Joyce Kilmer Forest

photo by ed

For those that haven't been to the Joyce Kilmer Forest recently, you might be interested to know that a lot of the Hemlock trees are dead or dying.  The forest service just this past year blew them up with dynamite, so it would look like either a storm came through or some type of natural event occurred that pushed them over. It sort of looked like it to me. A little depressing to see so many of these large Hemlocks have now fallen. They have succumbed to an infestation of a woolly adelgid (see below). On the bright side is the fact that all of the magnificent Tulip Poplars aren't affected. So if you want to see some large trees this is the place to go. Throughout the forest are various plants such as this one below.

photo by ed.

(The woolly adelgid is a serious exotic insect pest of Canadian hemlock and Carolina hemlock. It has no natural enemies within this country. Hemlock woolly adelgid was introduced here about 40 years ago from its native country, Japan, where it is not considered a pest. The adelgid is found in the Eastern United States from North Carolina to Southern New England. It feeds by sucking sap from the branches. If controls are not applied to pest infested trees most will die in 3 - 4 years. The insect spreads to host trees by birds, animals, humans and the wind.)

Waterfalls everywhere !!!!

We started out today on our waterfall adventure. The goal was to travel to Whitewater Falls which is located in the Nantahala National Forest about 13 miles from Cashiers, NC, located off of Hwy 281. Our route from Murphy, NC, took us through Franklin, Highlands and Cashiers, NC. Whitewater Falls is considered to be 411 feet tall and the highest waterfall in the eastern U.S. At the parking lot there are very beautiful views of the distant mountains. You proceed up a paved walkway to an overlook vantage point of the falls, about .2 mile. After arriving at the overlook vantage point you can then proceed down a wooden stairway consisting of about 154 steps to another vantage point. There is a steep mountain trail that continues down the mountain to the base of the falls, but we didn't attempt this trail. After leaving the parking lot there is an overlook that you can stop at where the view is of a mountain lake and distant mountain vistas.










On our way back to Cashiers via Hwy 107, we stopped at Silver Run Falls, a very beautiful falls with about a 30 foot drop. The fall is located down a trail and across a small wooden bridge about 250 yards from the parking space on the side of the road. This is a very flat trail and takes very little time to get to the falls. It is well worth the short walk to view this falls.





Click on arrow to view video.



After leaving Silver Run Falls we headed to Hurricane Falls,which is located on private property about 1.8 miles north on Hwy 107 past Cashiers. This falls was fairly hard to view even during this time when the trees had not put on their leaves. Since the falls is located on private property and next to the owners home we viewed the falls from the roadway opposite the falls. I imagine the property owners had a great view of the falls because their house was perched right next to the falls and had large windows facing the falls. The falls flows into Lake Glenville, a man made lake.

At this point we decided some food would be in order. The place we decided to eat at was Cornucopia located in Cashiers, NC. It was the site of a previous general store built in the 1800's. The restaurant also had an open air seating area. The menu was pretty extensive and I had a half rack of ribs, with fries and cole slaw. My companion had a pulled pork sandwich with fries and cole slaw. The prices were very reasonable, about $13 for the half rack of ribs. Service was excellent and the food was served very quickly. The food was excellent and the cole slaw was vinegar based and had a somewhat sweet taste. I would highly recommend stopping in here for food, but it appeared their hours were from 11am to 2 pm, so you may want to call ahead.










After a brief stop in Highlands, NC, at Buck's Coffee Shop and looking around at the various shops in downtown Highlands, we headed back to Murphy via Franklin, NC.

On the way from Highlands via Hwy 64 are three waterfalls, each with great views. In fact, Bridal Vail Falls can be driven under now that they have removed the large bolder that used to block the roadway underneath the falls. The falls is about 60 feet in height.













Proceeding down Hwy 64 you come to Dry Falls, which has a very nice parking lot and a new overlook built for viewing of the falls. The new overlook can be accessed from the parking lot without even hiking down the trail to the falls. If you do hike down the falls you can walk underneath the falls and go across to the other side of the falls. As you pass underneath the falls, you will get some overspray on you due to the mist from the waterfall. In the summer this can be very pleasant. This is a very stunning waterfall, which is about 80 feet in height. A large volume of water was flowing from this falls, probably due to the large amount of rain that had been occurring over the winter months. I would highly recommend a stop at this falls.

The road traveling to Franklin from Highlands via Hwy 64 is extremely curvy and you can only travel about 10 to 20 mph. It is an awesome road, but don't get in a hurry.


