Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

Blue Ridge Trip '24 #19
Seven Devils, NC - Thu, 5 Sep 2024. 11:30am

We got going earlier today than yesterday. It wasn't hard since we didn't leave our hotel until about 11am yesterday. Today we were out by 10. Maybe by tomorrow we'll leave actually early. 🤣

Our plan for today is to hike a bunch of shorter hikes. Put together they'll make a pretty full day. Though while our first hike, at Otter Falls, is short in distance— it's just over 1 mile round trip— it's steep, with a climb of 300' back up on the way out.



Otter Falls is in the oddly named town of Seven Devils. It's odd because why give a town a name like that in such a religious state? I mean, this is a state where there are "JESUS SAVES" posters on every second telephone pole along the highway. OTOH, Seven Devils is clearly a WealthyPeople CountryClub town. Instead of old farmhouses and aging double-wides close to the road the houses here are all bespoke country mansions set back from the road, and every street other than the main one is marked "private drive". Wealthy people don't care if it their town's named for satan's cohort. Religion is the opiate of the masses, not the 1%.

Wealthy people also can afford to have nice hiking trails in municipal parks right in their town. Though this one also has a big signboard with all the donors' names up at the entrance. Wealthy people can afford nice parks.. but they demand recognition for funding them.



We followed the maze like trails down to the bottom of the canyon. Here we reached the main branch of the creek and started walking back up it. First I paused at the lowest cascades (above). though.



Walking up the creek is always better than walking down it. Walking up you see all the falls and cascades. Walking down, it's too easy to miss beauty because often it's hiding behind you.



There aren't too many cascades to Otter Falls. After all, the whole hiking trail is just over a mile, and most of that is the down and back up part. We spent time at the all the cascades and lace falls along Otter Creek.

As you can tell from the gray sky in the background of these photos the weather was a little grim. A heavy fog hung over the mountains around us in Boone. The forecast showed no rain for today; just this fog hanging over us until noon or 1pm. The thing with enjoying waterfalls, though, is that foggy/cloudy weather is actually okay. It creates a cozier ambience around the creek. And the clouds/fog also keep away the crowds. We were able to enjoy these falls entirely to ourselves even though once we returned to our car there were already two other cars of visitors starting down the trail.

Australia Travelog #38
Leura, NSW - Sat, 30 Dec 2023, 12:30pm

The steep trail down to the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls was worth it. And the climb up on the return I knew I'd have to do was worth it, too. I knew both of these things as soon as we got to the foot of the falls.



From this angle down here at the bottom of the falls we couldn't see most of the falls. They were way above of us. But this little bit we did see— this little bit that's still a towering massif with water pouring over it— was amazing. We found a flat rock off to the left in the sun to sit on.



We explored a bit around the foot of the falls. The rocks were slippery, of course, with all the water and spray pouring over them, so we stepped gingerly. And, honestly, we didn't explore that far. We were already past the safety fence anyway. WIth my already sprained ankle I didn't want to risk slipping and having to do the ascent in worse pain.



Back on the other side of the safety rail some fellow hikers offered to take our picture.

Then it was time to make the slow ascent up the canyon.



The ascent, too was worth it. And not just because we had to get home eventually but because it brought us new views of Bridal Veil Falls. The photo above shows a view from above it and to the side.

The trail wound down from this viewpoint to the top of the falls itself. Of course right at the top there isn't much to see. There's just a stream until... there's not. So we headed upstream to the Leura Cascades.



The Leura Cascades are a set of small, stair-step falls. Again we climbed around the safety rail and perched on large rocks to enjoy the falls from a closer vantage point.

We looped around from the Leura Cascades to Cliff Drive, the part of the road that's closed off as you can see in the barricade picture at the top of part 1 of this trek (previous blog). Oddly this last 1/2 mile or so on paved road was the hardest on me. It's not because it was a paved road but because it was steadily uphill and my sprained ankle was asserting itself pretty hard. Well, the next stop is lunch!

Australia Travelog #36
Katoomba, NSW - Sat, 30 Dec 2023, 10am

Today's our last day in Australia. Well, our last full day. And though my ankle still hurts from overdoing it on Thursday— and, frankly, overdoing it again on Friday when I was already hurting— I am determined to maximize what I am able to see and do today. There is no back, only forward.



The cool thing about there being many small towns bordering Blue Mountains National Park and Jamison Valley is that there are many entrances. We drove up to a spot in town marked "Katoomba Kiosk", parked in one of the few spots the side of the road— which was easy "early" in the morning at 9am— and walked down a short, paved trail down to the canyon rim.

