This weekend Scott, me, Liz, and Daniel set off for Western North Carolina/Northern Georgia to visit my friend Eileen and to hike to several waterfalls. Our adventure started as soon as we left town. We had Liz’s son Bryson with us until we got to Gastonia where we dropped him off with his grandparents for the weekend. We decided to grab some lunch in Wadesboro because we couldn’t make the trip with five hungry humans. We hit the Charlotte/Gastonia area at peak rush hour time but we eventually made it to our stop. After dropping Bryson off, we continued to our destination. Once we arrived, we unpacked, ordered some pizza, had a few drinks and hung out for a bit before hitting the hay.

Saturday morning we woke up, had a light breakfast, packed lunches, and headed to our first hike. Of course the drive to the falls consisted of driving down a dirt road, but to our surprise, there was a pretty substantial creek that we had to drive across to get to the trailhead. The boys got out to assess and they guided us through. The downfall to that was that they had to then walk through the creek. Our first hike was a 2.6 mile round trip hike to 2 waterfalls, Blue Hole Falls and High Shoals Falls. The hike down was nice. Everything was so green. I guess because we got an early start we arrived before the crowds. On the way down we only encountered a couple of people, and there were none at the falls when we arrived. On the hike out, we passed lots and lots of people and dogs. Glad we went early.

High Shoals Falls

Next stop on our list was Anna Ruby Falls. This falls had an entry fee and was a completely paved path. It was about a mile round trip and uphill the entire way to the falls. Again, everything was so pretty and green. There were however a ton of people at this stop. We made it to the top, enjoyed our views and then made our way back down. They did have bathroom facilities and picnic areas here so this was where we decided to have lunch.

On to stop number 3. Dukes Creek Falls. This hike was 2 miles round trip. There were quite a few people at this stop as well.

I had one last stop planned for us, but we discovered that there were two creeks that we would have to cross to get there and they were more substantial than the one from earlier in the day and since we were in Liz’s brand new car we decided to call it a day and headed back. We made it back to Eileen’s house and promptly decided to go get dinner. Hiking really works up an appetite. And what’s better than tacos and margaritas after a day of chasing waterfalls.

We spent the rest of the evening at Eileen’s playing cornhole and other games until it was time for bed.

We had two stops planned for the morning but decided to pass on them. The first stop we were going to make we passed on because it was an extremely foggy morning and visibility would have been about zero, so we didn’t want to climb 100+ steps for nothing. Stop number 2 didn’t open until 10 and since we didn’t make the first stop, we didn’t want to wait around until 10 to do the 2nd one. It just leaves us a reason to go back. Since the stops were a bust, it left us time for breakfast. We stopped in Clayton at a cute diner and had a most delicious breakfast. Then, it was time to get back in the car and make the long drive home. The drive home always seems longer than the drive to the destination.