The joys of being outside with nature.  We ventured off to the mountains to see waterfalls and other things not common in Florida.  This particular state park is located in Sapphire, North Carolina and is called "Gorges State Park".  For those that might be wondering, this park is located .7 miles south of Highway 64 on Highway 281.  We parked the truck, and then headed over to the area known as "Grassy Ridge Access Area".  After reading the various signs indicating what the trails are, the trail we choose to take is Rainbow Falls Trail.  This is labelled as: "This strenuous 1.5 mile trail travels west of of Gorges State Park and into the Pisgah National Forest.  The state park trail ends after 3/4 of a mile and connects to a path in the Pisgah National Forest." 'Blaze=orange circles'.  So, 1.5 miles - that can't be to bad right?  Well, it wasn't, but I will say the 'strenuous' part did add another dimension to this hike.  We went uphill, downhill, upstairs, downstairs and eventually decided that we should take a few pictures along the way to take some breaks.  When we go hiking, we are carrying a few pounds along with us on the trail, so it's not the same as just hiking hands free.  Here's the sign to help us remember "Orange circles" and point us in the correct direction (also helps to remember which trail the pictures were taken on).

We hiked - Jim, Jimbo and I.  There were times I wondered what exactly I had set out to do, but when we got to the end....it was worth it.  Here's some pictures of the waterfall.

After watching all this water plunging downward, mist flying, I decided to try some black and white infrared photography. Trees turn white (at least healthy ones do) making it appear more like a winter scene.

The trail down to the edge of the waterfall is a small dirt path about 2 feet wide.  Lots of green (white in infrared) foliage on the ground.

Getting a little closer and seeing the water with mist flying everywhere made it cooler as we watched the water flowing over the rocks.

The only bad thing I can say about this particular hike, shortly after we reached our destination it started to lightly rain.  Rain by itself can be very refreshing (not good for my camera), but it does cool you off.  However, soon the thunder cracked loudly and Jimbo wasn't happy.  The travel back to our car was the fastest I have ever traveled 1.5 miles of strenuous terrain!  It started raining harder, I was sweating harder but eventually Jimbo and I made it to the truck.  We had no idea where Jim was, but after 30 minutes the rain stopped. I pulled Jimbo out of the truck to go look for Jim who was just exiting the trail.  Wow, what an adventure - and definitely worth the trip!

Until next time...