The Waterfalls, The Parks, And Other Things

Reedy River Falls - 4

Tuesday March 24, 2015

After touring most of the obscure waterfalls on around Caesars Head, this time I set my sights on downtown Greenville, SC to visit two obscure waterfalls and one well-known one.
Arboretum Falls - 2
First up was Arboretum Falls, located very near the South Carolina Governor's School of the Arts and Humanities. To get here from the West End Parking area required descending some interesting stone steps.
Furman College Way steps - 2
A nearby historical marker explains how the Greenville Garden Club developed the arboretum in 1932 on land that belonged to Furman University at the time. Workers from the Works Progress Administration built the site. The site fell into neglect during World War II, and fell into disrepair once Furman University moved away. Today, the area is no longer neglected and is nicely maintained like the rest of Falls Park.

A short distance away is Reedy Falls, a major focal point of the park. I tried out various angles with varying degrees of success.
Reedy River Falls through Liberty Bridge - 1 Reedy River Falls - 2 Reedy River Falls - 3 Reedy River Falls - 4
I also couldn't resist walking around taking some photos of the important landmarks around the park like the Wyche Pavillion and the pedestrian bridge where the Swamp Rabbit Railroad use to cross over the Reedy River.
Wyche Pavillion Pedestrian bridge and waterfall
I also went downstream a bit to view the ruins of Vardry Mill.
Vardry Mill ruins
With part one done, I moved on to Cleveland Park and walked over to Rock Quarry Garden for part two and my last waterfall of the day. Rock Quarry Garden is sandwiched between McDaniel Avenue and Sherwood Street just north of Cleveland Park. Rock Quarry Falls is at the north end of the garden.
Stone lined creek
The waterfall is nice, but nothing special.
Rock Quarry Falls
Once the site of a pre-Civil War quarry, now Rock Quarry Garden is a small garden park with a stone lined creek bisecting the garden. Stone is definitely a theme of this place.
Stone bridge Stone bench Stone Bench - 2
This cut rock is evidence the site was once a quarry.
Quarry - 2
As I walked back through Cleveland Park, I took in some of the other features along the way back. One was the memorial to Major Rudolph Anderson, Jr., the only combat death from the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Major Rudolph Anderson Jr. memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the other feature I stopped by.
Vietnam Memorial - 1
On the way back, freed from having to focus on the task at hand, I noticed a lot of folks out jogging, walking, and parents playing with their children. I had no idea the park would be this busy on a weekday.

I shared my photos to an album on Flickr and an album on Google Photos.

In case you're wondering about this post's title (or even if you weren't), it's based on the catchy 1967 hit song The Rain, The Park, and Other Things by The Cowsills. This live version is from a 2004 benefit concert:

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