LOWER UPPER
or
THE OTHER, OTHER RAVEN CLIFF FALLS
Back
in 1994 my college roommate and I attempted to hike to “Lower Upper Creek Falls”
as described in Allen DeHart's North Carolina hiking
trails guidebook. We waded and scrambled
upstream to the point where the waterfall is shown on the Wilson Creek trail
map. We didn't find a waterfall there so
we headed back. My roommate returned a
few weeks later on his own and continued farther upstream. He told me that he still didn't find
anything. At that point we were
convinced that the waterfall didn't exist.
We
were wrong. I finally received reliable
confirmation of its existence from the new guide to North Carolina Waterfalls
by Kevin Adams. The waterfall, which is
actually named Raven Cliff Falls, is a good distance upstream from where it is
shown on the map.
This
Raven Cliff Falls shouldn’t be confused with the Raven Cliff Falls in Caesar’s
Head State Park in South Carolina, or the Raven Cliff Falls in northern
Georgia. It is also not related to Raven
Fork in the Smokies.
It
took me 22 years to see it. Last weekend
I met Jack, Kitty, Matt, Rick, and David at a large pulloff
on highway 181 north of Morganton. We
started our hike on the Mountains to Sea Trail, which we followed down to Upper
Creek. We ran into a path here heading
downstream. Kitty thought we could
follow it to get to the Greentown Shortcut Trail, but I suggested staying on
the MST. We passed a campsite, crossed
the creek, and began climbing away from it.
We followed the trail into the Burnthouse
Branch drainage before I realized that we’d missed our junction. We doubled-back and found a small cairn
marking a steep path heading down. We
followed it down a ridge and into a gully, which led us back to Upper
Creek.
We
joined a good trail and followed it downstream to a campsite on Burnthouse Branch. Burnthouse Branch Falls is just upstream, but we decided to
save it for the return hike. From there
we continued downstream on the Greentown Short Cut Trail. After a short distance a steep climb took us
away from the creek. We eventually
crested Raven Cliff, where we stopped for a break. I leaned my hiking stick against a tree to
get my camera out. Either the wind blew
it or I bumped it, and it fell and started sliding down the slope. It came to a stop in a thicket of
shrubs. I started down towards it,
thinking I’d be able to retrieve it.
After a few steps I spotted it teetering on the brink of the cliff.
I
considered approaching it from either side, or directly from above. We even discussed rigging up a rope as a
safety line. Even with a rope though, it
didn’t seem like it was worth the risk.
After all, it was just a stick. I
walked away.
We
continued on the trail, which was in rough shape in places due to fallen trees. After a steady descent we reached the point
noted in Kevin’s book that I’d marked on my GAIA map. An easy bushwhack led us down to Upper
Creek. At this point we were about ¼
mile downstream from the falls.
We
headed upstream, rock hopping, wading, and scrambling. This was fairly easy, as water levels were
low and the rocks were dry. It didn’t
take long to reach the base of the lowest section of the waterfall. Here, Upper Creek spills into a deep, narrow
pool between two rugged cliffs. Almost
all of the waterfall is out of sight, but Raven Cliff towers directly overhead.
There
are three options for continuing upstream.
Superheroes can attempt to swim the pool and climb directly up the
falls. The second option is a nasty
bushwhack up a steep gully adjacent to another cliff. That requires an ascent of 100’ that is
nearly vertical in places. Once across
the cliff, it is necessary to descend a similar gully on the opposite side.
We
chose the third option. We scrambled
across the cliff above the pool. At the
far end of the traverse is a blind corner.
There is a steel cable here fixed to the rock. We took turns using the cable to swing around
the side of the cliff. This really got
my adrenaline pumping, as I really had to lean back, high above a pile of
boulders, to keep tension on the cable.
Once around the corner I was able to step down onto a rock. From there, we scrambled up a series of
boulders adjacent to the lowest section of the waterfall.
We
had lunch there and Matt went for a swim.
He scrambled down the waterfall and jumped into the pool below the
cliffs. That looked like fun, but he had
a tough time making it back up. He
struggled against the current and had difficulty finding hand and footholds to
get out of the pool. Once he got up the
first ledge he was able to scramble and crawl the rest of the way. Once he made it back, he said he couldn’t
imagine doing that with a waterlogged backpack on.
After
lunch we headed upstream. We turned a
corner and reached the base of the next drop.
This one features a series of cascades and vertical drops on River
Left. On River Right a smaller channel
runs under a giant boulder and cascades down open rock.
Above
that drop is the biggest portion of Raven Cliff Falls. This stretch is a long run of chutes and
cascades as Upper Creek curves around Raven Cliff. This stretch is surrounded by open rock that
was fun to scramble on. At one point a
steep stretch of rock created difficulties.
Kitty ran up it like Spiderman.
The next couple of us had a tough time.
I decided to cross the creek to River Right and bushwhacked up into the
woods briefly. Once past the tricky part
I headed back to the creek. From there
the rest of the scramble was pretty easy.
We
took a long break at the base of the uppermost drop and a few of us went
swimming. The we scrambled up the final section
of the waterfall. From there we waded,
rock hopped, and scrambled upstream.
Once at Burnthouse Branch we headed up the
tributary. We followed it up to Burnthouse Branch Falls, which is a tall waterfall on a
small stream. This one is best seen when
the water is up, but it was nearly dry during our visit.
Instead
of following the same route back, we stayed on the trail that follows the
creek. This trail isn’t on the map, but
it was easier to follow than the official trail. It was also much shorter and easier. Before long we crossed the creek one last
time. A few minutes later we rejoined
the MST and began the long climb up to the road.
It
was great to finally make it to this waterfall after all these years! Raven Cliff Falls is a fun hike, and I’ll
probably do it again someday.
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