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Published: August 6th 2007
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Thanks to a tourism ad for North Carolina in my Budget Travel magazine, I decided I'd set out to see the waterfalls of the Southwest region. I dug around a little on the internet and found THIS LINK. Waking up at 6am the next day, I was off to spend a day seeing the area's natural beauty.
The original idea was to start with Whitewater falls since it's the tallest East of the Smokey Mountains at 411 feet tall. On the way there, we (Myself and Chris) passed Glen/Glenn falls. We decided we might as well stop there while we knew where they were. We should have just spent the entire day here. (I'll explain more later.) I'm still a bit confused about the proper spelling of the falls, signage listed it both ways.
Glen/Glenn Falls - driving down the mile of gravel road ended in a small turn around with no parking lot. There were only 2 other cars there at out 11am arrival. We were anxious to see the three drops - each said to be around 60 feet tall. We weren't disappointed! We were able to get right by the falls, and Chris
Flowers along the trail
Whitewater Falls, North Carolina even managed to cross behind one of the falls. I'm not quite that daring and opted to stay on the rocks on the side of the water flow. (Chris stayed dry the entire time too.) We probably walked 2+ miles around the varied terrain to see the different levels of the falls. It really is one of those places where I know I will return. It will be a great place to visit in the summer to sit on a towel in open rock areas by the water - not to get IN the water, but to splash the cool drops to cool off. There were railing areas, but nothing keeping people away from the water if they wanted to venture closer. It's a great place for all levels of inquisitiveness.
Whitewater Falls - after leaving Glen Falls, we headed 25 miles or so East to Whitewater Falls, our original desitination. We paid our $2 "honor system" parking fee, and made the 1/2 mile paved walk to the falls. We were disappointed. The falls were in the distance, and all there was to view from was a lookout deck. It was a big contrast compared to the water I'd
been able to put my hands in an hour earlier. There was a nearby trail with a posted sign saying it had no view of the falls, and sure enough, it didn't. (We walked down a good bit of it before turning around). It was worth a shot.
Bearwallow Falls - We drove up the road from Whitewater falls knowing that there were more in the area, and we found Gorge (My spelling might be wrong) State Park. There were several trails, one was for Bearwallow Falls. There were pictures posted of the falls in a bulletin area, and it looked like it would be worth the 1.6 mile walk - one way, so were were off to see it. We almost turned around once some sprinkles started to fall on the walk there, but decided to take the risk. Luckily, the rain never came. Unfortunately, after winding around... and around... and down.. and down... we were disappointed. The longer walk than Whitewater Falls resulted in a view just as far away of even smaller falls.
We would have tried our luck at some of the other falls in the area, but we were exhausted and decided to
head back
towards Atlanta. All in all, it was a really nice day. I highly suggest visits to Glen Falls (and you all are on your own discretion for the other 2 falls, but I'd try your luck elsewhere!)
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Mark Greathouse
non-member comment
photography
Again, kudos on the beautiful photography... I'm still amazed that you can get these images on a Kodak Easyshare... are you sure you are not lying to me???