Friday 9th April a good chillin' day

A beautiful clear blue sky morning after yesterdays rain.
Took hire car back and then had a great chillin' and laundry day. All very quiet and peaceful on the lake so relaxing, reading and watching the Masters.
We have thoroughly enjoyed our week here on Lake Keowee and the last 3 days hunting water fallings. We have been in the area they filmed Deliverence, what us worried about the sound of those banjos... no !!!
There is beautiful blossom out everywhere and an amazing amount of wild purple wisteria. The buzzards and red tailed hawks soar in the skies. Life is good :)





Tomorrow we are off across the Smokey Mountains to our next camp site near Gatlinburg.
We hope you all have a great weekend.

Thur 8th. Waterfalls on the Cherokee Trail

SC Highway 11, The Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway

First stop, Table Rock State Park

Me by Lake Pinnicle at Table Rock visitors centre

Table Rock Mountain

More rock climbing for us at Raven Cliff Falls !

Water gently falls over flat granite at Raven Cliff Falls

Ok we have today a 20 degree drop in temperature and they say rain later.

This was just a gentle 10 minute walk to the falls and then just a matter of climbing up the rocks. Nice gentle falls over big slabs of granite.

Back on to highway to Greenville.

This one is for JPL

Greenville is quite a big city and, has to us, the feel of Vancouver

The Falls are in a large park in the centre of the city

These are The Reedy River Falls and the city of Greenville has built up around them. The parts of the city we saw were very pretty and we would have liked to have spent more time looking about but the Twin Falls are calling so on we go.

Hey a watertower, albeit not one of the prettiest !

Twin Falls. It's now light rain but we have driven down a narrow winding road to get here (who said all of the roads in USA are wide and straight ??) so we put on the rain gear and do the hike of 10 minutes or so and hey there's a viewing platform so we can admire and take pics to our hearts delight. Needless to say we are the only folk there !

We like the effect of the water on the granite
Pictures would have looked better with the sun glinting on the water but there we are, they did say it would rain today.

We take off for Oconee Station Park but by the time we get to that area the rain is now a deluge, the lightening is all around us and driving is not that pleasant so we head for home. We still sat in the car for 5/10 minutes when we got there and let the rain pass. Not sure we have ever seen rain that heavy just pleased that we took the precaution of closing the vents on the rig before leaving this morning :)

You may all be very pleased to know that is it for waterfallings for now !!

For those of you who are following our progress on Google Earth or maps. We travelled down SC 11 and then the SC276 to Greenville. Our RV park is just outside of Seneca on Lake Keowee.

Tomorrow we are resting our tired feet and legs and having a chillin' and laundry day.

Wed 7th 2nd day hiking to waterfalls

Chevy covered in pollen and dust at beginning of trail to Blue Hole Falls

Some of the trail !!

Himself teetering on the edge !!

The blue hole is down there somewhere !
Ok so we start the day going north of Walhalla to Blue Hole Falls. From the main highway it's a gravel road for 6 miles which at times is shall we say a bit rutted with rather a steep drop on one side ! (C & E something like Iceland without the ice and water !!) Not a bad hike though just 3/4 hour round trip and of course worth it.

Next stop Chauga Narrows

My boy at the bottom of falls and no he did climb down not slide.

This hike started off easy but very difficult trail to get to falls but well worth it. Climbing back up from the water the rhododendron branches acted as rope to pull ourselves up !!

A quick bite of packed lunch and on again to King Creek Falls

And the last falls of the day!! King Creek Falls. This again is the easy bit.

Well worth the last quarter of a mile over rooted terrain, fallen trees and a narrow path !!

This was about an hour and 1/4 round trip after another 2 to 3 miles on gravel road. Forgot to mention also that the temps are a bit cooler but still up in the high 80's. Trail back through the woods and we keep our ears tuned for the banjos !!

When we left the rig this morning there was the most amazing sight (not to hay fever/pollen sufferers) of a huge cloud of pollen from the pine trees, very much like a sandstorm, we've never seen anything like it. Needless to say everything has a coating of yellow.

We have decided to keep the car an extra day and will hit the Cherokee Foothill Scenic Highway tomorrow.

Day 1 of the waterfalls of South Carolina

The beginning of the trail to Yellow Branch Falls

Cooling off at the Falls

Going for a paddle ?

2nd Falls of the day

Entrance to Stumphouse Tunnel

Original piece of equipment for the tunnel

Tunnel entrance

Hey I'm driving a Chevy !!

Town of Walhalla on route to falls

Slow start to the day as the car hire chap was supposed to collect us to get the car at 9am and turned up at 10.15. I kept my boy under control !!

From then on we had a great day. We started with Yellow Branch Falls not far from Walhalla. A fairly strenuous 2 hour round trip hike through the woods. Temperature has been 90 degrees today so the cool/cold water of the falls was very welcome to cool our feet.

We then moved on to Issaqueena Falls which was a much less stenuous affair. The history of this falls is that it is named after an Indian maiden who hid on a ledge to avoid capture as she fled to warn her English lover of an Indian attack.

Next stop Stumphouse Tunnel and this is really fascinating. In the 1850's they decided to build a railroad from Charleston to Cincinnati. Construction was successful until hitting the mountains around Walhalla in Oconee County. Because they were tunnelling through granite with only pickaxes, sledge hammers and black powder they only advanced 200 feet a month. By the time of The War Between the States they had only completed 4363 feet of the proposed 5863 feet. The tunnel was never completed. In the 1950's the tunnel was bought by Clemson University as they discovered it was a perfect constant temperture and dampness to mature their famous blue cheese, they have since duplicated the conditions at the university and the tunnel is now part of the state parks system and open to visitors.

We walked some distance into the tunnel, about 1600 feet is open to the public, it was soooo cold (and of course damp and dark) but very welcome on such a hot day !!

We stopped off for a look around Walhalla and then home to have a rest before tomorrow's hikes !!

And hey no water towers today !!