Wilson Creek Gorge - Part 2

With Hurricane Florence approaching the Carolinas, I was debating on whether or not to stick around or stay with family further inland. The storm would only be tropical storm force by the time it reached Raleigh, but that’s still enough to knock the power out and make the roads impassable. Being the first-world scum that I am, I was worried about being stuck for days without a/c, so I asked off work Thursday and Friday so I could get out of town and stay in Greensboro. On Wednesday, the forecasted track shifted further south, meaning Raleigh would probably not be taking a direct hit after all. I now felt a little silly for requesting time off and leaving town, but since I now had two vacation days, I figured I had to do something to validate taking that time off work. Although there was a hurricane headed toward the coast, today’s forecast for the mountains was 78 °F with only a 20% chance of rain, so I figured it would be a good day to get some last-minute swimming hole action in before the official end of summer. Miranda had been itching to go to a swimming hole all summer and happened to be off work today, and she wanted to go back to Wilson Creek Gorge, since she had lost her camera with the pictures from the last time we went. Our previous visit to Wilson Creek Gorge was in 2016, but we had focused on one small area of a four-mile section of creek. I had also passed through the gorge in 2014 and stopped to take a few pictures during my visit to Harper Creek Falls, but I didn't partake of any of the swimming holes that time.

Miranda and I met up in Lenoir and headed out to Wilson Creek Gorge. It was nowhere near as crowded this time (probably because today was a weekday), and the gravel roads were nowhere near as dusty. It looked like it had rained recently, because the road and ground were damp. We were first going to stop at Razorback, a rapid with a nice swimming hole that I had briefly checked out last time. When we got there, we could see through the trees that the water was higher and rougher than last time. The swimming hole was basically just whitewater today, so we decided to drive upstream and look for a calmer spot.

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

So yeah, not a whole lot of new developments for Wilson Creek Gorge. I got a closer look at some places we had bypassed previously, but nothing terribly juicy in terms of new swimming holes. I would like to take a closer look at the areas just upstream and downstream of Razorback in lower water, so that will probably be my main objective for a future visit.
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Update: I returned for a proper exploration of the Razorback area in 2021. Click here for that trip report.