Back to NC Waterfalls

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From our stop at the Greenville SC Elks Lodge, it was just over a 70 mile drive to our next destination in Brevard North Carolina. We had booked a week at the Land of Waterfalls RV Park just outside of Brevard in the town of Pisgah Forest. It’s a fairly new campground and rather small - only 12 full hookup sites. We had reserved back in the middle of November. Having spent 4 months during the summer of 2021 near Asheville North Carolina, it might seem odd we decided to head back to a spot just 20 miles to the south of Asheville. Well, we REALLY enjoyed the hiking in the area and surprisingly we hadn’t made it into Brevard even though our stop in Waynesville last year was just 30 crow miles away. The only nearby destination near Brevard we had made it to was the Cradle of Forestry in America which is quite good, and should be on the list to see if you visit Brevard.

In our research about what to see and do around Brevard, we had stumbled upon something unexpected and a bit unique. Apparently Brevard is “famous” for its white squirrels. In fact, the town hosts a White Squirrel Festival in early June. We were a bit early for the festival, but we hoped to be able to find the squirrels on our own. There were several places throughout town where the white squirrels tend to live. Brevard College was one of the most promising spots, so we headed there on our first morning in town. It’s a fairly small campus at 120 acres and only has a enrollment of ~800 students. We managed to find an open visitor parking spot and we started our tour of the campus in search of white squirrels.

We spotted a few squirrels running around, but they were just your typical tan ones. We headed towards the President’s House since our research described this as a good location to look. Sure enough we spotted one scampering around the grass but as we approached, it ran off and climbed a tree. I managed to get one clear picture of it in the tree before it made a run for it and got away into a more heavily wooded portion of campus.

White Squirrel at Brevard College

We continued our tour around campus, keeping a sharp eye out for any small animals running around. We did see plenty of normal squirrels but it was twenty minutes before we came upon another one in an area between a couple buildings. It must have been class change time, because the walkways were full of kids. This one tended to stay in the local area and didn’t go running away. Although it did a lot of running around as is evident by my shots of it mid-leap.

Jump

I Can Fly!

Stop for Snack

We eventually tired of this squirrel and headed back over towards the President’s House. We saw a couple more just on the edge of the woods but they really seemed to be camera shy.

Along Edge of Woods

After 45 minutes, we decided since we had seen at least 2 or 3 different white squirrels, we would call that good enough and head out. We got back to the car and as we pulled out of the parking lot, we saw 3 other ones just across the road. We drove right back into the spot we just vacated and I tried to approach this new group. The 3 white squirrels were hanging out with 3 or 4 normal squirrels. As I got closer, the white ones got nervous and started to run away. Surprisingly the tan squirrels were much less skittish and let me get closer. Maybe they knew I wasn’t looking for them and the white one knew they were my “prey”. I did get a few more pictures of these before they were too far away to chase.

Up a Tree

Flying Up Tree

Not too far from campus was Silvermont Mansion and Park. This was another supposed hotbed of white squirrels. We did the short walking path thru the woods and gardens around the large house but didn’t see any squirrels. There was a red-bellied woodpecker in search of bugs one one tree that caught my eye.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

We weren’t expecting the mansion to be open, but as I approached to get a picture, I realized the door was open so we went in. They only give tours on certain days but we were allowed to walk thru the first floor rooms. It’s a big place - 33 rooms! The Silvermont Mansion is a colonial revival style home built in the early 1900’s. After exploring the first floor, one of the volunteers asked if we wanted to self tour the upstairs too. We said sure and she took down the rope and sign at the stairs and took us upstairs. The place is in pretty good shape. The county has owned the property since 1972 and seem to do a nice job of managing the home. So even though we didn’t see additional white squirrels here, we did get to explore a mansion.

