I went up to Tenessee and Western NC this past weekend to do some hiking. I figured i would write it down since i felt like i was writing this blog the whole time in my mind. Anyways, I had been wanting to visit the best waterfalls of TN and some of the more remote ones in NC. This is the best time of the year for waterfall photography. Yeah I know fall has awesome colors, but spring has vibrant greens and it is warm so you can get in the water and dont freeze from the spray.
I wont begin to recount every step of the way, but just give a few memorable moments of the trip.
We went to this one called Ruby Falls. It was listed in my TN map as a "Unique Natural Feature". I usually like to check these out reguardless if it is a waterfall or not. So we were in Chattanooga and i had overestimated how much time it would take to see two major waterfalls so we had extra time. We pull up on top of lookout mountain and there are people everywhere. So i thought this has to be something cool.
Turns out it is a 145 ft waterfall inside a cave. So we get in line and get tickets and head in. I was standing in line to inside with our group and some more people came up and I thought to myself "it's about to get loud", and it did...
They tell you it takes over an hour to go through, but in reality you stand in line inside the cave for about 50 mins of the tour. There is only one way in and out so you constantly have to stand aside to let other groups. We finally get to the waterfall and they put all these colored lights on it and play this freaky music. It is kinda cool but i wish they would just turn on the lights and let me set up my tripod and take a picture. Instead i had to hand hold for about 4-5 secs to get a shot so they are a little shaky.
Afterwards we talked about it (my dad and I) and he says he thinks the waterfall is fake and that is why they dont keep the lights on very long. I thought it was real. I guess we need fox to investigate it like they did the moon landing. The whole time i was in the cave i keep thinking,
basically I paid $35 for a bite size 3 musketeers".
There was one redeeming factor in the whole event. The tour guide looked exactly like Karly which was cool and her name was LINDA. So the whole time i was standing there I wished 2 things. I wished either that I was taller or kipp was there. I'll explain. If I was a little bit taller I would have had to bend over since the cave is only about 6'5" tall. Then my back would have hurt and you may have guessed it, I could have said "I'm hurtin Linda". Or if Kipp was there I know reguardless of his height, he would have come up with some Sling Blade Linda phrase to say. I suppose i should have just bashed my head into a stalagtite...
There was so much more to the trip. I had so much fun and the waterfalls were awesome. Of course they were the best part and the weather cooperated almost perfectly at each one.
Here are the stats:
Left - Friday 6:00 am
Returned - Sunday 9:00 pm
Waterfalls Visited - Midnight Hole, Mouse Creek, Ozone, Burgess, Fall Creek, Ruby, Mingo, Tom Branch, Juney Whank, Crabtree
Miles Traveled - 1129
Miles Traveled on Blue Ridge Parkway - From its end to Blowing Rock 162
Miles Hiked - 20
Pretty much all I ate - Peanut butter sandwiches
Some thoughts on those stats: I wished we went 100 total miles less...
At Tom Branch I thought of you Kristie and at Juney Whank I thought of
aaron.
Maybe soon I'll post the pictures.
Oh about my birthday last weekend. Wow it was great, the best in a long time. From Thursday through Sunday so much cool stuff happened.. It was good to see alot of old friends too. The only thing bad was aaron crushed my dreams about making the next movie....