Adventures of a swimming hole aficionado

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.

( Check out the full trip report with pictures and videos )

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).

In the mountains, just one weekend day above 80 °F with no rain is rare, but BOTH weekend days sunny and above 80? This called for back-to-back swimming hole treks. I booked a room at the Pineola Inn since it is convenient to the Wilson Creek area, the land of swimming holes that are TOTALLY BALLER. As usual, my local friends were either busy or just not feeling enthusiastic enough about mountain swimming holes to make a 3.5 hour drive from Raleigh. Miranda was home in Abingdon visiting her parents and wanted to go to a swimming hole that we had never been to, but under the stipulation that it did not require a long or strenuous hike. I had driven through Wilson Creek Gorge two summers ago on the way to Harper Creek Falls (arguably the best swimming hole in the Wilson Creek area) and snapped a few pictures, but I had not had time to swim in Wilson Creek or explore it thoroughly.

Normally I consider easily accessible swimming holes to be low hanging fruit, but since I have two days to visit swimming holes, I figured one of them did not have to be a grueling expedition. Plus, the gorge had seemed scenic enough on my last visit to warrant further exploration, despite being right off the road. I met up with Miranda at the motel, and after I checked in, we headed to the gorge. The scenic area is a four-mile stretch of Wilson Creek that runs along a dirt road and is basically a continuous expanse of rapids and pools lined with boulders and sloping rock walls. The first thing we noticed when we got there was that the road was basically a dust storm due to the traffic (crowds are one obvious downside of low hanging fruit). It was a constant fog, and all the vegetation lining the road was covered with dust. Miranda’s black car was gray after a couple of minutes

I had examined Wilson Creek on Google Earth and marked the points on my GPS that looked like the best swimming holes. One of the areas was Ten Foot Falls, a class IV rapid which I had somehow missed on my last trip. After about two miles, we parked near where I thought Ten Foot Falls was supposed to be. There was a full parking area where we wanted to pull off, but we were able to park on the side of the road a couple hundred feet ahead. We walked down to the creek from where we had parked, and there was a pool about five feet deep just above a small sliding rock.

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

I haven’t decided where I will go tomorrow. Raven Cliff Gorge on Upper Creek is topping my to-do list for this area, and I still have loose ends to tie up at Steels Creek and Gragg Prong. However, Raven Cliff Gorge is not something I would do alone, and I’m not too fond of going to Steels Creek by myself either, so I’m leaning toward Gragg Prong. I am also considering checking out North Harper Creek Falls and Bard Falls on North Harper Creek, but I don’t know if they have swimming holes, and I will be supremely disappointed if I don’t take a dip tomorrow.