Silvermont Mansion

Dining Room

Interesting Lamp

DuPont State Recreation Area is very close (about 10 miles) to our campground and has a few dozen hiking trails listed in AllTrails. Everything we read about DuPont is just how wonderful it is. We are only here for a week so we know we won’t be able to see it all but figure we could attempt some of the more popular hikes. We happened to be in town during an annual mountain bike race. The Pisgah Stage Race is a five day, 140 mile race predominantly on singletrack and has drawn lots of cyclists. In fact our next door neighbors at camp are competing in the race. Even though DuPont has a multi-use trail system and we could do most of the trails we want to see by bike, we decide to stick with hiking since the terrain here can be rather extreme. We figure there is much less risk of injury while hiking than biking.

DuPont is a big park with over 10,000 acres and 82 miles of trail. We head to one of the parking areas along Stanton Road that is the starting point for 7 different hikes. We start with the Hooker Falls Trail. It’s a short out and back hike that comes in just under one mile round trip. There also isn’t much elevation change so it will be a good test of how in shape we are given our five months at sea level in Florida over the winter. A short distance up the trail is a small and old cemetery.

Cemetery at Start of Trail

Azure Bluets

Hooker Falls isn’t one of the most popular hikes so there aren’t a ton of people along the trail. We were by no means the only ones there, but we didn’t have to jockey for a view of the falls. We did numerous falls hikes over the summer months last year in the Blue Ridge Mountains but the water flow is substantially higher during the early spring so even mediocre falls look rather impressive. When we are hiking to known waterfalls, I tend to bring along my small tripod and neutral density filters so I can setup the camera to take longer exposure times usually in the 1/10 to 2 second range - something not possible by hand. Unfortunately it does take me a bit of time to get everything set in order to shoot the falls but Chris has learned just to sit back and enjoy the view while I do my thing. On the way back to the car, we did a short detour along Holly Road Trail to find a geocache.

Hooker Falls

1 Second Exposure

After we got back to the car from Hooker Falls, the parking lot was nearly full with close to 50 cars. I suspect some people were hoping to grab our spot, but we were only back to eat lunch and then head out for another hike. Our second hike would take us to two of the more popular waterfalls in DuPont - Triple Falls and High Falls. There were numerous trail options. Some were loops and others included other nearby falls. We planned on keeping it simple and just do it as an out and back hike at roughly 2.5 miles with just over 300 feet of elevation gain. The trail more or less follows the Little River and there are often views of the river along the way.

Rapids Along Trail

The first falls we come to is Triple Falls. I think the pictures I took should make it clear why it has that name. The three distinct cascades have a total drop of 120 feet. There is also a staircase that used to take visitors to another overlook of the falls but it was damaged and now closed for repairs. The path down to the water level didn’t look all that great so we just did the view from above.

Triple Falls

Triple Falls from Picnic Area

Closed Stairs to Overlook

There was a geocache about 150 feet off the trail not far from Triple Falls, but when we went by, there were too many people around to not draw attention to our endeavor so we decided to pass and see if it was any better when we came back. The next stop is at High Falls. This one also has 120 foot drop but all in one cascade. This falls also has a lower level trail and it appeared to be in better shape so we were willing to explore at the water level as well as from the upper trail. Just above the top of High Falls, we could see what looked to be a covered bridge that we might need to investigate later.

High Falls

Covered Bridge Beyond High Falls

1/3 Second Exposure

1/640 Second

More Azure Bluets in Tree Roots

We decided our plan to just do this hike as an out and back would save a little distance and maybe we could check out more of the park once we got back to the car. As we approached the geocache we had skipped earlier, the coast was clear so we hurried into the woods and up the hill to find the geocache. I found it without too much trouble and while I was signing the log book, Chris was writing in her notebook to make sure we remember we have found this one. When I got back to her spot, I noticed dozens of large black carpenter ants crawling all over her. She apparently was standing on their home. I helped brush them all off and we think we got them all. But if something like that has ever happened to you, you understand that the mind is convinced that more of them are crawling around. As we came out of the woods and back onto the trail, we were instantly seen by a younger couple with two kids. They gave us the look like “what were you two doing back up there in the woods?” We felt obligated to tell them we were in search of a geocache but had also found a mound of ants. We laughed with them a bit and headed back to the car.

