US National Forests : Pisgah NC

 

The US National Forests are free national treasures, most of which you can hike, bike, paddle and horseback ride. There are over 150 national forests containing almost 200 million acres of land just ripe for exploration and discovery. Some of the forests are very primitive, while others have campgrounds and Visitor’s Centers. Today, Kit Parks explores the beautiful Pisgah National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. Making her trip easier and more organized, she took advantage of the Visitor’s Center at the Brevard side of Pisgah to plan her trip. The Visitor’s Center has a nice exhibit area and rangers are available to help you plan your adventures.

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Listen to the podcast here:

Exploring US National Forests: Pisgah National Forest in Western NC

The US National Forests are a FREE national treasure most of which you can hike, bike, paddle and horseback ride. There are over 150 national forests containing almost 200 million acres of land just ripe for exploration and discovery.

Some of the forests are very primitive, while others have camp grounds and Visitor’s Centers. Today we are exploring the beautiful Pisgah National Forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western NC.

I took advantage of the Visitor’s Center at the Brevard side of Pisgah to plan my trip. The Visitor’s Center has a nice exhibit area and the ranger (thank you Peggy!!!) are available to help you plan your adventures.

Hiking: Hundreds of miles.  Here’s a good blog post, too.
Mountain Biking: 245+ miles
Road Cycling: Blue Ridge Parkway 400+ miles. Here’s a good blog post, too.
Water Activities: Several rivers to paddle, raft or boat.
Horseback riding: [stables offer 1-2-3 hour rides] or bring your own horse: over 100 miles

Prefer Guided Hiking Trips?

Chceck out my affiliate Wildland Trekking!  Wildland takes care of all the logistics so all you have to do is train and hike!  They offer exciting hiking tours of many national forests and parks in the US, Canada and overseas.  Wildland has a variety of hiking tour styles, too, from inn to inn so you don’t have to carry your gear, to hard core backpacking expeditions.  Check them out!

Be sure to stop by the Visitor’s Center for guidance and to see their exhibit (also bathrooms so you can get some water!) Speaking of water, there is plenty of springs and streams but you need to treat it to avoid getting giardia.

Cradle of Forestry: This is the birthplace of science-based forestry management. Wonderful exhibit and they offer lots of programs. This is where I saw the Blue Ghost Fireflies.

The Hatchery: There are LOTS of trout here (get a license). You can stop by the Hatchery to learn more about trout.

Just outside of Pisgah National Forest at the Brevard, NC entrance is a place called the Hub.  This quirky business sells and repairs bicycles, plus you can also grab a craft brew and a bite from the outside rotating food trucks. An interesting business model that seems to work for them. A great place to meet locals, but there there early. They close late afternoon so their employees can have a life and enjoy this gorgeous area!

There are grocery stores here too, so be sure to stock up on food and drink and ice, or whatever else syou’ll need before entering the park.  Top off your gas tank too!

US National Forests : Pisgah NC

Guilty as charged, I’m guilty of always looking for adventure in faraway places when sometimes adventure can be in our own backyard. Many of the trips that I’ve covered in Active Travel Adventures cost a lot, both to get to and to do. I’m going local and taking you on an outstanding adventure that doesn’t have to cost you a dime.

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We are going to explore a little-known national treasure in the US called our national forests, and in particular, we’re going to Pisgah National Forest in my own home state of North Carolina. This amazing natural area is near the town of Brevard, a town I’ll most likely retire to. In this area, you can hike, bike, paddle, horseback ride to your heart’s content. It’s also a cultural and artistic oasis located in Western North Carolina. I’m going to tell you all about the many different ways that you can explore and play in the land of the waterfalls.

