Eastatoe Creek Heritage Preserve: The Narrows - Pickens County, SC

The Narrows at Eastatoe Creek Heritage Preserve – Pickens County, SC - 6/7/20 – 5 miles

After three fun-filled days and three restful nights at our rural pandemic escape cottage, Jim and I headed home. On the way, we checked out one last waterfall at Eastatoe Creek Heritage Preserve in Pickens County, SC. There are many great writeups of this straightforward hike. This is my own two cents’ worth.

On gravel Horsepasture Road, we passed parking for the trailhead of a Foothills Trail spur and drove .4 mile further to a red gate with room for a few cars (don’t block the gate). If there is no room, it’s fine to park at the Foothills Trail and walk up the road to the red gate. (But you know hikers don’t like to walk any further than we have to!)

The yellow blazed trail began as an ever-so-slightly-uphill forest roadbed winding gently along Narrow Ridge. Every tree was leafed out, lush ferns filled every space in between, and the heavy humidity made every breath feel thick and green. [I learned on this site that the high humidity is a result of Eastatoe Creek being squeezed into a narrow channel, creating a fine spray waterfall called the Narrows – the focus of our interest today.]

The roadbed leveled out to lull us into a state of confidence. Then, at about 1.5 miles, the trail abruptly made a left turn, leaving the ridge behind, and a narrow track took us via switchbacks and steps down into the gorge. The way was easy to follow but I was aware that going back up would be no small effort. 

At an intersection, a sign pointed to the right for the Narrows.

More descending – boy, this really will be a lung-busting climb out – took us not to the creek’s edge, but to a viewing platform for a safe and unobstructed look at the thundering channel of the Narrows. We didn’t try to get closer to the bottom or the top, although other blog posts can describe their efforts.

We backtracked to the intersection with the Narrows sign, where the yellow blazed trail continued to the left leading .25 miles to campsites at the edge of Eastatoe Creek above the Narrows. The sites were spread out and sheltered so that I couldn’t count how many there were. Jim and I enjoyed our last creekside-big-rock lunch of this trip.

We headed back up the steep trail to the forest road and our car. We didn’t encounter any other adventurers along the way. Thus ended our first multi-day adventure during the pandemic. We planned carefully, tried to act responsibly, and neither of us got sick. We couldn’t guess at what was ahead or how long it would last…

“I cannot make my days longer so 
I strive to make them better.” 
~Henry David Thoreau