The photo above is from Reid's Plateau, a small climb up after the dip below the rim. From here there are nearly 360° views, including out across the broad canyon. There's an aerial tram crossing this nook of the canyon. That's operated by an adventure company here in town. They also have an inclined train that goes down/up the canyon. It was originally built for mining work decades ago and was repurposed for tourism. We looked at buying tickets for the inclined train as a way to get out of the canyon rather than hiking back up the ~1,000' ascent from the bottom but reservations are required and the time windows available didn't fit out needs.



Here's another view out across the canyon from Reid's Plateau. In this photo (above) I've zoomed in on Orphan Rock, that spire rising up in the center of the frame.

Hawk found a blog in the research we were doing on hikes in the area where someone wrote about climbing Orphan Rock recently. There used to be a maintained trail there. ...A tough one, with ladder-like rails in the rock. It was closed years ago after damage that the park service chose not to repair. We could see the remnants of the hand rails on the rocks.



Turning to the other side of the viewpoint we found views of Katoomba Falls. Hiking it has been one my top priorities the past several days. Alas we didn't do it early, and now I'm not well enough to get all the way to the bottom and back up. And the train (mentioned above) don't serve our needs well enough for coming back up. So we'll satisfy outselves with going just part way down. I see on the may what looks like a beautiful viewpoint near the bottom of the top tier of the falls.

Ah, but there's another problem: the sun. The falls are in deep shade right now. They'd look better in the light! Sounds nitpicky, right? But here's the thing. With a photographer's mindset I think about where the light will be at different times of day. I can look at this scene, consult a compass, plot where the sun will be as it travels across the sky throughout the day, remember to flip all that upside down as we're "Down Under" in the southern hemisphere 😂, and conclude that this scene will look way better after, say, 3pm.

So: We'll bail out of this hike for now, hike another falls— which are currently facing into the sun— this morning, and come back here after lunch and other stuff.

Oh, but while we're here we'll visit another falls that's currently in the sun and won't be at 3pm.



This is Witches Leap, a drop of about 80' high on the canyon wall. Getting down to this vantage point was a drop of at least 100' on the trail... and an equal, but slower, climb out. 😣 And yes, we'll have to come right back down this way (and up it again) when we return for Katoomba falls this afternoon. Oh, the pains I go to to have fun.

Australia Travelog #27
Valley of the Waters, NSW - Fri, 29 Dec 2023, 10:30am

The first part of our hike down into Valley of the Waters was not exactly fun. The sky was gray, casting a pall over everything. And there was lots of descent— which not only ached my injured ankle going down but made me dread the pain I'd endure climbing back up. That cast a further pall over things.

The pall of pain I couldn't do much about except grit my teeth in determination. There is no "back", only forward.

As for the pall of the gray sky... well, that's actually good for visiting waterfalls. The dimmer sky creates a more intimate atmosphere down underneath the tree canopy. Moisture on the leaves from fog or light rain makes everything glisten. And the dimmer, more even light from the overcast sky makes waterfall photography more vibrant. ...That sounds paradoxical; dimmer equals more vibrant? It's because, technically, the dimmer light makes it easier to capture the the contrast of the scene with a camera's limited range of brightness sensitivity.

Now about those waterfalls....



Empress Falls (above) was the nominal star of the trip. She's the tallest on today's trek, with the upper set of cascades being about 80' tall. I thought this lower vantage point, showing the wider, shorter lower tier made for better composition. Update: I'll come back to the upper part in my next blog.

Below Empress Falls the trail kept going down, down, down. I wasn't sure how well I could make it back up but... in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. Or, there is no "back", only forward.



I was glad I kept going forward, as Sylvia Falls is quite beautiful. At less than half the height of Empress Falls I found it more enchanting, partly because it's right there next to you. And the gentler flow of water makes it even more intimate.

Trail reports had warned us that the trail is blocked below Sylvia Falls by a landslide. We didn't see any signs of closure of danger, though, so we continued forward.



We found one more falls (above) before the trail was blocked. This falls was much smaller than the others but even more intimate. Intimate, as in you could sit right next to it.

We weren't the only ones here. A family had arrived just ahead of us. An adolescent girl posed for pictures in the water (we waited for her to finish) while her older brother snapped lots of pictures with his DSLR camera.

Keeping Australia's Kids Off Drugs

I noticed the boy balancing his camera on his dad's shoulder. "I see you've got an impromptu tripod there," I ventured. "Are you using with a neutral density filter to take slow-exposure pics?"

"Nah, I need to buy one of those next," he answered.

"What filter size does your lens take?" I asked, seeing already that it was likely the same as mine. Once we confirmed it was the same size, I offered him my 6-stop ND filter (some technical discussion in this blog and another blog it links to) to try shooting some silky water pics. He enjoyed capturing several frames and then passed the filter back to me. Well, if he got some Amazon gift certificates for Christmas, I know one thing he might want to buy now. 😅 There's an old saying, "If you want to keep your kids away from drugs, get them interested in photography. Then they'll never have money left for drugs!" 🤣

Update: On the way back up we saw an amazing sight— climbers rappelling down the face of Empress Falls!