I received my AAA magazine in the mail and in there was an article on the blue ghost fireflies located in the Pisgah forest in my own home state of North Carolina. I was intrigued. These fireflies mate around the same time that the magazine came out and after seeing this one photo, I was hooked. I got to go there. Oddly, for someone who travels as much as I do, I don’t like to do a whole lot of planning for my travels and I’m getting more and more where I go and then figure it out when I get there. I saw that Pisgah has a really nice visitor center, so I decided I’m going to let them do all the work for me. It’s about a seven-hour drive from my house, so I did book an Airbnb from my first night in a town called Hendersonville, which is lovely. That would give me plenty of time to get to the forest in the morning and be fresh and try to figure out what on earth I was going to do during my trip.

 

I drove up on a Sunday and didn’t have an appointment to see the fireflies until Tuesday night. That gave me lots of time to explore, figure out what I wanted to do and I didn’t have to get back home until the following weekend. First thing in the morning, I headed to the visitor’s center where I met volunteer Peggy, an amazing resource. I told her what I like to do, how much time I like to spend and what kind of activity level I’d like to do. Within fifteen minutes, she had outlined the whole week for me of things that I should do and see. Something that would’ve taken me hours to do it by myself. All for nothing. This is a fabulous resource and I love doing things like this. What a time saver.

Day One Of Hike

On my first day, she suggested I do the Daniel Ridge Loop, which is about a four-mile moderate hike. I liked that it was blazed. I prefer blaze trails. A blaze is when they put either some marker on the trees, around the stones, on the pathway, usually by color that lets you know exactly where you are so you don’t get lost. I’m not the best at orienteering using the compass, the maps and all that. In any case in my woods, there’s so much forest, it’s hard to see beyond your immediate area anyway in order to orient yourself. I like the fact that this was blazed.

 

This was a beautiful hike and I was able to, towards the end of the hike, have my lunch at this really pretty waterfall. It was a nice way to start my little adventure in the Pisgah National Forest. When exiting the trail by the little bridge walkway back to the little park and trailhead area, I came across a little puddle of blue butterflies. I’m not sure what they were, but there had to be a half a dozen, so engrossed in either bear or dog urine that they didn’t even mind that I was that close and personal with. It was very cool. Peggy also recommended that I do the John Rock trail after lunch in hopes that the low hanging clouds of that morning would dissipate, which gratefully they did. This nice hike, which is fairly steep uphill, so I’d call it a little moderately hard. It’s worth it though. You get to the top of this big rock face area that overlooks Looking Glass Rock and it’s a stunning 180-degree view.

Another cool thing Peggy did was she outlined a combination trail so I had the most scenic route getting up to and back from the John Rock area. Looking Glass gets his name because, particularly in the wintertime when it’s covered in ice, it gives a mirror reflection. Looking Glass is a huge domed rock on top of the mountain, and domes are something that this area is known for. I’m not into rock climbing, but I know and I don’t cover rock climbing on this podcast, but because of the domes, this is a huge rock-climbing area as well.

 

Now, it’s late in the afternoon. I need to figure out where to sleep. Gratefully, in the national park, she has lots of options. You can sleep in a camping ground, go to town to Brevard or you can primitive camp. The campgrounds are nice because they do offer an assigned campground site. You do have a bathroom, shower, and there’s also security. Not that it’s necessarily needed, but it’s nice to know that it’s there and there’s also a host on the campgrounds should you run into any problems or have any questions. It’s a nominal fee for the sign campsites or you could primitive camp for free. You need to be 1,000 feet off the road, although I don’t think they enforced that too much on some of the side gravel roads, of which there are many. I promise you, this could be a really inexpensive vacation. Once you get here, probably by car because you need to be able to get around the park.

You can bring in your own food, you can bring in your own drink, including alcohol, which is tolerated if not outright accepted in most places, so it costs you about the same as if you were home. You’ve got to eat anyway. I got to my campsite, which was lovely. It was a large campsite. It included a pretty big bay area surrounded in the woods. I had a gravel pad for my tent and then a nice picnic table. You could see the neighbors, but they weren’t right in your face, which was nice. If you do want to do a campfire and there is a campfire ring and a little grill area, you do need to buy the wood in area so that you don’t inadvertently bring in some pests that could actually hurt the forest. Which has happened unfortunately in a lot of the forests in our country. Do make sure that you buy the wood locally and it’s very reasonable as an encouragement for you to do so.

