08/25/2007 Cathedral Falls NC Day 1

I drove out by myself, took 64 from Hendersonville through Brevard until I came to Hwy 215 leading North. Drove up the mountain about 7-8 miles and parked in the lot of the Living Waters Ministry building. Spoke with a few kids and got permission to check out the falls. Made the very brief hike (I could hear the falls from the gravel parking lot) down to the first falls, which consisted of two merging water sources in a semi-circle. This location was fed by a branch of the french broad river and another large creek.

Falls were 15-20 feet tall. I snapped a few pictures from a small piece of exposed bedrock that jutted out into the water. When I was done I got back on the path and stopped a few other places along the way where the river was accessible and took a few pics / video.





In all there were about 6-7 locations with falls in varying heights that were easily accessible. The well maintained path took me through some creepy bending branches/plants that canopied the train low enough for me to duck as I went through. I finally got to what seemed like the end of the trail and made my way down to Cathedral Falls. This was maybe a 25ft falls that flowed under a giant rock outcropping about 100 feet tall that it had been carving away for years.

Yellow lichen adorned the striated rock wall.

The roaring falls tapered down stream into a peaceful creek that flowed further down the mountain. I took more pictures here and experimented with the camera settings which I am still getting used to. Incidentally I never got a full shot of Cathedral Falls, both times I went I neglected to bring my wide angle lens with me and I could never fully frame the final falls (All the more reason to go back again!) All in all it was an incredible trip and I learned a lot about shooting waterfalls.

I'm wide awake and so alive

Ringing like a bell

Tell me this is paradise

And not someplace I fell

'Cause I keep on falling down...