On to Brevard, NC

We had learned from a fellow hiker friend back in Arkansas about Transylvania, NC, and how it boasted over 200 waterfalls.  While investigating this county on line, I found the town of Brevard, which sits right at the edge of Pisgah Nat'l Forest, and many falls.  We reserved a campsite there along the Davidson River, and decided to camp for three nights, as we explored Brevard and the surrounding area.

We were camped near a rock church built in the forties, and the name of it, English Church, was spelled out with rock over the door. English was the founding pastor's name.  (Can you find it?)

There was a nice trail that ran for several miles along the Davidson River and people were running or walking it all day. This river was fished all day by fishermen in waders walking up and down the river.

While we were there, we explored downtown Brevard and looked for the white squirrels that they are famous for, but did not have much luck.  If we had found one, it may have looked like this:

We went on a drive the first day and explored a brand new State Park, Gorges State Park. Which sounds like gorgeous states park.  Which incidentally, was a GORGEOUS state park!  I guess I'd never been in a brand new state park before.  They sure are nice before all of the tourists flock to them.  Cleanest restrooms and picnic tables I've ever seen.  We took two nice short hikes - one to an overlook, and one to these falls:

We then had a picnic, got in the car, and headed north from Brevard, to see a couple of famous falls.  First was called Looking Glass Falls, and then a swimming hole called Sliding Rock, and took the plunge.  It felt like ice water!

After watching a while, I  took the plunge at Sliding Rock as well:

http://youtu.be/pcQucNpEqX0

Next was Keith!

Keith at Sliding Rock

We also visited Looking Glass Falls, along with Hooker, triple, and High Falls.  Those last three are all along the same trail, in Du Pont Forest, east of Brevard, and were featured in the famous movie, The Hunger Games. I'm happy to report, that water was a tad warmer than Sliding Rock.

The most stunning was Highland Falls.  We sat a long time with a group of college girls, who were totally charmed by Saleen.  It was a HUGE wall of water!

http://youtu.be/DynrcOJLHq4

The last morning we hung out at Brevard Campus a while, because we were told we would see white squirrels there for sure, but we didn't have any luck. We did discover that Brevard College wins the national Mountainbiking Championship on a regular basis!  I didn't even know there WAS a collegiate mountainbiking competition.

Brevard is famous for being surrounded by over a thousand miles of trails, is not far from the Smokies (with more beauty and trails - including that really famous one, duh), and sits in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Blue Ridge Parkway passes just west of it, and is near Du Pont State Forest and Pisgah National Forest.  We really loved how cool it stayed due to it sitting about 2500 feet above sea level.  They had their hottest day of the year on the day we left - 88 degrees!