29 | 22 Gorges State Park

Today I woke up and wanted to go to Gorges State Park. It's quite a way's away in Transylvania County and the weather outside looked gray and dreary, but I've been reading these novels set in the time period just after the Revolutionary War that take place in Western North Carolina/Tennessee and I wanted to go to the visitor's center at Gorges because they have a great display on the early settlers and Cherokee history of the area. It's a long drive (about an hour and a half from South Asheville) and so we decided to tack on some hiking at Gorges to make it worthwhile. When Joshua first moved Asheville he went waterfall sliding at Turtleback Falls. We've been trying to find it ever since, to no avail. The old parking spot was closed off and you have to access it through Gorges now. Through some Google searching, we figured out that it was just past Rainbow Falls, also accessed through Gorges. So we set off on the Rainbow Falls trail after spending some time at the visitor's center. 

Aidan was excited to go on a hike... he didn't care for the long car ride overly much. We let him walk (read: run and trip and run and trip) at the beginning for awhile, but thankfully brought the hiking backpack with us since we didn't check the mileage for this hike before we started. It ended up being 4 miles total and we were exhausted by the end of it!

Maddie and I were hiking buddies today.

The hike started off easy enough within Gorges; the path was well-marked, graveled, and mostly downhill. About half-way in you leave Gorges State Park and enter national forest (I'm thinking Pisgah?). Right after that the trail forks and if you take the path to the right, it will lead you to Rainbow Falls. At this point the hike becomes more strenuous-- the path is more natural and there are also a lot of steep climbs including stairs. We aren't in very good shape these days and we were certainly huffing and puffing along. But we made it!

We made it to Rainbow Falls!

Rainbow Falls

The view certainly was beautiful, and the mist rising from the falls was nature's AC. Only 0.2 miles further and we reached the elusive Turtleback Falls, where we stopped to have a snack and enjoy the view.

Turtleback Falls

The hike out always seems shorter than the hike in, but somehow it still managed to seem that we were climbing uphill both ways. That could be possible since we were hiking along the ridge of the Eastern Continental Divide. Also learned about the WNC escarpment today, which is what creates so many waterfalls in the area. 

We arrived back to the parking lot sweating profusely and red in the face, and a young woman came bounding up to us and said, "Did you go to Turtleback Falls?" We answered yes and she asked how far of a hike it was. We told her it was four miles round-trip, which took a bit of explaining as she thought the trail went in a circle... then she said, "Four miles isn't bad, this guy we were talking to made it seem like it would take like an hour to get out there!" We had been on the trail for three hours. So I said, "It will take you an hour, at least..." Joshua went on to explain that the trail was steep and somewhat difficult, but she was not to be dissuaded. She asked me if we swam at the falls, which I said no to because the water was flowing so forcefully today. If you are from WNC, you would have gathered by now that a) this is not an easy hike, b) this is not a quick hike and c) the water is not the most suitable for swimming today. But she turned around and said to her mom and dad, climbing out of the car, "If they can do it with two kids strapped on, we can do it!" Overweight Dad lit up a cigarette as Mom commented that they didn't bring any water. As Joshua and I put the kids back into the car and prepared to leave, I said, "Don't think the dad's going to make it very far today." Joshua said, "They aren't from around here." Sure enough, I looked over to their vehicle to check the license plate... Florida. Wonder how far they made it!

It was a wonderful day for our family, even though I'm sure we'll have sore muscles tomorrow. I'm happy we finally found Turtleback Falls again! Love the Blue Ridge.