Australia Travelog #23
Wentworth Falls, NSW - Thu, 28 Dec 2023, 4pm

It was a long way down the steep stairs carved into the cliff from the upper viewpoints on Wentworth Falls, but it was worth it. We made it down to the middle crossing, and we were hardly the only ones.



Don't like video? Here's a photo I made with my ultra-wide angle lens that shows the whole falls— well, the one-third or so of it that's visible from here— at the same time:



After this we climbed back up all those steep stone stairs carved into the sandstone cliffs. By the time we made it back up to the upper crossing I had counted nearly 600 stairs. But even from there there was still more to go to get back to the trailhead. 🥵

What to do when you're flagging? Well, that's part of the beauty of In beauty I walk. When I'm tired, I pause to enjoy the beauty around me even more! 😂 Like these nearby falls, Weeping Rock:



A lot of people slam through on the main trail and miss these falls just 50 steps away on a less used trail.

Well, soon enough I was done with my rest— I mean, pausing to enjoy more the beauty in which I walk— and it was time to continue on. But instead of taking the shortest route back to the trailhead we opted to hike at least part of the Undercliff Track. Yes, I already knew I was running out of stamina, but I still had daylight, good weather, and food and water. I'd make the stamina if necessary.



Here's a video (above) showing typical scenery hiking the Undercliff Track. I'm glad we did it! But soon even my second reserves of stamina were flagging so I knew it was time to complete the loop home.

Ah, but even on the final leg home, there's still time to pause to enjoy the beauty in which I walk.



This is a view of Wentworth Falls and the sandstone cliff over which it falls, as seen from the Princes Rock Lookout. The main drop of the falls you see at the left is the middle of Wentworth Falls. At the top of it is the upper crossing; and above that are several small upper tiers of the falls. At the bottom of that exposed area is the middle crossing. That's where I captured the photo and video at the top of this journal entry. Below that, at the lower edge of the frame, you can barely see some of the lower tier of the falls. It's mostly occluded by mountains and trees from this viewpoint.

Australia Travelog #21
Wentworth Falls, NSW - Thu, 28 Dec 2023, 2:30pm

I'm titling this entry "Hiking Wentworth Falls, part 1" though in a sense it's already part 2. That's because we've already been to this trail twice today. We came came here first thing in the morning and couldn't see anything. Well, the canyon, yes, but not the falls. We decided to get more information about which hike(s) would provide great views at the information center— which is over at Echo Point. At that info center we learned that, hell yes, we need to hike Wentworth Falls because it's amazing. But then we hiked the Three Sisters first because it was right there. 😂

Back at the Wentworth Falls trailhead after lunch we found that the trail was way more crowded than when we visited in the morning. In the morning the parking lot was mostly full but there was no wait to get a space. This afternoon cars were already parked up and down the street for 1/2 mile outside the park and several were vulturing inside. We waited patiently in traffic for a few minutes and slipped into a space as some of the midday crowds were leaving.



The thing about Wentworth Falls is that the views really aren't at the trailhead. That's despite there being not one but two named vista points right near the parking lot. If you want to see anything at all, and especially if you want to see the falls, you have to hike more than the paved sidewalk. The photo above is from Fletchers Point. It's about 1/2 mile in and a few hundred feet down from the parking lot.

Fletchers Point offers more sights than just a nice view out the canyon. Turn to the left and you catch a nice glimpse of Wentworth Falls. Or, should I say, a small part of Wentworth Falls.



Yes, this is really just a small part of Wentworth Falls. It's just, like, the upper part of the middle part of the falls. As beautiful as it looks already you can just imagine what's coming soon. Notice in particular on the cliff on the far side of the falls there's a lookout high up on the cliff above the falls and narrow stairs carved into the rock below the falls. We saw those spots, imagined how amazing the falls must look from over there, and found energy to push farther along the trail.

The next photo comes from a spot you can see in the photo above. Notice that section of trail that crosses above falls. There's a metal railing there. Here's what you see from that crossing, looking up the stream:



It's another set of falls! This is the lower upper part of Wentworth Falls. Yes, it's right above the upper middle part. If you were to turn 180° here and take a running jump into the water, you might go over the edge and fall hundreds of feet. But on this side of the rail it's pretty safe, and as you can see, a lot of people of all ages are enjoying the falls and pools on this summer afternoon. (Actually there are 4-5x as many people in the water as you can see in this photo. I captured several pictures and picked the one with the fewest people in the middle then cropped it.)

Stay tuned.... We're going to hike out along those paths carved into the side of the cliff opposite the big part of the falls!