Mark's Photo Travels

"Pool" During my trip to and from Pinnacle Falls with Eric on April 17th , we made a few quick stops along the way. "Pool" On the way there, we stopped on Pumpkintown Road to take a few photos of an abandoned service station. A 1961 USGS quad map shows a building on this exact spot. The map also shows a road beside it on the left side leading to buildings that may no longer exist according to a current satellite view. The only possible clue to the name of the building is the word "pool" at the top over the service bays. Pumpkintown General Store and Cafe A store has been a fixture on the southwest corner of the intersection of S.C. 8 and S.C. 288 for many years. Succeeding generations of Burgess family members have owned the store since 1938. The Pickens County Library has posted to its Flickr account a few photos of what must have been an earlier building than what's currently standing. On the opposite corner is a produce st...

Pinnacle Falls April 17, 2015 A few weeks ago I read a trip report about Pinnacle Falls, a waterfall on Abner Creek near the Rocky Bottom community in northern Pickens County. The photos looked so tempting I just had to see it. A few extra days off this week gave me a perfect a opportunity to visit this waterfall. But as usual when I take days off, I had to plan around bad weather. The forecast for Friday morning and afternoon looked good enough, the other days not so much. Friday it is. I also thought this adventure well worth sharing, so I put out an invitation and my long-time friend Eric decided to come along. I picked him up at his house and headed west and north toward Rocky Bottom. We continued on past Rocky Bottom up F Van Clayton Memorial Highway then past Chimneytop Gap to the parking area. The parking area is located about halfway between a logging road and the Foothills Trail road crossing. We begin the journey to Pinnacle Falls by walking past a locked swin...

I've been interested in abandoned railroads here in South Carolina for a few years now. My blog posts about abandoned railroads consistently rank high in my blog's statistics, especially the series about my eventual success tracing the route of the Swamp Rabbit Railroad . I've also been interested in the route of the Glenn Springs Railroad for a while now but success here has been elusive. My internet searches turned up the general route of the railroad went from Roebuck (Becca Station), Stone Station, Pauline, and then ending near the Glenn Springs Hotel, but nothing more specific except that the route mostly stayed close to Stone Station Road. Even a page about this railroad on Abandoned Railroads , a wonderful resource, only has a few hints. I decided to revisit the topic when it popped into my head this morning, and after a long wait I finally have results to show for my patience. I knew the railroad operated from 1897 until sometime in the 1910s, so when I found a...