Trip to Highlands

For Cheryl's birthday last month, we went to Highlands - not far from us but we hadn't been before. It's a well-established tourist area and one of the highest municipalities this side of the Mississippi.  We went to do some hiking.  On our way there, we stopped for a 2 mile loop trail up and down Whiteside Mountain. Here's a view of the area as you approach it from the east.  Our next photos were taken from the mountain you see on the right in the foreground.

 

 One of the views we saw from the mountain.

Since it was hazy, we thought we could include photos of us this time.

 From the National Forest signage, we learned that rock formation we were on is called a "pluton."

We stayed at the 4 1/2 Street Inn in Highlands - our hosts have been doing this a while and were very good at it. This is the side of the house - our delightful breakfast the next morning was served on the extensive deck.

 

But still on the first day:  After dinner in town, we went to Sunset Rock for more walking, but decided to drive the 1/2 mile up the bumpy road - it might have been better and almost as fast to walk it.  We were there well before sunset, but enjoyed the view overlooking the town anyway.

We figured this was another pluton, even though there was no sign.

 A short distance away is the Highlands Botanical Garden where we walked another half mile. That would be a nice place to go back to.

On the following day, we came back home by a different route, stopping first at a couple of waterfalls where we took lots of photos. We'll limit them but here are a few of Dry Falls which has great parking and access.

It's called "Dry Falls" because you can walk under the water and not get wet. That's not exactly true - we felt a cool mist which was very pleasant on a hot day.

 Here's Norris coming toward the camera.

We offered to take a photo of a couple who were trying to take a selfie, and got one of us together as a return favor..

 

Cullasaja Falls has no place to park - you have to just pull off the road and walk along the narrow shoulder between the pavement and the guard rail.

 

Since our new camera has "Auto HDR" (High Dynamic Range) and this shot has some very light and very shadowy areas, we thought we should try it out. 

 I think in this case the normal lighting is best.

Our innkeeper recommended the Cliffside Lake trails for our second day of hiking.  We picked the Vista trail which was has varying ways up and down, and wound up making a 3 mile loop.  It was uncharacteristically hot and muggy, but we were up for the adventure. Sadly,  the trail was not very well maintained so the vistas were overgrown.  Just to record that we were there, here's a final photo of a family enjoying a swim in the lake down at the parking level.