We still had some energy left and plenty of daylight so we decided to head over to check out the visitor center which was about a mile drive from our trailhead parking. After browsing the visitor center and talking with one of the rangers about other hikes to consider in the park, we decided we could do the half mile walk to see the covered bridge we had spotted from the bottom of High Falls. There is a trail and a forest road that gets to the bridge. We walked the road on the way out to get a geocache. There were quite a few iris along the side of the road just starting to bloom. The covered bridge was nice but it’s not clear it is very old. From the bridge, we can see the water drop over the edge of the falls and hear the rush of water, but it is impossible to actually get any glimpse of the falls since the drop is rather steep. It was a long day of hiking but quite an enjoyable one.

Iris

Covered Bridge

Looking Over High Falls

The next day would be another one in search of waterfalls. Our first stop should be a rather easy one to access. Looking Glass Falls is right along US-276. The biggest issue here is the limited parking along the shoulder of the road. There might be room for a couple dozen cars but since these falls can be viewed from an overlook just off the road, it is known to get very crowded. We lucked out and found a parking spot and didn’t have to walk too far along the road.

Sign at Looking Glass Falls

While the overlook does give a decent view of the falls, it is much better if you go down the 95 steps to water level. How do we know this number? One of the caches at Looking Glass Falls is an EarthCache and one of the questions was how many steps are there. This place was really busy and there were easily forty people wandering around. As we got to the bottom of the stairs, someone called out to us and asked how the ants were doing. We don’t know anybody around this part of North Carolina but then we recognized the couple we saw yesterday near High Falls as we came out of the woods. I doubt I would have realized it was them had they stayed quiet.  We joked about how we must be following them to run into them randomly two days in a row. I waited patiently to see if I could get any pictures without other people in the shot but realized this was a hopeless goal from most angles. It’s a very pretty waterfall and about 60 feet tall and the water was flowing pretty good.

Group in Front of Looking Glass Falls

8/10 Second Exposure

Our next stop was Moore Cove Falls. This one is fairly popular but is about 1.5 miles round trip hike, so it will keep some people from checking it out. The parking area here was crowded too but we got a spot and started out along the trail. There are a few geocaches hidden along the trail and we took time to go for a few of them. One of the caches was about 150 feet off the trail in the woods. We headed out, made the find and were just coming out of the woods back onto the trail when who did we run in to? You guessed it, the same couple we saw yesterday and earlier today. Now it really does seem like we are stalking them. We ended up chatting with them for several minutes.

Large Boulder Along Trail to Moore Cove Falls

We got back to Moore Cove Falls and were impressed. There is a viewing area about 150 feet from the falls and is lined up roughly at the halfway point of the 50 foot drop. The water wasn’t running nearly as strong as Looking Glass but if you ignore the warning signs, it is possible to get up close and personal with these falls and even walk behind them. There were at least 10 others doing the same thing so I didn’t feel too much like an outlaw crawling over the rocks to get a good view. There was also a geocache hidden near the top of the falls. I attempted to go up on the side trail and make the find. I managed to get to ground zero without much difficulty but after a brief search, I came up empty. We headed back to the car to search for one more.

Moore Cove Falls

Side View

1 Second Exposure

Pretty Flowers

The last falls for the day would be Slick Rock Falls. This one had a bit of a drive (just under 3 miles each way) on some rough forest service roads. There were several cars at the parking area so we weren’t the only ones that had ventured out this far. But this is also the starting point for a couple other hikes because we only ran into one group of people at the falls. Surprisingly it wasn’t our new friends! Slick Rock Falls wasn’t all that impressive. It’s only a 35 foot drop and didn’t have a lot of water flowing. I guess after a 3 mile bumpy drive, I was hoping for more.

Slick Rock Falls

We are about halfway through our stay here in Brevard but still have lots more to see and do - more falls and Chris’ favorites - goats! That will be in the next post.

Our Spot at Land of Waterfalls RV Park