The Thanksgiving holiday is a chance for most families to get together and eat a Thanksgiving meal. I didn't have that opportunity this year so I decided to go somewhere and visit some waterfalls I've not yet visited before. I've seen many photos of King Creek Falls posted online over the years and I thought that would make a fine place to visit for Thanksgiving.
After analyzing a map of the area, I chose to begin my hike at the parking area for the
Burrells Ford Campground, a quarter mile away from the campground off Burrells Ford Road (FS 708). When I arrived mid-morning several cars and trucks were already there. I had expected the place to be deserted, but it would seem a few other people had the same idea as mine!
The trail begins at the end of the parking area down the Foothills Trail. A sign a short distance down the trail gives the distance to King Creek Falls as a half mile.
King Creek Falls Trail begins off of FS 708B and joins with Foothills Trail just before crossing over King Creek.
Foothills Trail and King Creek Falls Trail soon split after the crossing the bridge.
King Creek Falls Trail proved easy enough to follow and I could soon hear the sound of rushing water ahead. King Creek Falls is just as lovely in person as it was in all those photos I've seen over the years. Fortunately, the lighting cooperated and I got some good results! I made sure get a shot of the whole waterfall...
and the photogenic lower half...
Instead of following the same path back to the parking area, I instead followed King Creek Falls back to FS 708B, and then back to the parking area. I took a break before heading down to the trailhead to hike up the Chattooga River Trail.
But first I just had to cross the South Carolina-Georgia border, and take photos on each side for good measure. First the South Carolina side:
Several trucks were parked by the trailhead, but I only ended seeing one person along the way.
This trail closely parallels the Chattooga River, and a spur trail about 0.2 miles from the trailhead (aptly named Spoonauger Falls Trail) took me to a second waterfall, Spoonauger Falls.
At first the trail stays close to the creek, but soon it heads up a few switchbacks until the trail ends at the waterfall. Spoonauger Falls isn't quite as pretty as King Creek Falls, but that's just saying something is a 8 after seeing a 10.
I decided to head north and see if I could make it to
Ellicot's Rock and Commissioners Rock and back before dark. I got about halfway there before I calculated how long it would take and realized the short length of day meant I would run of of daylight. Even though I had brought a flashlight, I had no real appetite for hiking in the dark!
Instead I elected to use some of the remaining light to stop at two of the overlooks and a memorial I passed on the way to Burrells Ford Campground. The first is just north of the Burrells Ford Road entrance on SC 107. If the leaves were still on the trees, I might have kept going:
Further up SC 107, between Buck Knob Road and Bee Cove West Road, is
a memorial to a B25-C bomber plane that crashed into a nearby mountainside in 1943.
I turned on to Wiginton Road where an overlook attracted several visitors during my brief visit. The overlook features an excellent distant view of Bad Creek Reservoir to the north:
And with that, my adventure came to a close. I regret not having time to visit Ellicot's Rock, but there's always next time. If I had done some research before heading out there, I would have been able to visit the site of Burrells Ford where the old, rutted wagon road crossed over the Chattooga River. I can visit that place next time too.
The album
Burrells Ford Hike - Nov 2019 at Google Photos has all my photos I shared from this trip..
Comments
Post a Comment