FINALLY! We were able to relax in Asheville a bit. We spent the second weekend of July in our cozy little mountain house and between painting a second coat on the living room and kitchen, hanging a bunch of pictures and installing a fire pit, we went for a hike.
I'd wanted to go see Rainbow falls but decided it was too far away for a quick afternoon trip. So I looked around on the interwebs and found a falls called Bridal Veil Falls in Dupont Forest. The description said you could WALK UNDER THE FALLS. Holy hell I've always wanted to do that. It was kind of far too but I insisted on this one.
Instead of just hiking the Bridal Veil Falls, we (I) decided to do the 3 falls hike that starts from the Triple Falls trail head and parking lot. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
The parking lot was rather full and the trail was pretty busy so we couldn't let the dogs off leash. That was kind of a bummer but we had fun anyways. The first falls we got to was, you guessed it, Triple Falls. It was so beautiful and breathtaking.
From this look out area you can then walk down the never ending staircase and reach the second falls. I believe, this was the falls used in The Hunger Games. Looks familiar, right?
Ok, there's a bit more water on the falls than there was during filming but I'm 99.9% sure these are the right falls.
The next falls we got to were High Falls and they were aptly named. Wowza.
We stopped here and had a bit of lunch. This is when we we discovered that you could actually drive to all of these falls. They all had parking areas with pavilions with portajohns and everything...that's either lazy or ingenious, I'm not quite sure which. (just had an epic idea....the triple falls area would make an awesome bridal shoot/trash the dress location. ooooooooo)
We labored on across the covered bridge and over about 2 miles of the most boring gravel road I've ever walked on. I swear Umstead is more exhilarating. I kept telling myself that it was all worth it because I was going to be able to walk under a waterfall! So we trudged on.
Finally, after my feet were beaten up (I'd worn my Fivefingers), we made it to Bridal Veil Falls. The bottom of the falls was a large expanse of sloping rock with tons and tons of rushing water.
It roared like it wanted to eat your babies. Very neat. However, we could not plainly see how we were supposed to get to the upper falls and thus walk underneath the falls. I asked a local who was leading a group of kids on a tour and she told us that because of the high waters, the falls weren't reachable. Normally, the lower falls didn't cover the entire rock and you could just walk up it. But at this time there was at least an inch of rushing water along the whole expanse of rock. We decided to try anyways. It was only an inch right? What's the worst that could happen? <-- Famous last words
The worst that could happen is that you slip on that inch of water that's hydrated the super slippery algae and fall into a waiting rock or pool. Either one, very bad for people carrying cameras...like myself.
The dogs did fine, they got to the top, turned around, and came back down to get in our faces to "help" us along. Which inevitably made Steven slip, then I slipped because I was worried about Steven slipping. Steven slid about 5 feet till he was able to grab a sapling that was growing out of the rock and then he swung out his arm and grabbed me. My husband saved me. Yep. No harm to the camera, just a wet rump. We eventually scrambled our way to the top. We attempted to find a path around to walk under the falls but between slippery rocks and not wanting the dogs to accidentally slip and die in the falls, we decided it was best left to another day.
There it is, the Bridal Veil Falls. Once the rains have died down in Asheville, we'll go again so I can get the epic picture I so desire.
So many fun and amazing adventures in the mountains of North Carolina. So many things to see and always changing according to the seasons. I sure do love my fuzzy mountains.
Taking your dogs on a walk is domesticated. Taking your dogs on walk up a waterfall, that's Awesomely Domesticated.
Liz