Cradle of Forestry is where the first science-based forestry studies were going on in the whole country. Share on X

Tired from hiking all day, I was asleep by 9:00. I slept like a rock and I used that little trick I learned when I was in Bhutan where they put the rug on top of my pad. Remember, I mentioned that it was so noisy, my little Therm-a-Rest pad. I happened to have a couple of blankets in my car. I put one under the pad and one on top of it and no crinkly noise all night. That’s definitely a car camping addition for me in the future. One of the beautiful things here is all the vegetation. The trees are flushing out and there are still lots of wildflowers to see. Among the wildflowers I saw were lady slippers, Jack-in-the-pulpit, lizard’s tail, wild geraniums. Some of the beautiful shrubs were the flame azalea, the mountain laurel on the lower elevations and also in the lower elevation, some of the rhododendrons. Littering the forest floor were the petals of the fading tulip magnolias. Plus, I saw some beautiful sweet shrub.

One of the highlights was on my second day up on Graveyard Ridge, trilliums were in full bloom and this is an endangered species. However, on Graveyard Ridge there are thousands of them and I happened to get there at the peak or past peak depending on what elevation I was at. It was truly spectacular. At the lower elevations, there is an awful lot of poison ivy. You want to be careful when you step off the trail to use the restroom that you don’t accidentally squat in a poison ivy patch of which there is much. I will also post a picture of what the stem of poison ivy looks like. It’s very hairy, so it’s easy to recognize when it’s mature. That way you don’t find yourself in a very itchy and uncomfortable situation.

 

Day Two Of Hike

On day two, I got up early and went to the Graveyard Fields. They call it graveyard because a wildfire many years ago had killed the trees down to stumps, which looked like a bunch of headstones. This has got a scenic overlook that you can park at and use this as a base setting to do the Graveyard Field hikes to the upper and lower falls up to Graveyard Fields. Do parts of the Mountain in the Sea trail or go over to Art Loeb trail, which is another popular 30-mile hike that you can do part or all of that hike as well. The weather in the previous week had been really rainy and they had gotten eleven inches of rain. There was a lot of moisture still on the Graveyard Field trek, a little boggy in parts, but I still managed to keep my feet fairly dry. As you approached the ridge, you go to this wonderful little birch grove of thousands upon thousands of tiny little birches and their leaves had popped out, so there’s this bright green. You see this flittering of the leaves dancing in the sunlight and the wind, and there was this magical little grove on your way to the ridge.

One thing I like about hiking here is that it’s such a massive forest that it’s not crowded once you get maybe 500 feet off the main trails. On some trails, I saw nobody unless I was at the very peak of say at the John Rock or up at the Graveyard Fields. On the Davidson River hike, I didn’t see a soul the whole trek, so I felt like I had the forest all to myself. That night was the night to see the blue ghost fireflies. This is a cool insect. I’m sure most of you know what fireflies or lightening bugs are, but I’d never heard of the blue ghost fireflies. This is a really teeny firefly about the size of a grain of rice. The males are the only ones that have the wings and the females lay down in the leaf mold.

 

At night during the mating season, which runs from mid-May to mid-June up in this area and very few areas in the country, the male fireflies will hover and glow in a consistent glow for up to ten seconds. Going across the ground trying to show off for the females with its glow and if the female likes the glow, shines onto the male and says, “Come on baby light my fire,†and magic happens. Right after dusk, about 9:30 at night, the grounds of this part of the forest were covered in these little blue fireflies. You look down and get your eyes adjusted a little bit and you’d see dozens and dozens of these little blue lights floating all across the floor. This one woman referred to them as the fairyflies. She didn’t know what they were. She just knew that something blue was glowing across the forest floor. It’s a really incredible experience and I encourage you if you are ever in this neck of the woods in the middle of May, towards the beginning of June, come down to the Cradle Forestry.

