RATtreks

N. Harper Falls, Chestnut Cove Br. Falls, and Little Lost Cove Cliffs – 12-28-2013

I finally got the pleasure of meeting and hiking with my friend Sam`s nephew Houston Kilby on a trip with them, Bol’Dar and myself that we took at the end of December, 2013. It was a cold day and there was some ice but no snow and the water level was decent. Of course any higher than normal water levels anywhere on Harper Creek means adventurous creek crossings and there are plenty of them. Starting around 10 am at the North Harper Creek Trail #266 located on FR#58 we began our descent into the Harper Creek Valley. It is not far to the first creek crossing where the fun begins.

Although it is not that far to the top of the North Harper Falls, there are several creek crossings. Each of which is not easy when the water is up and the exposed rocks are icy slick however, no one had any incidents on this trip. The top part of the falls is a long cascade that is at least 200 feet down to where the water drops off a 45 foot high vertical falls at the bottom. On my last trip here was during warm weather with not as much water flowing so I was able to walk most of the way down the face of the rock and then down a small trail along the left side of the falls to come out again at the top of the vertical falls. From there I was able to jump across the main water flow and walk over to the other side where I took a nice shortcut down to the base. It was too icy to stand on top of the vertical falls today.  This does cut out a lot of trail because to reach the bottom of the falls you must follow the trail up a hill to an intersection where you have to go right and back down a steep hill to find the bottom of the falls. It`s quite a ways around but on this day due to icy conditions and higher water flowing there would be no venturing out on the top of the falls. It was just way too risky so we had to do the extra distance to get there on the trail.

After finally reaching the base of the falls, we took a long lunch and enjoyed the beauty of these falls and the area around them. It was a cloudy day but for some reason neither Bol’Dar or myself could get any good long exposure shots of the falls. Not sure why because it did not seem that bright but apparently it was or it could be that we just don`t know what we`re doing !

After lunch I decided since we were so close that we would go a short ways downstream to see the Chestnut Cove Branch Falls. We actually passed them up and had to backtrack to find them. I do not recall them being that hard to find the last time I was there but we were coming in from the other way. There is not really an open or marked trail to these falls but they are worth finding. These are also a cascading type falls that are over 100 feet long and there is a small falls at the bottom left of them where the Chestnut Cove Branch flows into the North Harper Creek. There are lots of potholes in the rock of these falls all the way to the top and is where we found several large Northern Water Snakes living on our last trip here. They were living well on the frogs, tadpoles, salamanders, etc that lived in these holes.  It was too cold for snakes on this day and too slick to be walking around on the rock.

From those falls, we went back the way we had came, across all the many creek crossings to reach the vehicle but, it was still fairly early so I suggested we drive down to the Little Lost Cove Cliffs to check them out which we did. The cliffs are on FR#464 just a few miles below where FR#58 starts so it only took a few minutes to reach the trail head. Since we did not have two vehicles we could not do the loop so we parked on the higher end which is the first trail head you come to going in the direction we were going which is less climbing but doing the loop from there to the lower trail head is the way to go if you can. There is a climb to get to the top of the ridge and the cliffs but it is not that bad and not very far so we were there in no time.

The Little Lost Cove Cliffs are basically in two parts. The smaller ones come first going this direction and there is a fairly long side trail that leads to the left off the main trail to reach them. We went there first and checked it out. The views are good from either cliffs weather permitting.

There is a huge cave like area on the side of the large cliffs which can be seen from the smaller ones. Bol’Dar and I checked them out getting as close as we could to the top of it and I also found a nice trail on the way back that leads off the main trail that obviously leads down into the low spot and that cave area and the base of the cliffs. You can bet that I will be back to explore that one day.

From there we went back to the main trail and continued down into the gap and back up to the larger of the cliffs. The side trail there is much shorter and you basically walk right out on the cliffs. The views are much better from here as you can see off the lower side to the East to see the North Carolina mountains as far as the eye can see. From the main trail you can see Table Rock and Hawksbill way off in the distance through the trees when the leaves are  down. We hung out here for quite some time before it got late and we had to go.

It had been another great day in the woods with some great friends old and new. We had seen multiple waterfalls and cliffs and no one got wet or hurt so what more could you ask for? I am already looking forward to the next adventure.

To see these and more photos of these waterfalls and cliff, please visit our Photo Gallery.