Dry Falls / Hiking Whiteside Mountain
A Day in Highlands, North Carolina | Dry Falls | Hiking Whiteside Mountain | February 2024
We started our day by driving out of the gorge and up to the small mountain town of Highlands, NC. Like many other places on this trip, we were surprised to find it was busier than expected, especially considering it was a weekday morning in February. After stopping in the town and having poor reception, we decided to drive further West to a scenic area to see the sights and maybe get some work done if we had phone service. It turned out that US-64 was closed a few miles outside of town, as was the closest recreation area, so we ended up stopping to see Bridal Veil Falls on the side of the road, and then ended up hanging out at the Dry Falls parking lot and overlook. Coincidentally, the only other person who stayed at our campsite the night before had the literal exact same plan, though we didn’t have an opportunity to talk.
Unlike Rainbow Falls, Dry Falls definitely did not live up to its name. The entire time we were here, we enjoyed hearing the roar of the water crashing over the side of the cliff. Since there were lots of stairs involved with the walk down to the waterfall, Curtis and I took turns while the other waited at the top with Charlotte. From the top it looked like the trail went behind the waterfall and to a vista on the opposite side, but that section of the trail turned out to be closed. Oh well, we were still able to get up close and personal with the waterfall!
Ater getting some work done here, we packed up and drove East on US-64 to our next activity for the day: Whiteside Mountain. The trailhead was again much busier than we anticipated, but the parking lot wasn’t full enough to scare us away. We gathered some water and snacks and set off on the trail. From what research we had done, we had seen that this hike could be done as a loop, with one way up being shorter but steeper and the other being longer with a more gradual approach. At first we thought we would go up the steeper path and then down the gradual one, but as soon as we saw the uneven rocky steps of the steeper route, we decided it would be better for Charlotte’s sake to just go up and down the more gradual path.
Overall, we’re thankful we chose this path, as it allowed us to casually stroll up the mountain on a wide, maintained trail rather than carefully guide Charlotte up steps like what we had seen. We were also in the shade of the mountain ridge for most of the walk, and enjoyed seeing icicles on the rock walls. However, Charlotte was still taking her time, and we didn’t want to push her too hard. As soon as we made our way around the mountain contour and up the final ridge, we found a clearing with a great view, and room to sit and sunbathe, so Charlotte and I stayed there and let Curtis hike the remaining half mile up to the peak at a much faster pace. Besides not finishing it together, we really enjoyed this hike and the views it offered to the South. Whiteside boasts some of the tallest cliffs in the East, and while we could never really get a great view of them from below, the view from on top was certainly great. If you’re interested, check out our AllTrails recording here (though there was some sort of glitch that makes it look like Curtis jumped off the mountain at the top…I assure you that did not happen).
Once we were finished with the hike, it was time to find a place to camp for the night. We thought we had the perfect place in mind, it appeared to be free and close to the start of a couple different trails. We took NC-107 South into South Carolina, then into Sumter National Forest where we drove to Burrells Ford Campground right on the SC/GA border…only to learn that the campground was either closed or walk in only. We were pretty confused by the signs and didn’t have service to do more digging for information online. We weren’t sure about the legality of parking overnight in the trailhead lot, and since the whole thing was on a slant, we decided that we would continue driving the forest road into Georgia. We were in a national forest after all, surely it wouldn’t be too hard to find a place to camp?
We ended up driving the entire long forest road to GA-28 and only saw maybe 1 spot where we could have parked for the night. But rather than stay there, we decided to go South barely into SC and to a different free dispersed campground. Thankfully we were easily able to find a spot here, at Low Water Campground right on the Chattooga River. We were still disappointed that the campground next to the trails didn’t work out, which meant we had to either drive back or come up with something else to do the next day, but still thankful to find a quiet spot on the river with plenty of room to relax, and a long empty road to take Charlotte for her evening walk.
