The nice thing about this part of western North Carolina, we don’t seem to run out of trails to hike. About 2.5 miles to the west of Chill Hill is Cataloochee Ski Area. The apps and websites we typically use to find trails doesn’t show a trail from the ski lodge but a geocache mentions a trail in the area. Plus the homeowner of Chill Hill had told us she walked some trails near the ski resort. We figured it was a worth the shot. Even though it looks like we should be able to get there by just going up Hemphill Road, we know there isn’t access via that route. Instead, we head into Maggie Valley and drive up Fie Top Road. When I say drive “up”, I mean it. We gain about 1500 feet in the 4.5 miles of winding road. Obviously this is off-season for downhill skiing but the place was far from empty. There appeared to be all sort of crews working on various projects.
We parked and found the trailhead that would lead us back to the geocache and started on our way. The trail starts out going downhill until it approaches the geocache. We could hear water running and it sounded pretty impressive. After finding the cache we decided to ignore the warning sign about the dangers of going to the nearby falls. The side trail heading down to the falls was steep and treacherous but there were heavy ropes tied to trees along the trail so it was possible to carefully make our way down without injuries.
Colorful Mushroom
Proceed at Your Own Risk
The falls weren’t large but with recent rains, the water was flowing at a brisk pace. It was kind of a neat spot so we enjoyed the view for a bit before slowly working our way back up the steep and wet climb to the main trail.
Falls - Front View
Falls - Side View
The cache owner had mentioned that the main trail continues on past the cache and for a while is on ski area’s property. But further out on the trail, you eventually end up on other land owner’s property. The main one is a place called “The SWAG”. We had done some cyber sleuthing to check this place out shortly after we arrived at Chill Hill since it was just up the road from us. It looks like a very fancy resort back off of Hemphill Road. Based on the rates, fancy might be an understatement. Rooms start at $770 per night and go up over $1100 - definitely not the type of place we gravitate towards! We continued on the trail figuring we would run into a no trespassing sign which would signify our turn around point.
The trail was pretty well shaded with all the large trees. Mushrooms and a few wildflowers were along the trail. There were several log bridges over wet gullies. Fortunately they were covered in chicken wire so the footing on the narrow logs was adequate. One of them was even named - Cookie’s Bridge - which has held up well for a 19 year old log.
Log Bridge
Named Bridge
As we continued, we could hear vehicles as they came up or down the road for the SWAG. We figured we were getting close to the place and had even found a trail sign at an intersection with another trail indicating which way to go. But we hadn’t run into any no trespassing signs. After a little over a mile, we heard what sounded like an ATV coming toward us. Given the narrowness of the trail, we knew we had to be close to the resort. Once we heard voices heading our way, we opted to turn around and head back to the ski resort and checked out some of the chair lifts. It was a nice 2.5 mile walk in a pretty location.
Black and Yellow Millipede
Ski Slope and Chair Lifts
View Looking Towards Blue Ridge Parkway
We had one remaining county in the vicinity that we hadn’t gotten to yet to find a geocache. If we were going to drive 70 miles to Clay county, we figured we could find something else along the way to investigate.
There is a bike trail in the town of Franklin but it didn’t sound all that interesting. We did see that one of the popular hikes in the region would only be ten or so miles out of our way and it included a fire tower. Wayah Bald can actually be reached by car on a gravel forest road but we were looking for a bit more exercise than a drive up a mountain. The trail that leads to Wayah Bald is actually a segment of the Appalachian Trail. The AllTrails app shows this segment to be a nearly 9 miles out and back hike with over 2000 feet of elevation. This seemed to be a bit more exercise than we were looking for. After a bit more research, I discovered there is an old ranger station partway up the forest road with a small parking area and connecting trail to the AT. Starting the hike from there would knock it down to about 6 miles total and 1200 feet elevation which was hopefully just right.
So after the drive for the geocache in Clay county we headed up Wayah Road. This is a paved but very winding road that climbs quite a bit with many switchbacks along the way. After 5 miles or so of the twisties, we intersect the forest road. It was only about a mile to the Wilson Lick Ranger Station. We knew the hike up to the bald was our main goal, so we skipped the buildings and headed up the connecting trail just across from the parking area.
Trail Across from Ranger Station Parking
The spur trail was a bit overgrown but it hits the AT in under a fifth of a mile so it wasn’t too bad. The main trail was in good shape but it is definitely a climb. At 2/3 of a mile, we cross the forest road and continue up. The first mile takes us up 730 feet for about a 13% grade. There’s another 1/3 mile of climbing before we reach Wine Spring Bald. There are a few campsites for the thru hikers and possibly a tower but we didn’t take time to investigate. The next 1.6 mile has us drop 450 feet and then back up the same amount. There are lots of wildflowers along the trails and we only ran into a few other people along the way. We did hear several cars on the forest road and I suspect that more than 95% of the visitors to Wayah Bald take the easy route.
