Another visit to Rocky Bottom Gorge Falls

Back in February and March, I visited Rocky Bottom in northern Pickens County along U.S. 178 to explore old logging roads and waterfalls, but an area that big can't be thoroughly explored in one day. This time I went back to explore more of the area in Rocky Bottom I've explored about a year ago, Spencers Alley and Hunter Camp Road.

I parked off the side of a wide part of Spencers Alley near a green gate, now open for the season. I spent most of the late morning to mid-afternoon hiking down old logging roads and whacking my way though thorny patches of blackberry vines.

After returning to my car and relaxing a while, I found I still had time to visit a section of Rocky Bottom Creek containing one of my favorite obscure waterfalls: Rocky Bottom Gorge Falls.

I visited this same waterfall back in April 2018. I took the same way I found back then to reach Rocky Bottom Creek, a short distance downstream from an old dam I found back in March. This area also happens to just downstream of a good looking waterfall obscured by rhododendrons. I crossed to the other side of the creek and made my way upstream to get this shot:
I also spotted a cave on the other side under a cliff.
I bushwacked my way back a short distance downstream to where I knew Rocky Bottom Gorge Falls was located. I took a few photos:
I also took a two videos with my phone and edited into one later on. I intended to only post them to my Instagram account so I took them in portrait. The video looks fine there since Instagram trims the letterboxing, but here it looks a bit off:
About 1000 or so feet downstream is another interesting waterfall, named Rock Bottom Falls, but reaching it through the many downed trees would have taken too much time to get there and back before it got dark.

One of these fine days I'll have to explore how to get to Rock Bottom Falls now that fallen trees block the easy path. My best bet coming from US 178 is a probably an old logging road up above the cliff I found during my last trip to Rocky Bottom Creek.

I shared my few photos from this visit to the album Another Visit To Rocky Bottom Gorge Falls - April 2019 at Google Photos.

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 22, 2021 at 8:48 PM

    Hey! I've been researching "rare" waterfalls (finding and photographing them) and several times I've found myself led back to this blog and was curious if you'd like to get in touch?
    -Jefferson Bargeron IV
    jbargeroniv@gmail.com
    JeffIV.com

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgotten Taylors railroad history: the P&N railroad

Image
The Piedmont & Northern railway  or P&N, now CSX, was an interurban railway operating two disconnected lines in South Carolina and North Carolina and was chartered by James Duke of the Duke Power Company. The South Carolina railway line ran from Greenwood to Greenville, Taylors, Greer, and on to Spartanburg. The railway was electrified with 1500 volts DC, until 1954 when the conversion to diesel locomotives was completed and the electrification abandoned. The Enoree viaduct, built in 1913 , has been remarkably accident free except for that one derailment on February 9, 1919. A northbound train passing over the viaduct derailed at its highest point killing 4 passengers and injuring 1 employee and 23 passengers. An investigation into the accident  [ direct link ] concluded poor track conditions and a tie-bar set too low caused the derailment. An electrical substation used to be located downhill from the top of the Enoree viaduct supplying power for the Chick Springs segment
Read more

A tour of Lake Summit

Image
With September comes meteorological fall and cooler weather, and the area experienced just that for a few days around last Sunday. My original plan last Sunday was to spend time with my ailing 14 yr old cat, Princess, but she didn't even make it past Monday. I changed my Sunday plan to a day trip and, after consulting my ever growing to-visit list, I settled on a paddling tour of Lake Summit in Tuxedo, North Carolina. I arrived there early, at least by my standards. The place wasn't very busy when I arrived. Permits are required to access Lake Summit for powered boats and personal watercraft like jet skis, but no permit is required for kayaks. Works out fine for me! However, to get a permit you must live in the Green River Fire District. The website of the homeowner's association has those details. The gate for the boat ramp was closed at the time, forcing me to walk through the pedestrian access with my inflatable kayak. I launched and headed for my first plann
Read more

First visit to Andersonville Island

Image
One of my major motivations for buying a kayak was to visit interesting places only reachable by water. Andersonville Island in Lake Hartwell is definitely one of those interesting places for me. Since my friend and fellow explorer Tom Taylor has been here before , and since he was clearly interested in heading back, I asked Tom to come along. After checking his availability, he agreed and offered to bring along a friend of his I hadn't met yet, Bennie Waddell. I took some vacation time off this week giving me plenty of days to choose from. I selected Wednesday, the 7th, for this trip to avoid the early week rain, and the later part of the week when the weather turns sharply colder. My other vacation days are being used to work on various projects inside the house. Before I get to the adventure, first a short-ish history of the area. Andersonville Island is named after the ghost town of Andersonville, once located on the northern and eastern side of the confluence of the T
Read more