I've been telling people all summer how to get to this trail, and I'm so glad I finally made it myself! People often hike up from the river level, or through the woods behind the campground, but that would just be too long of a hike for me to manage. (I'm always amazed when people can do thirteen miles as a day hike, or as one leg of a backpacking trip. My limit is about 5 miles, usually.)
I was starting on the inner section of the loop, which snakes around the edge of the gorge and then sort of doubles back on itself. The part I did today took me through the woods to the edge, and then a little way along the edge before I turned around.
It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny. The sunlight at this time of year is just golden, and since I was up on top there was a lot of light coming through the trees - at the bottom of the valley the light is filtered through a lot more leaves before it gets through!
It rained a lot recently, and I kept seeing all kinds of moss and lichen.
It looks like tiny fern fronts and soft spiky balls...
This lichen is growing in little towers. It's fantastic - could be the setting for some alien landscape in an old science fiction movie.
This lacy stuff is all over the place. It's another type of lichen.
So GREEN!
This is a magnolia tree - I'm pretty sure it's an Umbrella Magnolia. We also have Big Leaf Magnolia, but both have equally enormous leaves. The maple leaves to the left show the scale here.
Black Gum trees have been a brilliant red lately, and some leaves had fallen on the path like so many tiny tie-dyed shirts. (Once that comparison occurred to me, I immediately started picturing hippy fairies in tie-dyed leaf shirts... My mind goes all over the place when I'm walking through the woods by myself.)
More of that woodland goldenrod, this time with a bee frantically collecting. Time's almost up for gathering nectar and pollen!
Lichen and some rippled fungi on a log.
This is some fungi on the log below that. I see little shelf fungi like this on logs all the time, but usually it's just bland white. This was really colorful!
This is a magnolia seed pod. Big and prickly - I had to watch out where I stepped, sometimes!
This was just along the trail - a single grave from 1932, for an infant named Archie Smith. A startling reminder that people used to live all through this area. You can also see old logging roads criss-crossing the trails here and there. There's a lot of local history, when you start digging.
This lichen not only has towers, it's got red caps on top!
People do go mountain biking on this trail, but there are some places you don't want to ride too near the edge!
My first view as I approached the edge. That's a backpack - there were two hikers checking out the same overlook.
This is not Angel Falls Overlook - it is the Falls Branch Overlook, showcasing a smaller gorge carved by Fall Branch Creek as it flows into the Big South Fork. The creek itself wasn't visible through the trees, but I did get a glimpse of the river in the distance!
Interesting patterns worn into the rock by flowing water.
Looking back up toward the trail.
Yet another, different type of lichen tower. I never knew lichen could do this! Usually it's just flat on a rock or tree!
Out on top like this, there was a lot of open space between the trees - even room for some tall grass to grow. Then the trail headed back into the woods for a time. I was relieved to see the junction where the trail comes up from the river, because I knew it wasn't much further from there.
Finally, Angel Falls Overlook!
It was a little tricky getting out onto that rock. The gap was just a little too wide for me to step across, so I had to go around and climb up a little instead.
This view is the main image on the park brochure. I've seen it dozens of times a day. I didn't realize I was going to be in that same exact spot.
This is really a seriously tall cliff.
I call this a "shadow selfie".
I could have turned around there, but I went just a little ways further down the trail. I had heard that there would be some more views of the cliffs and the river, and since I was doing the short version of this hike anyway, a little extra walking was no big deal.
I did get this glimpse through some branches, but I kept going.
Random giant chunk of rock in the middle of the trail.
The view looking out at the forest in the distance is green, but when it's red, it's really red. This is a sourwood tree. Other contenders for "Most RED" were sumacs and blackgums, dogwoods and a few early red maples.
The trail was following the edge pretty closely, but there were enough trees that it was hard to get a view. Finally I spotted a side trail that did the trick.
That's what I wanted to see!
It's cliffs all the way down...
The trees and shadows mean that it doesn't show up very well, but that is Angel Falls Rapids itself, down below. I climbed on those very rocks. If I had a real telephoto lens I could probably find the exact spot.
At that point I turned around - I could see the trail was heading away from the edge, so I wasn't likely to get more views without a longer walk that way.
I did not notice this enormous tree fungus when I walked out. However, walking back I noticed it, because there was another one in the middle of the trail! Apparently it just randomly fell off sometime after I walked past it. I certainly didn't step over or around it - it was too big to miss at this point!
A peek underneath.
Another big chunk of rock that slid down at this point. What caught my eye was the fact that the trees growing on it obviously came up after it slid to that position, because they are all perfectly vertical against that slanting slope!
This is the junction where the trail comes up from the river to join the Grand Gap Loop. There are a lot of trails joining in this area. I had to laugh at all the different directions given!
Wintergreen berries.
I had to stop again at Falls Branch Overlook. Seriously, how often do you get a view like this?
There were a lot of blueberry bushes that were just dropping their bright red leaves.
Mountain Laurel fruits. I think they're going to be a sort of pod.
The light was gorgeous no matter what type of trees were overhead.
This doesn't look like much, but I'm pretty sure it's the fruiting body of an orchid of some type!
Funny little chubby mushrooms on a log.
Little white fuzzy flowers.
I got back to the car and headed out, and only almost got stuck once. (I just had to re-position the car to get across that same deep rut.)
On the way out I stopped to look at the chestnut trees. The park has an experimental grove of American Chestnut trees, which aren't very big - but it's a chance to help propagate a species that was nearly wiped out by a blight. Occasionally this will come up at the visitor center and the person I'm talking to will get very excited to find that there are some chestnut trees nearby that they can go and see. They're pretty rare at this point.
No comments:
Post a Comment