A trip to Franklin, NC

**Splash_4** · 15th May 07, 06:38 AM

This past weekend my bride and I travelled to Franklin NC to celebrate out 17th wedding anniversary. Part of the trip was a visit to the Scottish Tartans Museum and to pick up my new Isle of Skye kilt from Matt (there is another thread with those photos http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...hlight=newsome)

We spent a goodly part of Friday afternoon touring the museum and chatting with Matt and others as they entered the museum. After leaving, we headed to our bed and breakfast, 'The Franklin Terrace'

This building was initially built as a dormitory for a Methodist girls school and spent time during it tenure as a high school, a boarding house as well as it's new purpose as a B&B. During this time in Franklin was a large gem and jewelry show (apprarently, this area is known for precious and semi-precious stones). This made for very interesting conversations.

Our purpose in Franklin was to get away and enjoy each others company and to do a little hiking around some water falls. (one of my other passions besides kilts is photography and my wife indulges me in this)

The area south of Franklin toward Highlands and Cashiers is loaded with various waterfalls that are easy to get to. Some of them require a bit of a hike to get into (although, not as strenuous as some here might consider an easy day!) So, I will share our trip as we make our way south east

In this thread, I will share some of our photos and take you along for the ride. For any who are interested, these shots were taken whilst I was wearing my new box pleat!!!

**Splash_4** · 15th May 07, 06:49 AM

This 'little' waterfall is visible from the road as you travel down us64 and is located in Cullasaja Gorge. The roads here are very narrow and more than once I was a little afraid that my big old Avalanche was not going to fit by oncoming traffic. The area through here is stunning as the river winds its way through the base of the gorge.

This is a nice view from the road side. As we started the 300 foot descent into the gorge to get to the base of the falls, the rain started to mist a little bit. As this was an unimproved trail, we gave up about 100 foot down and started back up to the car. I will be travelling to this falls again!

**Splash_4** · 15th May 07, 06:51 AM

During the course of the drive to Highlands, there are a number of scenic pull offs on the road. This one we passed by initiailly, but something in me said to turn around and go back. No mean feat in a big old pickup and narrow roads. This small, unamed falls had a really nice pool at the base and there was a gentleman there fly fishin. During the 15 minutes or so we were stopped here, he pulled out at least two of what looked like brown trout.

It looked like a really good fishing hole that was right off the road.

**Splash_4** · 15th May 07, 06:55 AM

Dry falls has an interesting name.... How can a water fall be dry and still be a water fall? Inquiring minds want to know. Well, in this case, it is not the falls that are dry, but the fact that you can hike behind the fall and stay relatively dry. I was real disappointed that they had that particular part of the trail closed for repairs so you could not get behind the falls. Maybe another trip is in order??

The hike down to this fall is about 150 feet on an improved trail (read paved for the most part and railings to keep your self from getting hurt. My wife and I call these tourist trails!) Once at the bottom, the tempature dropped an easy 10 degrees from what it was on top of the hill because of all the condensation in the falls bowl. This area had really interesting flora and fauna because of the constant humidity!

**Splash_4** · 15th May 07, 07:02 AM

Bridal veil falls was somewhat disappointing, but is similiar to all other falls by this name. Long, thin and transparent. The roadway used to route underneath this falls but a sizeable chunk of the mountain side decided to fall on the old road bed. The engineers deciding that the entire face of this particular mountain was somewhat unstable rerouted the road a fair distance away. Another interesting part of this particular falls was the fair of barn swallows who had created holes in the limestone for their nest. I, for one, had never seen anything like that and at first mistook the holes in the rock for man made. It did not take long to realize my mistake as literally dozens of birds were flocking to them. (At least until I got my birding lense out of the case, then they disappeared!)

And a photo of the falls. To the left, you can see a small part of the cliff face that had fallen.

**Splash_4** · 15th May 07, 07:05 AM

At this point, we had been on the road for a good 3 hours taking in the various stops and side hikes. So, we were ready for a little lunch. Unfortunately, I left the camera packed in the car so did not take any photos of Highlands. I will say that it is a very nice little mountain town that my wife and I strolled through after lunch. A number of very nice little shops adorn main street and it felt like drifting back into the 1950's. Folks were really friendly and glad to have visitors there.

I did take one shot coming into town that I will share. This is a dam at the end of town that forms this incredible lake. While there, the lake was a calm and clear as glass (That changes later as we were fighting thunderstorms trying to get back to Franklin, more on that later!)

**Splash_4** · 15th May 07, 07:10 AM

This was our eventual goal for today. Whiteside mountain is a vertical precipice that soars about 2000 feet above the valley floor. It shear cliff sides are home to a group of peregrine falcons that come here to nest in the spring and summer months. Being somewhat of an avid birder, we were hoping to get up to the nesting areas. The trail is about 2.5 miles and loops around the mountain. A number of birds call this place home, including both the peregrin and the scarlett tanager. So, armed with 25 pounds of camera gear and 2 liters of water we sett off. About 1/2 mile into the trail, the heavens opened up and started to drop a ton of water. At this point we had a decision to make, do we keep on the trail and hope for a break in the weather, or do we head back. Discretion being the better part of valour, we headed back to dry clothes and safety. I cannot stress enough, that if you are not prepared for the weather, don't be out in it. For this particular trip, I was not prepared for this amount of rainfall!!

Well, better luck next time. Maybe I can get back up about memorial day??

**Splash_4** · 15th May 07, 07:17 AM

Because of the continuing rain, we decided to call it a day and head back to civilization. Which was no mean feat in and of itself. The rain and fog had set in nicely and made the drive back somewhat harrowing. But we did make it.

As a side note, we ran into a really neat shop outside of Highlands called the "wee Scotland and Ireland shop". Apparently the building that this shop is in used to be a building in Scotland that was transported whole into North Carolina. A nice little place to visit!

Finally from this trip, what photographer goes without taking macro shots as well as landscape shots. Here is some of the flora from the area...

Bluets

Trumpet vines (humming birds love this!)

Rhododendron

Mountain Laurel (one of my favorites!)

Lily of the Valley

I have no idea what this is, I just liked it.

**Splash_4** · 15th May 07, 07:18 AM

Sorry about this one, this was behind dry falls and I kind of like how it looked!

**Splash_4** · 15th May 07, 07:24 AM

Tallulah Gorge is a rather interesting place. This used to be a great gathering spot for folks in the south east. It's deep canyons and incredible running water made it quite the spot for the well to do as well. Many years ago, Georgia power dammed up the river and this caused the area to dry up. Now days, the company does "astetic releases" and "whitewater releases" throughout the year to draw both tourists and kayakers. We were very fortunate to be there during one of the astetic releases.

The hike to the bottom of the canyon is 650 steps. While this does not sound like much, it does wear on you. Both going down and coming up. This was another one of those cases where discretion was the better part of valour and I left my camera gear with the front desk prior to starting the descent. Walking down to the suspension bridge overlooking the falls was quite the end to the weekend. Of course, on the way back up I was wondering why this fellow was waiting for us.

For those of you who don't know what this is, he is a turkey vulture (a carrion eater)