Black Eyed Susan
Bee Balm
They do make the final 700 feet up to the tower pretty accessible with a wide paved path. On the way to the stone tower is an information sign describing the history of the fire tower. In 1929, a wooden fire tower was built, to be replaced by the CCC in the mid 1930’s with a much larger stone tower. Unfortunately water damaged the tower and by 1947 the upper portion was removed because of safety concerns. The present tower was refurbished in 1983 with a roof added to help reduce water damage. Right near the tower is something I haven’t seen before. It’s a 4 foot by 8 foot sign made of large wooden posts with the words “CARVE HERE” on it. Interesting idea and people had definitely carved their name or initials all over the thing.
Well Marked Trail to Tower
Spotted in the Distance
Approaching Tower
"Carve Here"
The views from the tower were less than stellar. The combination of clouds and smoke from the wildfires out west obscured the seemingly endless mountains that surrounds us. But it wasn’t completely fogged in nor was there the smell of smoke so all in all it was a nice place. Even with the easy access from the road up, it wasn’t overly crowded.
Hazy Mountain View
View Towards Parking from Tower
We found a spot not far from the tower to have our lunch we had brought along. Plus there was a geocache several hundred feet north of the tower that I had to find before leaving. It was a easier hike back to the car being mostly downhill. That’s not to say we weren’t tired when we arrived but we found enough energy to take a quick look at the Wilson Lick Ranger Station. Originally built in 1916 in the early days of the Nantahala National Forest. The building isn’t open and the windows are boarded up so there isn’t a way to check out the inside but it looks like it was a reasonably roomy cabin. I suspect the winters at this elevation might be a challenge. We enjoyed the 6 mile hike to Wayah Bald but if you don’t have the energy or time for a hike, it might still be worth the drive to the top.
Wilson Lick Ranger Station
The next day would be our waterfall day. First stop was back to Cherokee NC and Mingo Falls. It’s just a couple miles from the Oconaluftee Visitor Center at GSMNP but isn’t inside the park. And as we found out, the shortcut our car’s GPS suggested to get there from within the park wasn’t a public road. We eventually got to the turn off of Big Cove Road to the small Mingo Falls parking area. Probably enough room for a dozen or so cars and it was fairly full when we arrived. The falls are a quarter mile walk from the parking area up 161 steps before leveling out and becoming a dirt trail to a wooden bridge over the creek that provides a good view of the falls. Mingo Falls drops 120 feet so it is fairly impressive.
161 Stairs Up
Bridge Over Creek
Lots of people were going into the water to get a better view or just to play in the stream on a fairly hot summer day. The footing looked questionable and I wasn’t looking for a wet boot this early in our day so I didn’t go too far off the bridge. We hung around for a few minutes taking in the beauty of the place, but with so many people milling about, we would be hard pressed to call the falls peaceful.
Mingo Falls
We were approaching lunchtime by this point so we headed into the town of Cherokee and stopped at Oconaluftee Islands Park. This was a very busy place, but there is much more space so it seemed fine. We picked a bench that looked over the river and had our sandwiches while people watching. The park truly is two small islands in the middle of the river. There are several bridges to get to, from and between the islands as well as a half mile walking path.
Entrance to Park
Bridge to Island
After eating, we took the walk around just to see what was going on. Lots of kids had their inflatable tubes and would launch on the northern end of the island, float downstream before coming back ashore to walk back and repeat. A small section of the trail goes thru a bamboo forest which was kind of neat. I was intrigued by the signs at the entrances to the park telling anglers to be aware of “Eastern Hellbenders”. A very intimidating name for a harmless giant salamander. We didn’t see any during our visit.
Bamboo Forest
Lookout for Hellbenders
After a stop at the local Dairy Queen for a cool treat, we headed back home along US-19. We have driven past this route numerous times and always saw lots of cars parked in the rather small pullout along the road and wondered what was there. Turns out it is the access point for another set of waterfalls - Soco Falls. You really need to be on your toes when approaching the parking area. The signage isn’t very good and the roads are quite curvy. From the parking area, the trail leads down to an observation platform. From here you can see the taller of the twin falls that make up Soco Falls. This one is also 120 feet tall.
Falls View from Platform
For the more adventurous, it is possible to continue further down the side of the ravine and get to the water level beneath the falls. This was a much more challenging place to get to - steep and muddy makes for danger. There are several ropes that line the path down that can be used to steady your descent and will come in very handy to get back out! There were a couple dozen people down here so it was crowded and with the slippery footing, moving about was tough.
