Mark's Photo Travels

With clear skies and cool weather, for once I picked a perfect time last week to take a vacation to visit some waterfalls. This time I chose to visit Moonshine Falls and Confusion Falls, two waterfalls near each other in the Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area in northern Greenville County near Caesars Head. Of the  four possible ways to get there , the one that appealed to me was the route from Caesars Head State Park where I could enjoy the fall view from the overlook before heading out. This route, one way, is about 4 miles according to OsmAnd+, one of my navigation apps I used to guide me to the falls. This route is downhill toward the waterfall, making it uphill on the way back. But first, the Caesars Head overlook. I took a quick tour of Devil's Kitchen, the namesake rock formation, before turning my attention to the overlook. I walked down the highway to meet up with Naturaland Trust Trail #14. Along the way, I walked by The Mountain House , once an Es...

March 17, 2015 I've been having bad luck with vacations lately. My February vacation featured cold, sleet, and snow so I stayed home. The forecast for my March vacation was for rain and more rain except for one of those days, March 11. I've been to Misty Falls and Mashbox Falls before, back in 2012 , but I wanted to see them again since I've been already been touring other nearby obscure waterfalls. On March 11, I brought everything I needed to take photos of Misty Falls and Mashbox Falls, except a camera battery I didn't realize was missing until it was way too late. Oops. Moving forward to March 17, I decided to try again with the information I gained from my first failed trip. Misty Falls and Mashbox Falls are two waterfalls off Pinnacle Pass Trail near Caesars Head. I visited them a few years ago. I parked in a small parking area off a gravel path that once was Oil Camp Creek Road located at one off a sharp bend in the road. Just beyond this parking area...

Friday, January 30, 2015 I took four days off this week with the intent of exploring waterfalls. What actually happened is I spent the first three days working a second job to help with some unexpected expenses. On the fourth day, I went up to Caesars Head State Park for a few hours to find three waterfalls I read about in Waterfall Hikes of Upstate South Carolina  (2009) by Thomas E. King, my go-to reference for waterfalls since 2010. I've driven by the park several times during the last several years, always on the way to somewhere else. I've certainly been there before, but I don't recall stopping by the park anytime in the last ten years, if not longer. On the way up I pulled off the side of the road to visit Drip Rock Falls, by the roadside off U.S. 276. It's a nice waterfall, but nothing special. I knew this one wouldn't photograph well, so I also shot a brief video: At the park, I first visited the overlook, and the famous profile. The overlo...

Yesterday I traveled up to Caesar's Head to revisit two relatively unknown waterfalls, Misty Falls and Mashbox Falls, and visit the area where Caesar's Head Hotel once stood. Misty Falls and Mashbox Falls are on tributaries of Oil Camp Creek and are located not far off of U.S. 276. I had already visited these falls back in the spring, but foliage was too thick then photograph well. No trails are available to either Misty Falls or Mashbox Falls, and despite their nearness to U.S. 276 neither one are easy to get to. I chose to park at a pulloff at a bend in the curve as shown on the map below. View To Caesars Head in a larger map Just beyond the pulloff at the next curve is Oil Camp Creek Road, now mostly hiking trail. I decided against parking here because getting back out seemed too risky. Misty Falls is the less difficult of the two to reach, so I made that one my first stop. Ignoring the sound of rushing water from Mashbox Falls, I followed Oil Camp Creek road do...