Raven Rock State Park - Avents Creek

Today, I did a creek walk on Avents Creek in Raven Rock State Park. I had wanted to go to the mountains this coming week because there is going to be a three-day streak of warm weather with less than a 10% chance of rain Monday-Wednesday, which is pretty rare for late September. Unfortunately, I have a meeting at work on Wednesday, which means I would have to drive back to Raleigh on Tuesday, which means I would only really get to do anything on Monday. I decided that one day of swimming hole action wasn’t worth taking two days of leave, paying for two nights in a hotel, and finding a pet-sitter. Still, I wanted to at least do something creeky this weekend, so Avents Creek was my tenuous consolation prize.

A few years ago, I had checked out the rapids Lanier Falls and Fish Traps on the Cape Fear River, as well as Campbell Creek and Little Creek on the south side of the river. The only legit swimming hole I have found in the park thus far is Lanier Falls, which Kevin Adams actually lists in the third edition of his North Carolina Waterfalls book (I guess he has low standards for piedmont waterfalls, if you can call them that, since they are so rare). He also lists a small four-foot waterfall called Jumping Fish Falls on Avents Creek, which is on the north side of the river. I checked out Jumping Fish Falls on an un-blogged trip back in 2017 and found it underwhelming, but I did note that Avents Creek seemed to have some broad pools near the falls that may have been deep enough to be swimming holes. I didn’t explore Avents Creek on that visit because my main objective was to go swimming at Lanier Falls, but I did file it away as something to check out if I got really bored. My plan for today was to take the West Loop Bridal Trail to the point where it crosses the creek at Jumping Fish Falls and follow the creek about half a mile downstream to the confluence with the Cape Fear River before heading back upstream to where it flows under the road (which is about a mile upstream of the river).

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

In summary, I didn’t find anything noteworthy on Avents Creek, although I wasn’t really expecting to. There were a couple of spots that may have been waist to shoulder deep, but no legit swimming holes. The only significant cascade I found that I had not seen before was the small slide upstream of Jumping Fish Falls, but it wasn't anymore interesting than Jumping Fish Falls or the small cascade at the road bridge. Avents Creek did make for a chill late-afternoon creek walk, which is really all I was hoping for. Of the three creeks I have checked out in Raven Rock (Avents, Campbell, and Little Creek), I would say Campbell Creek is probably the most interesting, which isn’t saying much, but it does at least have a few rock bluffs above it, unlike Avents Creek. I think Fish Creek is the only named creek in the park I haven’t checked out at this point.