Upper Creek Falls
Aug. 15th, 2015 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flyminion
Last Saturday, August 8, I went to Upper Creek Falls with Mary and Orin. Unlike my other recent treks, this swimming hole was not new to me. In fact, this place was the inception for my love of swimming holes, and probably the one I have visited the most. I first discovered it back in 2000 when I was an unappreciative 14-year-old on a family vacation. My family was staying in a cabin off the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Boone, and we were hiking to various waterfalls and overlooks. I have always loved a good waterfall, but the trip had been sorely lacking in swimming opportunities (which I did not hesitate to whine about all week). My mom had a book about waterfalls on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and there was one called Upper Creek Falls that apparently boasted several swimming holes and natural water slides, so we went there on the last day of the trip. The place was basically a natural water park. We didn’t hike the entire 1.5 mile loop trail that time, but we went to the most popular swimming hole, just upstream from the main waterfall, which has a natural rock slide and a rope swing. As a kid, I always loved swimming, waterfalls, and playing in creeks, but this was the first time I had experienced all three rolled up into one concise package of awesomeness, and thus my love of swimming holes was born. Here is my young self experiencing Upper Creek Falls for the first time:
After I was old enough to drive, I went back to UCF at least once every summer from 2003-2009 (except 2005), usually with Miranda, but I have dragged most of my friends up there at one time or another. I stopped going after 2009 when I moved to Mississippi for grad school. This past visit was my first in six years. My brother and his girlfriend had gone up there a year or two ago and said it had deteriorated; there was trash everywhere and some of the area had burned. They must have cleaned it up since then, because I didn’t notice anything like that. I met Mary and Orin in the parking lot, and we decided to take the lower portion of the loop first. This was an unexpected treat, as I don’t usually get to take the lower section of the trail. I would estimate I have been to UCF about ten times prior to this, but this was only my third time on the lower section. This part of the trail is more strenuous, so most people only want to do the relatively easy upper section to the main swimming hole, and then backtrack to the parking lot.
After about a mile of switchbacks, the trail crossed the creek just upstream of one of Upper Creek’s many natural waterslides. This one in particular is probably the longest and smoothest of those accessible via the trail.
We slid down it a few times, and then creek-walked a little ways downstream to another sliding waterfall that made a sharp turn. This one didn’t look ideal for sliding.
After spending some time here, we continued upstream on the trail and discovered a short side trail leading to another swimming hole with a slide just downstream of the main waterfall.
Of all the times I have been here, I have never noticed this particular swimming hole. The slide looked bumpier and the pool smaller than the main swimming hole, so we decided to skip this one and continue up the trail. In a short distance, we came to the main waterfall, which drops about 100 feet over a cliff and then turns into a long slide. Orin tried to climb the waterfall, and he made it about halfway up.
We then continued up to where the trail goes through a primitive campsite and crosses the creek at the brink of the waterfall.
From the primitive campsite, an unofficial trail continues up the river-left side of the creek to the main swimming hole with the rope swing.
The swimming hole was pretty crowded, much more so than the area downstream of the main falls. This is probably the most frequented of the Wilson Creek area swimming holes because the others involve extended gravel road driving and somewhat treacherous trails, whereas Upper Creek Falls is overall more family-friendly, being directly off the paved road and having stairs at certain points on the trail. Mary had wanted to go someplace more secluded, so we had considered Steels Creek, but Orin wanted a rope swing, which is why we ended up opting for UCF (incidentally, Orin never partook of the rope swing). After I slid down the waterfall and did the rope swing, we decided to creek-walk upstream in hopes of finding someplace more secluded. I knew from previous visits that there were a couple more pools and small waterfalls, including one I call the ‘salamander cave’ where a small waterfall spills into a cave-like rock overhang, and there are sometimes salamanders on the wet rock face below the falls. I had hidden my backpack and phone in the woods further downstream for fear of getting them wet, so these pictures are stolen from Mary:
There was a group of about ten college-aged guys at the main swimming hole, and they followed us upstream to the salamander cave. To continue upstream from the salamander cave, one has to climb the ten-foot rock wall. Miranda and I had done this once in the past when someone had left a rope there, but I don’t remember there being anything noteworthy upstream. Orin climbed it and said there were a couple more small falls and pools. He opted to come back down through the woods rather than climb back down the rock. We decided to go back down to the main swimming hole in hopes of losing the group of college guys, but they followed us back down. We joked that they were stalking us. We hung out at the main swimming hole for a while, and I slid and did the rope swing a few more times. I tried to use my depth finder in the swimming hole because I had always wondered how deep it was, but the battery was too low to get a reading. I had swam down about 10 or 12 feet with a diving mask on previous visits, but I have never been able to find the bottom. This time would be no exception.
When we were ready to leave, we returned to the main trail and followed the upper section of switchbacks back to the parking lot. We drove about ten minutes to Pineola and ate on the patio at a decent Italian pizza/pasta restaurant (aptly named ‘Italian Pizza & Pasta’), and I had no problems putting away an entire 12-inch pizza.
In conclusion, it was great to get back to one of my all-time favorite swimming holes. After exploring most of the other Wilson Creek area swimming holes, I still maintain that Upper Creek Falls is the best of the lot. Harper Creek Falls pulls a close second, and the swimming hole there is probably better than any one swimming hole at Upper Creek Falls. Additionally, in terms of coolness, the kettles at Steels Creek Falls trump pretty much all other creek-related natural features in the area. However, when it comes down to it, the points of interest on Harper Creek and Steels Creek are limited to a few isolated sections of those creeks, whereas Upper Creek is a seemingly endless expanse of awesomeness, which I think bumps it up a notch above the rest. But really, you can’t go wrong with any of the Wilson Creek area swimming holes. They are all worthwhile.
Reconnecting with the awesomeness of Upper Creek really makes me want to explore Ravens Cliff Gorge (I think that’s what it’s called) further downstream. It looks pretty enticing from Google Earth:
Someone posted some 80’s pictures of what I believe to be that area, but that was all I could find (other than a kayaking video of the creek at high flow in winter). I know there’s a trail that goes by it from a couple hundred feet above, but it doesn’t go into the gorge, so I’m not exactly sure how to get down there without dying. More on that in a future entry, if I survive.