Looking Back up Path to Water Level
Soco Falls
I waited long enough to get people out of the way for a couple more shots before the slow climb back up. It wouldn’t have been so bad except for the fact I had my DSLR camera and mid-range zoom around my neck. Large, heavy, fragile and expensive equipment makes the climbing more of a challenge.
We had seen TV ads for something called the Folkmoot Festival that was going to be taking place in Waynesville before we headed put of the area. We were hoping it might be something like the Fool Fest that we attended on multiple days while up in Burlington Vermont a couple years ago. So we looked into Folkmoot to see what it had to offer. It has been taking place for the past 37 years. The general gist of the festival is to bring in musicians and dancers from around the world to perform. Of course with travel restrictions due to COVID, international performers were not a possibility, but it looked like they still had a variety of acts coming to Waynesville for the 4 day event. There were 5 different shows but 4 of them were inside with paid admission. But they were going to have a street fair in downtown Waynesville on the Saturday. There would be street vendors with food and crafts as well as three “stages” along the several closed blocks of Main Street. It sounded like it was at least a short visit to check things out.
We arrived after the festival started but before any of the performers took the stage. Roughly a quarter mile of Main Street was closed to vehicles and vendors were already looking to sell their crafts. We walked the length of the festival to see what was there and get a lay of the land. We found a schedule with location and time for all the performances. Since the outdoor event was just one day and they had 3 stages, we were not going to be able to see all the acts. We picked a few that sounded interesting headed to the first the stage that had the Drummers of SUAH African Dance. This was a group of about 6 performers from Greensboro NC. The leader gave a lengthy description of the various types of drums they were using and the origins of this in Western Africa. We enjoyed it when they finally played a few arrangements.
Vendors Along Main Street
Drummers of SUAH
He Doesn't Want to Work He Wants to Bang on the Drum All Day
Our next group was down on the street in front of the county courthouse building. The “stage” was simply the street but with no tent or nearby trees to provide any shade, it was quite hot. The town had put up a small section of bleachers for the spectators to get a better view of the performers. One of the adjacent businesses was being used as the holding area for the groups to wait their turn out of the heat. This performance was by the Trinity Irish Dancers are from the Chicago Illinois area. It was a pretty large group, probably 25 or 30, of mainly young women and a handful of young men. There were a few musicians behind the dancers providing the live music for the various dances.
Colorful Dancers
Trinity Dancers
It was quite entertaining and I was impressed by how quickly the dancers legs would move. Most of the dances looked like traditional Irish ones (I’m thinking Michael Flatley - Lord of the Dance) but they did branch out and perform some more non-traditional dances.
The next group we wanted to watch was in the same location but we walked around a bit to get out of the sun before the Deeksha School of Dance took the stage. When we came back for the show, a man with a 5 gallon jug of water was pouring it over the street and were a bit confused. Then we saw the dancers were barefoot and we realized he was simply trying to cool off the asphalt somewhat. This group is from Atlanta Georgia. It was a smaller number of performers - about 16 or so and all but one were young women. The performers wore colorful costumes and put on some excellent dances.
Movies I Haven't Seen
Hot Feet
Deeksha School of Dance
The water had evaporated fairly quickly and it was clear the hot pavement was quite uncomfortable for the dancers. In between dances, while the head of the group explained the meaning of the upcoming number, the dancers would run off the street to the shaded sidewalk on the other side. What I found most intriguing about these dancers was not just how their bodies, feet and hands moved with the music, but there was a great deal of quick head motions followed by eyes darting to one side or the other. I am by no means an expert in Indian dance, but we enjoyed the show. Even though there were a few additional shows we could have gone to, we were tired from being in the sun and headed out. Besides the pictures from the shows, I have put together a short video of some of the highlights.
Ornate Costume
Video of Folkmoot Performers
The Blue Ridge Parkway is such a wonderful place to explore. Whether it is just driving it and stopping at the various overlooks along the way, or actually getting out and taking a hike on some of the numerous trails. Some of the popular hikes get very crowded on nice days. We had a marginal day weather wise, and picked a less popular loop trail with the hopes of not running into parking issues at the trailhead or crowds on the trail. On the drive to Richland Balsam Nature Loop, we made a quick stop at a pullout at the highest point along the BRP. We saw a couple of hikers heading up a steep hill just across from the pullout but we weren’t convinced this was the intended parking spot for our hike.
