Harper Creek Falls

Last August, I decided to start going on solo swimming hole treks due to the difficulty of finding swimming/hiking buddies. Two thirds of the summer had gone by, and most of my attempts at swimming hole adventures had been foiled by last-minute cancellations. When I saw a sunny Saturday coming up, I tried to find someone to accompany me to my favorite swimming hole, Upper Creek Falls. One of my friends said she could go, but she got sick and had to cancel at the last minute. Fortunately, I had a backup plan. I had a list of other swimming holes to explore in the Wilson Creek area (to which Upper Creek Falls belongs), and Harper Creek Falls was at the top of the list. I had read that getting down to the swimming hole requires holding onto a rope while walking backward down a steep rock, and I wasn’t sure if any of my friends would go to that extreme for a swimming hole, so I figured it would be a good solo trek if no one could go with me.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

When it started getting late, I climbed back up the rock (which was way easier than going down) and hiked back to the car. I stopped and checked out a few more places in Wilson Creek Gorge that I had passed up on the way in. Harper Creek Falls is one of the best swimming holes I have been to. It even gives Upper Creek Falls a run for its money.

So yeah, that’s the story of how I got into the habit of going on solo swimming hole treks. It would have been more fun with friends, but it was definitely worthwhile in its own right. Still, it feels like something is missing when I don’t have someone to share the experience with, so I have decided to blog my recent swimming hole treks so I can share indirectly (and hopefully entice my friends in reasonable proximity to join me on future adventures). I have also found other people’s blogs helpful in planning my trips for some of these places, so this will be my way of paying it forward to other swimming hole aficionados.

Raven Rock State Park - Lanier Falls

On Sunday, July 12th, I decided to check out Lanier Falls (a rapid) in Raven Rock State Park, about an hour south of Raleigh. I had been meaning to do this for a while, but a 2.5-mile hike in a triple digit heat index sounded like a bad idea, so I waited until it ‘cooled down’ to the lower 90’s. I can’t remember exactly where I found out about this place, but ever since moving to the Raleigh/Durham area, I have been on the hunt for good swimming holes that don’t require a three-hour drive. The Eno and Haw Rivers are the major water bodies in the area, but neither one is very appealing for swimming. The Eno has a couple of deep holes, but the water is muddy and mostly shallow. I’m not sure about the swimming hole situation in the Haw, but it receives the city of Burlington’s sewage effluent (sometimes untreated if heavy rains cause the treatment plants to overflow). Also, both rivers travel extensively through agricultural areas before reaching the Triangle, and they both have what I would describe as a ‘crusty mud’ smell. Those rivers are about the best you can do here without taking a daytrip to the mountains, but they’re kind of disappointing when you’ve grown up around pristine mountain streams. There are places to swim in Falls Lake and Jordan Lake, which appear more inviting, but those lakes are fed by the Eno and Haw Rivers, respectively. The Eno Quarry is the only decent swimming hole around here. The water is clear and doesn’t smell, but there is no outflow, so I’m sure it has to be nasty due to all the people who swim (and pee) in it.

But anyway, back to Lanier Falls. Raven Rock is on the Cape Fear River, which is downstream of Jordan Lake, but I figured that perhaps the water would be cooler (did I mention that the swimming holes here are like bathwater in the summer?) and less smelly after sitting on the bottom of the lake for a while. I tried to rope various friends into going, but they were all unavailable. It took me a little over an hour to drive to the park, mostly on country roads through pretty farm towns. Raven Rock proper is a 100-foot cliff along the Cape Fear River. The farming community just before the park was pancake flat, like something straight out of a tornado chase video, so it was hard to believe that anything in the vicinity dropped 100 feet. When I pulled into the park, it was flat and green, and the parking area was lined with tall pines and patches of tall ornamental grasses. It had an ‘almost at the beach’ feel.

( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

In review, Lanier Falls didn’t stack up to a mountain swimming hole, but it is the best place I have found in the piedmont after Eno Quarry, and also the most picturesque.