That night they were calling for severe thunderstorms, so I was a little bit dicey about what to do. The Cradle of Forestry, where I saw the blue ghost fireflies is in the middle of the park and about 45 minutes or so to the nearest town. Since I had the option not to sleep in a potential severe storm, I chose not to and I didn’t feel like driving that late at night. It’s already 10:30 that was dark, windy, unlit roads, so I truly car camped. I went to sleep in the back of the car and said, “The heck with it. I’m not going to worry about it. I’ll regroup in the morning once I get a better idea what the weather’s going to be like.†When I woke up in the morning, of course I had no cell service in the middle of the forest so I couldn’t get the updated weather report, but the clouds overhead did not look promising. I decided, “I’m going to cross over the mountain and get out of the mountains right now.†I went to a little town called Waynesville. That is one nice thing about car camping. It gives you options.

 

It was nice outside of my initial Airbnb and the appointment to go see the blue ghost fireflies. I had no other set agenda, so I was able to have the flexibility to play around once I saw what the weather was going to be like. I was grateful that I made this change of plans because once I crossed over the mountains into the little town of Waynesville, the weather improved remarkably and I had a beautiful day. Instead of trudging through the water in the muck and the mud, I ended up finding a lovely little place to sit out under the trees and actually record what I’m doing, and having an absolutely delightful day in this charming little town.

Activities At Pisgah National Forest

The cool thing about the Pisgah National Forest is there are tons of active things to do. If you’re not into hiking, of which there are hundreds of miles of hiking trails with all sorts of beautiful vistas, you can do mountain biking or road biking to your heart’s content. It is a true biker’s mecca and at all different levels from starter level to hardcore, lung-busting, single track trails. If you come to the area to come cycling and you are cycling solo, but you’d like a little company, they have got lots of group rides of all different skill levels from beginners all the way up to the hardcore super-advanced riders. There are rides almost seven days a week.

Be safe, smart, have fun, and enjoy the beautiful waterfalls of the Pisgah Forest. Share on X

There are plenty of places to rent bikes as well. If you prefer road cycling, the Blue Ridge highway is nearby, which offers over 400 miles of some of the most scenic cycling roads in the nation. It’s often referred to as America’s favorite drive and it’s particularly popular in October when the leaves are in full fall foliage glory. The nice thing is there are lots of pullouts, so when there’s a particularly spectacular overlook, there’s area for you to park your bike or your car to take advantage of it. One pretty road ride is going up US 276 across the parkway and down NC 215. It is stunning. If you’re more into straight down, fly in your face trails, they’ve got that too. If you run out of trails in Pisgah National Forest, there’s always the DuPont State Forest nearby. Movie fans will recognize that forest because that’s where the Hunger Games was filmed.

I discovered another quirky and cool thing about this area. Let’s say you’re flying too fast on your bike and you wipe out, break something, you need to park or need to upgrade your gear a little bit. Right outside the forest, on the way to Brevard, there’s a place called the Hub. Next to the Hub, and it’s inside the Hub, is the Pisgah Tavern. While you’re having your bike fixed up, there’s a little tavern there with local craft beers as well as your regular can beers. It’s a really cool place. Even though I don’t normally cover restaurants and such. This area is into his bikes and brews.

 

Get tired of hiking and cycling, there’s always horseback riding. If you don’t feel like bringing your horse, there are stables in the Pisgah Forest. You can go on a guided horse ride for one, two or three hours. Be sure to reserve in advance. The horse rides are available from April through October. After all this hiking, biking and horseback riding, you are going to be hot, sweaty and dirty, so it’s time to get in the water. The Pisgah area also has tons of water sports. You can whitewater raft down the French Broad River, kayak, canoe and even tube. In fact, even in the wintertime, you can tube down the snowbanks. You’ll also find some great paddling on the Davidson River, and you can also go on the French Broad River paddle trail. There are also some camping sites on this paddle trail. There are six sites available, but you’ve got to make sure you reserve and pay for those in advance.

