PANTHERTOWN
Christy
and I spent last weekend car camping at the Cherry Hill Recreation Area, south
of Cashiers, NC. We did dayhikes on Saturday and Sunday. Originally I planned to spend the weekend
focusing on waterfalls. However, sunny
weather led to a change in plans.
We
got a bit of late start on Saturday. We
drove straight to the east entrance of Panthertown
Valley for our first hike. We arrived at
11:30, and the parking area was overflowing.
In fact, there were several cars parked along the access road. I found a spot to park, and we were getting
organized when a security guard pulled up.
He hopped out and strolled through the parking area, before
returning. I’m not sure who he was
working for or exactly what he was doing, but he was a friendly guy.
We
hiked straight to Schoolhouse Falls.
There were only a few people here, which was a pleasant surprise. We didn’t linger long though. The light was poor for photos, so we pushed
on to Little Green Mountain. Once on the
summit, we headed out to Tranquility Point.
The view from here was as fantastic as always. It was even better today, since there was some
nice fall color on the surrounding ridges.
It was probably a little past peak, and the sunny conditions diminished
the colors somewhat, but it still added to the view.
Incredibly,
we had the whole place to ourselves for over an hour. Lots of people passed by on the main trail,
but apparently none of them knew about the side trip out to Tranquility Point. Their loss was our gain – it was wonderful
relaxing out there without any crowds to contend with.
We
continued down to the Hogback Mountain Trail, and I let Christy pick our route
back. My inclination was to loop back
past Greenland Creek Falls, but she decided to go the other direction. We hiked down to Boggy Creek, passed my
all-time favorite campsite, and continued on to Granny Burrell Falls. I was hoping for fall color there, but there
wasn’t much. We resumed the hike,
looping around to the Panthertown Valley Trail. We followed the old road, which was flooded
in places, all the way back. We saw
quite a few other hikers along the way, but it really wasn’t as busy as I
expected based on the crowded parking area.
I
thought about stopping at Raven Rock Falls on the way out, but it was still
very sunny, so I didn’t think conditions would be good for photos. Christy was ready to call it a day, so we
headed for camp. After a brief stop at
the Ingles in Cashiers, we headed down 107 into SC to Cherry Hill. I’d reserved a campsite a few days earlier,
which nearly doubled the $10 fee. It was
worth the extra cost to be sure of having a spot. We had reserved a walk-in site, in hopes that
it would offer a bit more privacy than the normal drive in sites. It was only a short walk to the campsite, but
my theory was faulty. If anything, the
walk-in sites were closer together than the normal campsites. We seemed to be surrounded by college kids, which was alarming, but they were all reasonably quiet. We enjoyed a wonderful evening, featuring
steaks, a campfire, smores, and plenty of adult
beverages. The weather was ideal,
too. Temperatures bottomed out around
50, which was perfect for relaxing by the campfire and for sleeping.
FISHHAWK
Originally
I planned to get up early on Sunday for sunrise and / or some waterfall
photography. However, by Saturday
evening I had already scrapped those plans.
I was exhausted, having been on the run for the last few weeks. I needed some sleep, and a relaxing
morning. We slept in all the way to
7:30. I started the morning by making
coffee and frying up some bacon. That
was an effective way to wake up the entire campground!
After
breakfast we packed up and headed out for our second hike of the weekend. Originally I’d planned to hike to Rainbow
Falls on the Horsepasture River. However, it seemed like the best fall color
was still above 3,500’. Below that
level, it was mostly green. Plus, the
sunny morning wasn’t encouraging for waterfall photography. While we were packing, I had an
inspiration. Whiterock
Mountain, in the Fishhawk range west of Highlands,
features one of the best views in the state.
The peak is a little over 4,000’, so I figured it would be a good place
for fall color.
We
attempted to stop at Cullasaja Falls on the way
there. Unfortunately, there is only room
for 3-4 cars in the pulloff on highway 64. Those spots were full when we drove by. I was able to eyeball the falls as we passed,
and the light was truly awful. Even if
there had been a parking spot, there wouldn’t have been much reason to stop –
at least not for photography.
We
drove up a long dirt road to Jones Gap.
It was 11am when we arrived, but there were only 2 cars there. That was a big change from Panthertown Valley!
Despite this, we ended up seeing quite a few other hikers. In Panthertown,
there is a vast area for people to spread out.
Up in the Fishhawks, there’s really just the
Bartram Trail.
We
followed the Bartram Trail through a wildlife clearing to a junction. There we took a side trail out to Jones
Knob. On the way, we stopped at a cliff
with a fantastic view. The vista
encompassed Big Scaly to the south and waves of ridges and valleys to the
west. From there, we continued up to the
summit. At first, it appears that there
is no view from there. However, I
explored around a bit and found a tunnel through the rhododendron. It led out to another cliff, with a fine view
to the north and west. This vista
included the cliffs of Whiterock Mountain – our destination
for the day.
We
backtracked to the Bartram Trail and hiked towards Whiterock
Gap. Just before the gap, we reached a
cliff with a nice view of Whiterock Mountain. We had lunch there, before continuing on to
the gap. At the gap we found a campsite,
and I took the dogs down the slope to the east to a creek. After watering the dogs, we returned to the
trail and continued on. Before long, we
reached a short side trail leading to a much more accessible portion of the
same stream. We watered the dogs again
before continuing. After a short
distance we reached a junction with the side trail to the summit. We hiked up to the top, and descended down to
the cliffs on the west side. We were
treated to the best view of the day there.
We took a long break there while enjoying the scenery and the solitude.
The
hike back was quick and uneventful. The
drive home was long, but equally uneventful.
The highlight was passing the parking area for Dry Falls. It was overflowing, and a ranger was actually
preventing more cars from trying to pull in.
If you want to visit Dry Falls on a lovely fall weekend, arrive early!
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