Waterfalls & Albert Mountain Lookout Tower – 8/25/12 – 3
miles
One of Jim’s cycling friends generously loaned us the use of
his vacation cabin in Franklin, NC and we skipped town for a much-needed rest
(for Jim, actually, because I skip town all the time.) On Friday we knocked around Franklin’s
downtown, shopping and eating, and got a good night’s sleep in the deep dark
woods. Saturday morning we went out
exploring, armed with Kevin Adam’s book “North Carolina Waterfalls” (which is
thick as a brick and just as heavy) and the corresponding map.
Rufus Morgan Falls is found on Forest Road 388 west of Franklin. The waterfall is halfway around a one-mile loop trail. The waterfall, a cascading slide about 65 feet high, was impressive though hard to photograph in dappled sunshine...but you get the idea.
Rufus Morgan Falls is found on Forest Road 388 west of Franklin. The waterfall is halfway around a one-mile loop trail. The waterfall, a cascading slide about 65 feet high, was impressive though hard to photograph in dappled sunshine...but you get the idea.
Interesting tree bark – I must get a tree ID book this year.
Next up, Big Laurel Falls on FR 67 in the neighborhood of
Standing Indian. The walk to the falls
is a smidge over a mile round trip.
Nice bridge to start us off
Crazy root system
Big Laurel Falls
Big Butt Tree?
One more waterfall nearby, Mooney Falls. The mileage in Adams’ guidebook is a little
fuzzy and we almost gave up, thinking that signs must be missing, but then
there it was. This gem is just a couple
hundred yards off of FR 67.
Mooney Falls (view from the bottom). There is a side trail to the top of this and
we could see more cascades upstream.
So a couple of miles of easy trail (and more than a few
miles of driving) and we caught three nice spots on our pleasant Saturday
morning. Anything else? Why, yes!
Also on FR 67 are several trails leading to the Albert Mountain lookout
tower, which just happens to sit on the Appalachian Trail on top of Albert
Mountain.
Which trail to take?
How much time do we have? Okay,
we took the easy option in Peter Barr’s book, “Hiking North Carolina’s LookoutTowers,” an old road bed trail at the bitter end of FR 67. A half a dozen pickup trucks filled with – I hate
to say this – non-hiker-looking guys in camouflage were hanging out at the end
of the gravel, waiting for their dogs to come back from “exercising.” These good fellows thought we were crazy for
hiking in the heat of the day when obviously it was more fun to sit and run the
air conditioning.
From here we hiked a quarter-mile on the old road bed and then turned right onto the AT for a steeper quarter-mile to the summit of Albert Mountain and the lookout tower.
From here we hiked a quarter-mile on the old road bed and then turned right onto the AT for a steeper quarter-mile to the summit of Albert Mountain and the lookout tower.
The catwalk and cab were locked so we settled for looking
around from the top of the steps.
View from Albert Mountain lookout tower
So the goal for today was to take a few walks and see a few
waterfalls and tag another lookout tower – a good day of exploring. We also wanted to enjoy the cabin. Rather than eat out, we picked up a pizza in
Franklin and went back to our home-away-from-home, beating the onset of an
afternoon thunderstorm by just a few minutes.
We sat on the front porch and watched the storm pass by, pretty
impressive.
The calm after the storm
1 comment:
There's nothing I like better than hiking to waterfalls. Looks like you found three nice ones!
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