Water, Trees, and Exploding Golfers (March & April 2015)

One thing I noticed almost immediately after moving to North Carolina is that most rural roads have no shoulder and no pull-outs. There are a fair number of “scenic overlooks” in the mountains, but these mountains support much more vegetation than the Rockies, so the scenic views at quite a few of these overlooks have been obscured by trees in the decades since the overlooks were built. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty here that’s worth seeing and/or photographing. You just have to hunt for it. And since hunting takes effort, my mini-trips in North Carolina tend to result in far fewer photographs than did my mini-trips in Colorado. And this, my friends, is why I am covering multiple trips in a single ThrowBack Thursday post.

I started taking my first Parkinson’s medication (Pramipexole) in early 2015. My first trip “on drugs” was a weekend getaway to the city of Cherokee, on the North Carolina side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP). Just outside of Cherokee is the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP), a 469-mile-long mountain road that extends from GSMNP to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. I started driving the BRP, but only went about 15 miles, as it became very foggy. Still, I got some cool pictures:

I departed the BRP at the point where it crosses US Highway 19, a mere mile and a half from Soco Falls. There is a short trail from the parking area down to the falls. Short but, if I remember right, dangerous. I seem to recall the trail being quite steep and, in the foggy/misty/rainy conditions, very slippery. This is a most unusual set of falls in that it is a double waterfall – it’s formed by two creeks, coming from two different directions. See below, and click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

Pretty nice waterfalls, eh? But was I satisfied? NO! I wanted MORE and BIGGER waterfalls! So the next morning, I left Cherokee and drove across Asheville, all the way to Catawba Falls. The hike to Catawba Falls from the parking area is somewhat long (2.7 miles for the round trip), but it’s an easy hike – mostly flat until you’re almost at the end. Plus, there’s interesting stuff along the way. See for yourself:

STILL not satisfied? I wasn’t! So, from Catawba Falls, I headed south to Chimney Rock State Park and its Hickory Nut Falls. This is an easy, mostly flat walk – about 1.5 miles round trip. That is, assuming you are able to find parking in the upper lot. If you have to park in one of the lower lots (as I did), the distance increases a little, while the elevation change increases substantially. Be prepared for stairs.

Unfortunately, I got there at the wrong time of day. Hickory Nut Falls is on an east-facing rock formation, and the sun was already low in the western sky when I arrived; the lighting conditions were terrible. I took several photos, but none of them turned out particularly well. Here are the most decent ones:

Seeing as how I was already in Chimney Rock State Park and had a little daylight left, I then decided to check out Chimney Rock itself. This is a very different beast than the Chimney Rock I learned about when growing up in Nebraska.

I suppose it resembles the chimney of an early railroad locomotive.

Come, let us take a ride in my DeLorean! We shan’t go far…just two weeks into the future…to March 28th, 2015. Every year I am struck by the beauty of springtime in Charlotte, due mostly to the cherry and apple blossoms that proliferate all around the city. On this day, I set out to harvest some photons to serve as evidence of said beauty. Please enjoy the photos below:

For the first five years that I lived in NC, I was in this apartment complex off Beam Road.

HEY! Get your ass back in the car! We have one more week to skip over. In early April of 2015, I was dispatched to Atlanta on business. I decided to take advantage of being in the area, so I spent a Sunday hiking to waterfalls in northern Georgia. I utterly failed to document the names of the waterfalls you are about to see. All I know for certain is they are in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. Enjoy!