The next stop on Hwy 64 was in the Cullasaja Gorge at a waterfall called Cullasaja Falls. The height of this falls is about 250 feet and is spectacular. To view the falls you must stop on a very small edge of pavement, off of the road just around a curve. While it might not be the safest place to stop, it is the best and only place to view the waterfall from. On previous occasions, I have hiked down the hillside to the bottom of the falls, but it is a very difficult climb out.









After a successful and beautiful day of viewing waterfalls we returned to our cabin. The weather had been great all day for hiking to the falls and viewing them.

Lazy day at the Ocoee Whitewater Center

Today we traveled to the Ocoee Whitewater Center in Tennessee. The main road past the center is closed until about the 15th of April due to a rock slide that covered the road, so we stopped at the center to have a picnic and take a small hike by the riverbed. Since the road is closed by the center, they have not been releasing the water from the dam. The riverbed is dry most of the time anyway, unless they are releasing the water for rafting trips. We took a nice walk down the path next to the riverbed and it was very quiet. This trail is known as Old Copper Road and it was built between 1851 and 1853 to connect the Copper mines with the railroad in Cleveland, TN. It is now part of the US Forest Service property. After leaving the Ocoee Whitewater Center we stopped at Boyd Gap Overlook. This was a very pretty site with a long range view of the mountains in Tennessee. At this time the leaves had not filled the trees yet, so the view was more of a wintery view.

Huckleberry Knob via Robbinsville, NC 2 Jan 2010

On this day we traveled with friends to Robbinsville, NC, with our destination being Huckleberry Knob, to do some sledding. In Robbinsville we decided to eat at one of the few places that was open, Our Daily Bread Café. The food here wasn’t real good and the restaurant was in what looked like a prior home that had been converted to a restaurant. This is not all that uncommon in this area. Inside the restaurant were children of various ages running around and doing things that their mother did not want them to do, especially since she was the waitress and was waiting on tables. This seemed like a family run restaurant and the service was slow. Our waitress in fact had to run home to get one of her children a change of clothes due to an unforseen accident. I had a hamburger which was tasty, but others in the party had chili that tasted like it was from a can, not homemade. A disappointing lunch, but it was cheap enough.

After a short drive from Robbinsville to the Cherohala Skyway we ran into snow on the road and could observe the mountainsides covered with snow. The Cherohala Skyway was completed in the fall of 1996 after being under construction for some thirty-four years. It is considered North Carolina's most expensive highway with a cost of $100,000,000. The road traverses 5,400 foot mountains for 15 miles in North Carolina and descendes another 21 miles into the deeply forested backcountry of Tennessee. The Skyway is well known in motorcycling and sportscar circles for it's long, sweeping corners and scenic vistas. We arrived at Huckleberry Knob a short distance up the Cherohala. Huckleberry Knob is a place I’ve been a couple of times before, even in the winter with snow on the ground. This time was different, in that there was snow, but also a Hoarfrost had hit this area and left some amazing views. We climbed the road trail to the top and at the top the wind was blowing very hard. At the approach to the trail the temperature we recorded was about 10 degrees, so the temperature on the bald with the wind chill factor had to approach 0 degrees. I know that most of my body was warm, but my fingers froze. I’m getting a new pair of gloves folks. We sledded down the trail from the top and had a great time taking pictures and just looking at the beautiful scenery. This was one amazingly beautiful moment in time. I don't know if we could ever go back to find this place looking as spectacular as it looked when we were there.

Lunch at Luella's BBQ

After leaving the Grove Park Inn, we decided to stop for lunch. Luckily I had picked up a brochure that had a lot of places to eat in Asheville. Always liking BBQ we decided to stop at Luella's BBQ (http://www.luellasbarbeque.com/) not far from the Grove Park Inn. We ordered pulled pork plates. The plates we heaped with bbq, so much we had to take some home for lunch the next day. The food was very good and they served a vinegar style cole slaw. All in all, good service, good food and a nice atmosphere.

