Hiking the Falls of Hills Creek
Sep. 20th, 2023 06:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerWest Virginia Travelog #10
Hillsborough, WV - Sun, 17 Sep 2023. 4pm
To cap off our "The weather's crummy... let's go hiking anyway!" day today we visited the Falls of Hills Creek out in a remote part of West Virginia. It's quite a haul from our hotel in Beckley, but what else are we going to do on a rainy day?
It was actively raining as we started the hike. We considered not hiking, but again, what else are we going to do today? We pulled on our rain jackets and set off down the trail. At least the rain keeps out the riffraff. We had the trail almost entirely to ourselves for the 2 hours or so we were here.
Hills Creek features three waterfalls, upper, middle, and lower. The falls in my photo above are Middle Falls. The total drop at this tier is 45 feet. We passed upper falls but there was no good vantage point for photos. Here, with Middle Falls on Hills Creek, an elaborate set of stairs leads visitors safely down into the canyon.
These stairs are going to involve some huffing and puffing going back up.
But wait, there's more...
...More stairs to climb down to see Lower Falls. You pay on the return, but the views are worth it.
The lower falls are the tallest of the trio, at 63 feet. Here the water pours over a rocky lip, and there's a hollow underneath the ledge and behind the water. In drier weather we would have scrambled down from the wooden walkway to the path below and walked behind the falls. In today's soaking rain that's too dangerous.
Hillsborough, WV - Sun, 17 Sep 2023. 4pm
To cap off our "The weather's crummy... let's go hiking anyway!" day today we visited the Falls of Hills Creek out in a remote part of West Virginia. It's quite a haul from our hotel in Beckley, but what else are we going to do on a rainy day?
It was actively raining as we started the hike. We considered not hiking, but again, what else are we going to do today? We pulled on our rain jackets and set off down the trail. At least the rain keeps out the riffraff. We had the trail almost entirely to ourselves for the 2 hours or so we were here.
Hills Creek features three waterfalls, upper, middle, and lower. The falls in my photo above are Middle Falls. The total drop at this tier is 45 feet. We passed upper falls but there was no good vantage point for photos. Here, with Middle Falls on Hills Creek, an elaborate set of stairs leads visitors safely down into the canyon.
These stairs are going to involve some huffing and puffing going back up.
But wait, there's more...
...More stairs to climb down to see Lower Falls. You pay on the return, but the views are worth it.
The lower falls are the tallest of the trio, at 63 feet. Here the water pours over a rocky lip, and there's a hollow underneath the ledge and behind the water. In drier weather we would have scrambled down from the wooden walkway to the path below and walked behind the falls. In today's soaking rain that's too dangerous.