Highest Point Along BRP
View from Overlook
We went another 1/4 miles down the road and found the real parking area for this trail. The trail is rated moderate at 1.4 miles long and just under 400 feet of elevation gain. The trail was in fairly good shape and we only came upon a few other groups of hikers. One group was the couple we had seen scrambling up the hill to get to the top of Richland Balsam Mountain before us. So much of the land around the BRP seems to be almost rainforest like. Lots of moss, ferns, and mushrooms. We happened to spot a few of the most unusual mushrooms we’ve seen recently along this hike. We did get a chuckle at the bench along the trail. It was completely covered in moss and probably hasn’t been used for sitting in many, many years. It was a decent hike and decided to try another area before heading home.
Strange Mushrooms
Top of Richland Balsam Mountain
More 'Shrooms
Mossy Bench
About 9 miles from Richland Balsam is the Devil’s Courthouse. With its neat sounding name and a virtual geocache at the end of the 0.4 mile hike, we decided to give it a try. The parking lot was fairly crowded and there was a decent view from there of a rock outcropping. We weren’t positive, but suspected that’s where we were heading. The first part of the paved trail goes next to the BRP before cutting into the woods. It isn’t that steep at only a 5% grade. But after the first third of the hike, it changes to steep but still paved. The average grade for this section is 18% and our legs could feel it. This is a lot steeper than the trail up to Clingmans Dome. Two thirds of the way up, the pavement ends but the grade remained the same. Now we were grateful for having brought along our hiking sticks.
View at Devil's Courthouse
We run into several groups of people heading down and they tell us we are close and it’s worth it. We eventually turn a corner and see a stone retaining wall and could hear voices. We had made it. Even with the ominous looking dark clouds overhead, the views were great. Most of the perimeter of the overlook has a CCC style stone walk to keep visitors from going over the edge. There are also several copper plaques mounted flat on cap stones. Each have a center cone and several outer cones. The idea is to line your head up with the center and one of the outer ones. The view in the distance is one of the mountains in the surrounding area and the plaque tells you it’s name and how far away it is. I found this more useful than the typical overlooks with a picture of the view and all the peaks named.
Approaching Devil's Courthouse
Cloudy View
Stone Wall at Overlook
Parking Lot Below
Mountain Locator Plaque
Heading down the unpaved section of the trail was a challenge especially when we came upon a group heading up. We would just stand off to the side so they could pick their line up and then we continued on down. The paved section was much easier heading down and we were back at the car just a bit more worn out than we had started. I took another picture from the parking area zoomed in on the rock outcropping and sure enough you can see the little stick figures taking their turn enjoying the view.
Zoomed in from Parking Lot with People at Devil's Courthouse
We only have a few days left here at Chill Hill but we took a day off to rest the legs plus there was chance of rain so a longer hike wasn’t in the cards anyway. We had just finished lunch and were relaxing when we heard an horrendous crash and the sound of a car horn. I ran to the front of the rig to put on my Crocs before heading out to investigate. But before I had them on, I spotted the car in question, upside down in the creek about 125 feet from the rig. I realized I would need better footing if I was going into the creek.
Unique Parking Spot!
With shoes on, I made it to the car along with another neighbor. The small SUV was upside down with its nose and passenger compartment in the creek perpendicular to the road. The door that was visible was the driver’s side and a young man was attempting to get out. He stated he was fine and managed to wriggle his way out and up the bank. There was also a woman in the car who got out and up to the road. I was amazed the two of them didn’t appear to be injured in any manner - not even a superficial cut. Somebody had already called the accident in and a state trooper or sheriff was on the way. The man and woman said they just lived a few houses up the hill and were going to go home to get shoes. This seemed a bit strange but didn’t give it a lot of thought. As we waited for the officer and tow truck to show up, some of the neighbors that knew of the driver were commenting on how he has had past drug problems and other accidents.
Down in the Creek
Damaged Bridge Railing Too
Two troopers showed up and headed to the drivers house to have a chat with him. Probably something to do with leaving the scene of an accident. It was probably an hour before the tow truck showed up. Based on the position of the SUV down a steep bank in the creek, I was envisioning some large tow truck would be required. But what came was your run of the mill tow truck. I was fascinated with the process of first getting the car flipped onto its wheels and then slowly pulled up the embankment. The driver had reappeared by this time and was down in the creek attempting to fish out some of the many possessions that had come out of the car.
The car was mushed pretty good but the passenger compartment seemed to have withstood the crash. The other saving grace was the car probably hadn’t heated up much having only been driven a half mile before crashing so fire wasn’t as likely. Possibly the most astounding thing about the recovery of the car was the driver got back in, started it up and drove it home on one completely flat tire! I put together a short video clip of how the tow truck operator made it look easy to flip the car and pull it out of the creek.
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