly because I was shooting video also (which you can see below).  The winds had also picked up and it looked like the rain was moving back in, so we skipped going down to the lower section and headed back to the vehicle.  We met 4 groups of people coming up the trail as we were going down, so we were leaving at a good time.  Instead of driving back home the way we came, we decided to go back via US276 north into Brevard.  Along the section of SC11 we were on is Wildcat Falls which is right next to the road.

Wildcat Falls

There were a lot of people here, so we only stayed long enough for the easy shot, then moved on.  Cindy wanted to stop by the Caesar's Head gift shop to see if they had any updated Mountain Bridge Wilderness area maps - and they did!  There had been several changes to the map from the one I had and they were only $2.25 per map - a bargain.  We plan to head back to this area this winter for more exploration, so stay tuned!