Asheville, NC- Biltmore Estate and Grove Park Inn

Today we headed to Asheville, NC, to hang around downtown Asheville and then go to the Biltmore Estate Candlelight event. On our way to Asheville at about Waynesville and all the way up to Asheville there appeared to have been a considerable amount of snowfall. The mountain tops and sides not facing the sun were still covered with snow. Just seeing the snow gets you in the holiday spirit. Arriving in Asheville we decided to walk down Biltmore St. to Broadway St. and look at various shops. This street along with others in the vicinity, have a number of small independent shops to peruse. We also went into the Grove Arcade shopping pavilion (www.grovearcade.com), located at 1 Page Avenue, where there are a number of independent shops. Grove Arcade was a nice place to visit due to the inclement weather, since all of the shops can be entered from inside the arcade building and you don’t have to go in and out of the weather to visit each shop. It’s more like a shopping mall concept. After looking around a good bit we decided to hit a local place for lunch. We chose the Early Girl Eatery (www.earlygirleatery.com) on Wall St. The food was very good and consisted of vegetarian fare, as well as standard offerings of hamburgers. I had a pan fried trout, which was very good.

We left the downtown area and checked into our overnight accommodations at the Grove Park Inn (www.groveparkinn.com) located on Macon Ave. This inn is on the National Historic Hotels registry and was built in 1912 as a resort and spa. There have been numerous well known historical figures that have stayed in the Inn, including eight U.S. Presidents, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Gershwin and Harry Houdini, to name a few. Fitzgerald spent two summers at the inn, 1935 and 1936. The lobby contains two fireplaces large enough for a person to almost stand up in. The vista from the outside deck is of the Blue Ridge Mountain range in the distance and at this time there was snow on the sides and tops of the mountains. The inn has amenities too numerous to detail in this blog. During the Christmas Holidays, they also have on display the National Gingerbread House competition entries. These are not your regular looking gingerbread houses, they are works of art. Making them more unbelievable is the fact that all of the display must be edible. The Grand Prize Winner was the bird cage looking one.

In the evening we headed to our 7:30 pm visit to the Biltmore Estate

candlelight viewing (www.biltmore.com) . I’ve been to the Biltmore Estate a number of times from the 1970’s to present, but this was the first time I’ve seen it by candlelight and with the Christmas decorations.

The main banquet hall had a “real” frazier fir tree that was about 25 to 30 feet tall and elaborately decorated. Unfortunately they do not allow any photos to be taken of the interior. Something new since the last time I was there was a display showing how they had restored the Louis XVI room. The wall covering they had reproduced in Lyon, France, was incredible. There were Christmas trees in most rooms, as well as decorations and either candles or battery operated tea lights. A most amazing place, whether you visit it during the Christmas season or other times of the year.

We returned to the Grove Park Inn after viewing the Biltmore. Our room was a very cozy room with built-in dresser drawers, robes in the closet and mission style furniture in the room.

Located on the inn property was an automobile museum and a very

impressive art gallery called Grovewood Galleries (www.grovewood.com) . The gallery has all types of handmade goods from jewelry to furniture. The most impressive woodworking I've seen combined in one place. Most of the furniture was of the Mission Style vintage.

We had a very pleasant stay. We left Asheville and headed to our remote cabin location.

Fabulous Great Smoky Mountain trip

Today we took a drive up through the Nantahala Gorge to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I anticipated a heavy volume of traffic and there was a lot of traffic. It actually worked out nicely to have so much traffic because we ended up going about 3 to 5 mph. This gave us plenty of time to view all of our surroundings without whizzing by at 35 mph. Our first stop was at the Sugarlands Visitor Center at the park entrance not far from Gatlinburg, TN. We took Little River Road to a stop at Laurel Falls trail. This is a 1.3 mile hike up the mountain on a nicely maintained path. The falls are really spectacular, in that you are right at the base of the falls when you cross a small bridge. The water flows beneath the bridge and falls probably 50 - 60 feet. We ventured up the mountain past the falls into an area that had some very large tulip poplars. This was supposed to be part of a virgin forest. I can tell you some of those trees were pretty tall and I would estimate about 100 feet. We didn't hike the entire trail into the woods because it was another three miles. We headed down the trail and at a point below the falls, observed four black bears. A mother and two baby cubs and across the trail on the higher part of the trail was another large black bear. The leaves throughout the park on the Tennessee side were some of the nicest I had seen and the drive through the park was spectacular. In the morning the Tennessee side had a heavy blanket of fog, but returning in the afternoon the fog had lifted. The North Carolina side was not as impressive because most of the leaves had already fallen. We exited the park and drove back through the Nantahala Gorge to the cabin.

