Waterfalls can teach us all something. The water rushes along it’s riverbed powerfully, rounding the edges of boulders and taking with it anything that happens to land within its grasp. Throughout it’s entire path, the water is never as powerful as when it lets go and falls, absent of boundaries, down the edge of a cliff and into a big pool on the bottom. Sometimes to take life by the horns you literally have to let go.
One of the best tips I could give anyone about traveling is to have big gaps in time not planned. I had thought I would sleep in today, but I found out something interesting as I was checking in to my campsite last night: Waterfalls. South Carolina is full of them. The tantalizing thought of going on a waterfall hunt was too much to resist, so I woke up early and began my waterfall hunt armed with a guide from the Devil’s Fork S.P. camp store.
Luckily the hang tag I was given for my campsite is also good at many State Parks, so I had no additional park use fees to hunt the waterfalls. The first falls on the agenda was Twin Falls. I misread the directions and spent an extra 40 minutes of driving along a winding mountain road, all the way into North Carolina. It turned out to be a fortous mistake, and I let the road dictate where I went next. I found butterflies galore, picturesque roads winding through emerald mountain forests, some hairpin turns the very image of those car advertisements. I was even able to be in two places at once, as I got out of my Jeep at the state line of North and South Carolina and put on foot on each side.
I did manage to backtrack my way to Twin Falls. Located at the end of a rural road in Northwestern South Carolina, the finale of a beautiful 1/4 mile walk through the woods on a narrow path along Reedy Cove Creek. The water rushes over 70 feet of bare granite falling in two seperate curtains of water (hence why it is called Twin Falls, although it is also known as Eastatoe Falls). The water is cool, and as with all falls it sends a vapor of water into the air making the immediate environment feel a bit cooler than the rest.
After I spent some time at Twin Falls I decided it was time to find another waterfall, so I settled on seeing a few things along the route to my next stop in North Carolina. The next waterfall sits right along Highway 11 in South Carolina, known as Wildcat Branch Falls. It isn’t all that large, but it is rather beautiful and easy to find.
Next up was one of the most sought after waterfalls anyone wants to see: Raven’s Cliff Falls. It was described as being a 2 mile hike to see the falls, but also well worth it. Raven’s Cliff Falls is a full 420′ tall, cascading down theblue ridge escarpment to a pool below. (It occurs where the Blue Ridge Province drops 2000′ down to the Piedmont Province for you geology folks) I regularly walk a 6 mile loop at home, so I figured 2 miles would be easy enough. I forgot to include the mountain terraine in my calculations of time. Not only that, but the 2 mile trek only led to a distant view of the falls. If I wanted to see the falls up close, I would have had to hike another 3+ miles along a route that descends 2000 feet, and reascends the 2000 feet in this distance, adding another 4 hours to my hike.
Never the less, the walk was beautiful with all the Azaleas and various plants in bloom. Every twist and turn in the path led to another view of white, pink, red, yellow and blue blossoms. It was truly late Spring here in South Carolina.
Unfortunately I did not have time to attempt this additional hike, but I would love to return. If you plan on visiting the Raven’s Cliff Falls area I highly recommend spending the entire day there, if not more. There is a nearby South Carolina state park called Cesar’s Head State Park. The drive is yet another beautiful one, Highway 276 curves through the emerald green forests of South Carolina. There are numerous trails to follow in the 40,000 acres of preserve, an area preserved by the Mills and Moore families of South Carolina until 1981 when South Carolina took possession of the land to be protected for years to come.
The waterfalls in South Carolina are countless, yet they all give in to the world around them. There is always a time to carve your own path through the granite, and a time to fall and let the world take us where we should be. We may get to carve the path to the best falls, but all of us fall from time to time. The success lies in how we view that fall. If we view the fall as our ability to show how strong we can be in the most helpless of times, then we all succeed. True happiness doesn’t come from suceeding in easy times, it comes from surviving in the times we can’t control.
Tomorrow I will be visiting a grand home in North Carolina with a good friend of mine who moved to the area a couple years ago. I have already been there once, and so has she, but we both enjoy it so much we had to see it again. Where will we be going? Well I guess you’ll just have to flow with the water and find out where…..
Until the bottom of the waterfall,
-Nicole
Love the waterfalls