Lynn WiezyckiOn the second day of our waterfalls adventure, we got ready for hiking to 4 different waterfalls in the Highlands, NC area.
Our leader, Jim, had informed us the night before that the first hike would be the hardest! This was for sure! the trail to Secret Falls must have been a secret that the park service did not know as the trail was in pretty bad shape. Most of the “steps” created to make the trail more manageable, had washed out so the “trail” went around then. Those were not the easiest ways to walk!
I had purchased a set of walking sticks before this trip and I was glad I had them on this trail! It was slippery and very rocky in addition to the poorly maintained steps! There was not much along the trail to photograph which was a good thing as my cameras were in my backpack to keep them out of my way while climbing over boulders!
As always, what was at the end of the trail made it all worth it! I used my Nikon Z7 with the FTZ and my F mount 16-35mm lens for all these images!
The hike back to the vehicles seemed like it was longer! Anyway, we got back to the parking area, had a bit of food and drink and then got back in the vehicles to head to the next waterfall.
The hike to Glen Falls was much easier than our first hike of the day! This falls was not as tall and much wider. I was able to make my way, carefully, across the slippery rocks to get fairly close to the base and shoot up into the falls.
After spending an hour or so at Glen Falls, we loaded up and headed to Highlands for some lunch. From there, we headed to my favorite falls of the day, Silver Run Falls. It was my favorite because it was only about a quarter mile from the parking area and the trail was pretty much nothing compared to our first “trail.” Since it wasn’t too bad I decided it was time to pull out my waders that I had Jim bring with him as he drove up from FL.
I struggled to get the waders and boots on but once I got them on, I gathered up my camera and tripod. It was so cool to be able to walk out into the water! In some spots, it was almost to my waist! But it was a thrill to walk up near the base of the waterfall to shoot it!
Each day Jim had given us a photo subject/concept to try to find and make an image of. Today’s was “an unusual view of a waterfall”! I saw that the sun was shining on some small bushes that were under the lip of the cliff that the water was pouring over. I walked around in the water and waited for the sun to shine (there were some clouds) and got the following image!
I won the hunt for that day! Yay!
The last waterfall of the day was very different! Dry Falls is huge! There is an overlook, but the trees, even without any leaves, were in the way! So there is also a paved walkway that winds back and forth as you go down into the gorge. Not sure why they call this Dry Falls as the walkway goes underneath the falls, so you are not exactly going to be dry! Also, the amount of water coming over this waterfall is amazing (and at this time, the water levels were LOW! ). I managed to get images from multiple angles as the walkway got us to some great spots around and under the fall!
The walk down the walkway was not too bad but going bad up, even though it was by far the best trail we had been on all day, my legs were burning!
I was glad to get back to our houses in Sky Valley after we had dinner! Sitting around felt great! As we worked on downloading and processing of our images from that day we talked about the plans for the next day!
The Highlands area of North Carolina is full of waterfalls! Today’s four were all pretty close to each other and their trailheads are all searchable on Google Maps! There are many more that we did not have time to visit!
Click on any image to see a larger version OR visit my gallery to see and purchase prints and other items with these images: Gallery Link for Falls of Highlands NC: Secret Falls, Glen Falls, Silver Run Falls, and Dry Falls, Highland, NC
My next post will be about Day 3 when we drove a few hours away to the Cataloochee Valley!
That is all for now!
Lynn
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