Rainy day but great

Today (31 Oct) we ventured out in the rain. Our travels took us to Franklin through the Nantahala Forest on Hwy 64. Once in Franklin we decided to eat at a place called Caffe Rel. We had eaten there before and it was just as good this time, as it was in previous times. The complimentary pesto with bread was very good. The flat chips accented the fabulous sandwiches. Don’t let the fact that it is attached to the Hot Spot gas station fool you, this is some good food and service is excellent. After porking up, we left for Clayton, GA, and ventured into the Black Rock Mountain State Park. The views are very nice from this park and they have cabins that can be rented. After leaving Black Rock Mountain State Park we traveled to Tiger Mountain Winery and did a sample of their wines. Enjoyed the wine tasting and then traveled via Hwy 76 to Mercier Orchards and picked up some Pink Lady apples. The leaves on Hwy 76 were at peak and very pretty.

Planning doesn't always work

Well, I sat down this morning and planned my route for a day of leaf viewing. I decided that I could probably get the best leaf viewing in by heading to Franklin, NC, driving to Wayesville, NC then taking I-40 to Tennessee and coming through the Great Smoky Mountains Park via 441 through the middle of the park. I found some really nice color all the way up through Wayesville, where I found some stunning trees. The route to Franklin through the Nantahala Forest was very pretty in spots, but it appeared there were large areas of Tulip Poplar and River Birch that had already peaked. The Hickory and Maples were pretty nice though. As I entered the city limits of Dillsboro I crossed a bridge and noticed a little spillway, so I decided to see what that was all about. I exited the main highway and entered a nice little park with picnic tables right on the river. There was this spillway on the river and it was a pretty nice and quiet spot for a picnic.

I left the little park and traveled up to Waynesville, where I decided to get gas and something to eat. Since this was on a sunday there weren't many places open and I had to get a bite to eat at one of those fast food places. There was a restaurant named Clyde's that I was told was good food, but I didn't really want to stop and do a sit down lunch. I did take a couple of photo's of trees in Waynesville that were pretty stunning. I left Waynesville via Hwy 276 to tie into I-40 and cross over to Tennessee on the north side of the Great Smoky Mountains Park. As I approached the entrance to I-40 a big truck was across the road and several guys were there telling people that they couldn't get on I-40. There had been a rock slide and part of the mountain had fallen across all four lanes of the interstate. Traffic was backed up from Asheville to who knows where. I tried to persuade one of the guys directing traffic to let me go down to see the rock slide, but that didn't really work out. So at this point my plans changed, because the only other way to where I was going was to go to Asheville then go north to Johnson City, TN, and back down to where I was going (about two hours).So I went back toward Waynesville and I noticed a sign that said Cataloochee (which is part of the Great Smoky Mountains Park). I took this road which winds around for about seven miles to the park entrance. From the park entrance the road become a forest service road, unpaven and with gravel in places. For the most part this is one of those roads that you can only go about 5 - 10 mph due to the narrow road and many sharp curves. There were a lot of people on this road including a couple of guys that must not have read the info about traveling this road. One guy was in a corvette and the other was in a mercedez sports coupe with the top down. I'm in a truck and dust is flying all over the place, I know these guys needed a major shower by the time they got out of there. It so happens that there are two entrances into Cataloochee, one is a 27 mile drive, mostly gravel, from Cosby, NC, and the other is an 11 mile route partly paved. Lucky me, I got on the shorter route (it did help to have my maps and GPS though). After traveling through the forest service road I came to a nice overlook with some long range beautiful views. I spoke with a woman that had been to the Cataloochee valley below, in the morning, and she told of seeing elk and a bear with her cub. I ventured down into the valley and ended up at the site of an exhibit called Palmer House. There was a barn and a house with a couple of other buildings. Across the street was a nice little river flowing through the property. I took a picture of the river and the outbuildings. After viewing this site I traveled the approx. 10 miles by forest service road out of the park. The leaves were very colorful and about peak. I decided to return to the cabin via a different route, so I traveled down Hwy 19 through Maggie Valley, where I photographed another stunning tree. This route took me through the Cherokee Indian Reservation. On my way through the reservation, I noticed a couple of old motel signs. Since I like these old remnants of the past I stopped to take pictures. The motels are no longer open and now the Harrah's Casino and Hotel has taken their place. I followed Hwy 19 and as I crossed the Little Tennessee River I decided it was worth stopping for another photo. Traveling on Hwy 19 took me through the Nantalaha Gorge, which is a very pretty place regardless of the time of year. There weren't any kyakers on the river at this time (about 5:20pm). I traveled back to the cabin through Andrews and a back road. All along the way the leaves were very pretty and not yet peak. Altogether my trip was about 219 miles. This was a considerable distance, but I haven't gotten this opportunity too often. It was well worth the trip and the scenery was really great.