Wilson Creek Gorge - Part 3

[flyminion]

After last night's tiring drive back to Abingdon, I slept in today and got a late start this morning afternoon. My plan had originally been to go to Twisting Falls today, but the weather was going to be cool and partly cloudy in the mountains. This in conjunction with my late start meant that something quick and at a lower elevation was in order. Completing my explorations of Wilson Creek Gorge has been on the backburner for a while. It’s a great swimming hole destination, but it’s unfortunately right off the road, so it’s overrun with visitors on the weekends. Since today is a weekday and school is back in, I thought this might be a good opportunity to get back down in there. I first discovered Wilson Creek Gorge in 2014 on my way to see Harper Creek Falls for the first time, but I didn’t have time to explore it. My first full visit was in 2016, when Miranda and I found some great swimming holes at a rapid called Ten Foot Falls. I had tried to investigate another nice-looking swimming hole at a rapid called Razorback farther downstream, but I didn’t have a chance to fully check it out because Miranda wanted to leave. We returned in 2018, but the water levels were high that time, and Razorback was basically just whitewater, so that particular spot remained a loose end for me. I was by myself today, so my objective was to finally check out Razorback and explore the area downstream of it. My plan was to park my car where the Pisgah National Forest land begins just upstream of the Brown Mountain Beach Resort, walk along the road to Razorback, and hike along/through the creek back to the car.

I finally got my stuff together and left my parents’ house in Abingdon a little after 1 PM. I got stuck behind quite a few cars that insisted on going 5 MPH under the speed limit. I arrived at Wilson Creek Gorge around 3:25 PM. The weather there was 77 °F and partly cloudy, but it felt cooler. I parked at the first available pull-off after the National Forest boundary, walked up the road to Razorback, and took the steep trail down to the creek. The sun was mostly behind the clouds, and it had sunk too low to hit the creek anyway by this time, so there was no direct sunlight to be had. The water was 68 °F, according to my thermometer.

The water level looked a little higher than in 2016 (the sandy beach next to the rapid was partially submerged today), but it was definitely lower than in 2018.



I first climbed to the top of the rapid to check out the swimming hole just above it. I didn't get all the way in, but I looked under the water with my diving mask, and it appeared to be about seven feet deep at the deepest point. It looked like you could do a low jump of about 4 feet off the rocks that lined the shore.



I then climbed back down to check out the small pool next to the beach. It was only about chest to shoulder deep.



On the other side of the boulder that separated the beach pool from the main flow, there was a hole that was about 8-10 feet deep.



Jumping from the boulder (about 6 feet high) was an option, but I didn’t do it since I was by myself and there was a strong current there, as this was where both halves of the main rapid converged into one flow. There actually were two women a little further down who were getting ready to leave, but I doubt they would have saved me. I snorkeled the area just downstream of this, and there was an area in the middle that was 8-10 feet deep, but it was shallow along the cliffs that bordered the river-right side, except for one spot near the nook where one might be able to jump from about four feet high. The walls were sloped and continued underwater, though, so you would have to jump out.



Here is a video of the pools above and below Razorback:

Watch on YouTube

I made my way past the next rapid, which I believe is called Huntley’s Retreat.



After this, there was a huge swimming hole between two sloping rock walls.



This pool is called The Bathtub, according to American Whitewater. It looked basically the same as the pool below Ten Foot Falls, but without a waterfall spilling into it. It looked like there might be some potential low jumps from the rock ridges on the river-left just past where the rapid fed in, but there was a couple fishing in that spot, so I didn’t get in the water to check it out.



I made my way along the sloping rock walls to the downstream end of the pool.



I got in the water and snorkeled to about halfway up the pool so as not to interfere with the fishing on the upstream end. The pool was about 15 feet deep in the middle. The guy asked if I had seen any fish, and I did see one that was over a foot long. I don’t know my fish, though, so I couldn’t tell you what kind it was. I was feeling chilly for a few minutes each time I got out of the water, so I wasn’t planning to get into anymore swimming holes unless they looked really awesome.

Just past the Bathtub was another rapid called Railslide.



After Railslide was a small cliff with a beach, but the water didn’t look deep enough here to be over my head.



Here is a video of The Bathtub and Railslide:

Watch on YouTube

After this point, the creek was mostly just a shallow cobblestone creek with nothing remarkable, although there were a few bedrock slabs and small cliffs here and there.







There was no trail for most of it, so I just walked through and along the edge of the creek. There was one point where there was a sandy path that led a few hundred feet between two stairways that came down from the road, but it gave out after the second stairway. Just before I got back to the point where I had parked the car, I came across one more rapid, but it didn’t have a swimming hole.

Watch on YouTube

I thought I could see another drop just downstream with a large swimming hole and sandy beach just below it, but as I got closer I could see that this was on the Brown Mountain Beach Resort's property (guess I should have stayed there tonight).



I climbed up a scramble trail to my car, and I drove upstream with the intention of chilling at Ten Foot Falls for a little while and eating a Clif Bar before heading to Morganton for the night. However, I spied an ostensibly unfamiliar swimming hole down in the gorge before I got to Ten Foot Falls, so I parked to check it out. It ended up being just downstream of a rapid called Dental Work, which is the first spot I had checked out on my first visit in 2014, resulting in this being my phone’s lock screen photo for several years:



Miranda and I had checked out Dental Work in 2018 and decided it had no significant swimming holes, but the water had been so high and rough that it was hard to tell. I decided I would give it a second look, so I took some stairs down to the creek. There was a couple there listening to music. I said hi to them and continued downstream, bypassing the rapid along a manmade wall that I hadn’t noticed the first two times I had come down here.



It turned out there were three significant pools here.

Watch on YouTube

All three pools looked deep enough to be over my head, but I was dry at this point, so I didn’t get in the water to check. I walked downstream along the sloping rock slabs until I saw a spot up ahead that I’m pretty sure I checked out in 2018.



I returned to the lowermost pool of Dental Work and ate my Clif Bar, which was surprisingly hard. After this, I changed out of my water shoes and drove to Morganton, where I checked into the “Quality” Inn and then got a Bacon Cheeseburger and a cookie dough shake at Sonic.

In summary, although the weather and my late start led to a lack of sunlight for this afternoon’s excursion, I still maintain that Wilson Creek Gorge is a prime swimming hole destination. The water is crystal clear with a moderate temperature, and the gorge is lined with cliffs and sloping rock slabs. I only wish it were a three or four mile hike to get there instead of being right off the road so it wouldn’t be overrun with people on the weekends. Fortunately, it was relatively deserted today, so I had a nice quiet creek walk down the last mile of the gorge. From what I have seen, I would say the top three swimming holes in the gorge are Ten Foot Falls (see my 2016 trip report), The Bathtub, and Dental Work. Razorback was also decent, but the pools there were smaller and less striking, although the scene was still pretty great. Now that I’ve mostly explored Wilson Creek Gorge, it would be fun to tube down it sometime (portaging around the more dangerous rapids, of course).