Fires Creek and Jackrabbit Mountain

The weather was really pleasant today (72 degrees at 12 noon). I traveled to a park that I've been to before called Fires Creek. It is in the Nantahala National Forest and consists mostly of a picnic area and trails that can take you about 28 miles, if you wish to go that far. Being a little lazy, I chose not to go that far and only went to the end of the river trail that ended at the river. Since I didn't want to get wet, I didn't cross to go across the river. The park has picnic tables and borders a nice stream, as well as a small waterfall. The trail I took had tables along the river and the forest was very dense. There wasn't anyone at this park when I walked the trail. It was very quiet, except for the stream that flows next to the trail. As you can tell from the photo of the rocks, the water is perfectly clear. A very tranquil walk indeed.

I left the picnic area and traveled up the forest service road for about six miles. This was basically a forest service road with gravel. Over the six miles I traveled at about 10 mph, the river could be heard all along the way. This was a road that had a canopy of trees over it and most of it did not have any sunlight showing through the canopy. I did encounter one small waterfall coming off of the mountain, but most of the road consisted of highly dense forest. There is a place off of the road for people that want to camp with their horses, it's called Bristol Camp. There were only a couple of campsites taken, but a very large horse trailer on the site. After looking at my GPS, I decided that the road I was traveling ended in the forest after several miles and so I decided to return back down to Fires Creek.

I left Fires Creek and ended up at Jackrabbit Mountain, a park run by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Most of the park entrances were closed, except for the boat launch site. There are nice views of the Chatuge Lake from most places in this park. The park consists of a day use area, a mountain bike trail, hiking trails and campsites. I decided to leave this area and head back to the cabin. Along my way I did stop and photograph a barn that was not too long for the world.