Photographic explorations centered around Upstate South Carolina.
A Visit to Beech Bottom Falls and Sassafras Mountain Overlook Tower
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Soon I'll be leading a hike up to the observation tower on Sassafras Mountain on the Foothills Trail (weather permitting of course!). I haven't hiked this section of the Foothills Trail before, and I wanted to see what it's like on my own before I lead the group hike. I also wanted to see Beech Bottom Falls, formerly known as Pinnacle Falls, while I was there. That waterfall is down a different trail I had visited in 2015. A new trail was opened in the summer of 2018, the waterfall renamed at the same time, and the old trail has been abandoned.
I parked at the Chimneytop Gap parking access area, off U.S. 178 seven miles north of the intersection with S.C. 11. I thought too many cars were parked here to all be individual hikers. I figured it had to be some sort of a meetup.
I also figured they were probably headed up Sassafras Mountain. But for now, I'm more interested in what's down Beech Bottom Falls Trail.
Beech Bottom Falls Trail
The bat roost I saw in 2015 is still there:
During construction of the trail, a wood bridge was installed over Abner Creek.
In 2015, I had to ford the creek. Back then, there was no signage on the old trail. The new trail is well signed though.
A second wood bridge, looking very much like the first, spans a different section of Abner Creek.
A sign a half mile from the observation deck warns hikers to stay on the trail.
The observation deck is down a steep set of stairs overlooking Beech Bottom Falls and Abner Creek.
Down below, I could just make out another but much older observation deck. This one belongs to Camp Hannon.
Until the summer of 2018 when the new trail was opened, Beech Bottom Falls was known as Pinnacle Falls. I have no idea why the name was changed. Whatever your preferred name is for this waterfall, Beech Bottom Falls is quite beautiful. Recent rains have perked up the water flow a good bit.
I took a short video with my cell phone to show the water flow:
Foothills Trail to Sassafras Mountain
I made my way back to the parking area, then walked down a few hundred feet down U.S. 178 to start up Foothills Trail to Sassafras Mountain.
This section is the steepest of the three segments up the mountain.. I met some people coming down the trail. My suspicions of a meetup proved correct. A hiking group had indeed hiked up the mountain and were now coming back down.
What started out as a single track width trail soon widened to road width as the trail joined with an old logging road. Foothills Trail joins and leaves old logging roads at least twice that I noticed. The middle segment follows another old logging road, where this sign is located:
This part of Foothills Trail parts ways with the old logging road as the trail ascends to F. Van Clayton Memorial Highway.
This small parking area is where the third and final segment begins for the final ascent up Sassafras Mountain.
I watched a steady stream of traffic head tower the top of mountain before I could finally cross over the road and up the stairs.
This section was a steep at times, but not as strenuous as the first segment. I didn't see anybody until I got to this sign:
Then I could see all the people that had come up the road the easy way. Some had setup a picnic on a flat rock, but most others will milling around taking photos of each other and taking selfies. The observation tower was quote popular.
I searched for a bricked area for a particular Meetup I'm a member of:
I took photos of the observation tower itself and the compass on top of the tower:
I also took photos of the black stripe that marks the border between North and South Carolina.
And of course I took photos here too. How could one not?
I also took some panoramas from a few different views:
As soon as I got back on Foothills Trail, the crowds quickly disappeared behind me. The downhill hike back to my car went by rather fast. That meetup group had gone home long before I made it back, leaving my car the only one left when I reached the parking area.
This hike had enough strenuous parts to exercise the legs, but not so strenuous that it becomes grueling. I hope my group will like it.
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