Another interesting hike include hiking up to the Devil’s Courthouse. This is considered the private dancing chamber, the slant-eyed giant Gudacca of Cherokee lore. Also consider hiking up the Looking Glass Rock, that dome that I was able to see from John Rock. You can hike up to the footbridge area, Pilot Rock, Chestnut Ridge and return via the north prong Shining Creek, go on the Art Loeb trail, and hike the short but difficult hike up to Sam Knob. Take advantage of all the knowledge that you find at the visitor center. While you’re at the visitor center, don’t forget to check out the exhibits that they have there. It’s a wonderful resource.

 

In the park where I went to go see the blue ghost fireflies, I went to the Cradle of Forestry. This is where the first science-based forestry studies were going on in our whole country and we can thank the Vanderbilts for that. At this forestry center, there’s 20,000 square feet of exhibits, events, an amphitheater, and they’ve got tons of great events like seeing the blue ghost fireflies. These include things like having tea with llamas that include a two-mile trek. If you can’t get enough of llamas, the Sherwood Forest Golf Course nearby offers llama caddies on its three-part course.

Other programs at the Forest Center include a Bring Back the Monarch program. This is a migratory bird and monarch flyway. There’s also Forest Festival Days, learning about the legend of Tommy Hodges, an outdoor drama in the amphitheater. They also have three paved trails that are perfect for people in wheelchairs and strollers. The Pisgah Forest itself gets about two million visitors a year on its 160,000 acres, most of which is in Transylvania County. There are 400 miles of hiking trails, 180 miles of bike trails and 100 miles on horseback trails. Bisecting the forest is the beautiful US 276 highway, part of the forest heritage service scenic byway. This is named as a national scenic byway, which is the highest designation a road can get in the United States. In addition to the Cradle of Forestry, you can also visit the hatchery that’s nearby the Davidson River hike that I went on. Inside the hatchery, they’ve got exhibits and you can also take a hatchery tour. This is a big trout area.

 

There are national forests all across America that you can see things from the temperate rainforest like we visited to glaciers, deserts, to other mountainous regions. There might be one in your neighborhood that you’re not even aware of and go out and explore this fabulous resource. Most of it’s free and if they do charge a fee, it’s nominal at best. It’s a great way to get out in the outdoors and enjoy the beautiful country of the United States of America, at little to no cost. We talked a little bit about camping in the campgrounds where there’s a nominal fee, but if you want to make this a free vacation, you can primitive camp. I’ve done tons of camping and tons of backpacking, but I’ve never done either one by myself. You know how I’m always encouraging you to do a little plus one.

My Day Hike Adventure

This time, I decided I was going to do day hikes and then do primitive camping. I chose to go to trails that are off the Big East Fork Pisgah, which is right in the middle of the park somewhat and most people tend to be near the entrances near town, so it was rather isolated. As I headed out, I parked in a lot and got there first thing in the morning. I’m the only one there and I was like, “This is cool.†I walked all day, I’d say until about 4:00, and I did not see a soul the entire day until I was nearing back towards the parking lot again. I saw a woman walking with her dogs, probably an after work walk and then as I got to my car, there’s a young man from Georgia who was going to go back down near where the river’s fork to do some camping and fishing. My first hike, I was going up a very steep climb up to Chestnut Ridge to Shining Rock, so I decided I’d rather go up hard rather than down hard and it was a lovely hike. I had the whole forest to myself and as I got to the top, there is clearings so I could get this panoramic view of the Blue Ridge mountain. It’s breathtaking.

A blaze is when markings, usually colors, are put on trees, stones, and pathways, to let you know where you are so you don't get lost. Share on X

When I finally got to Shining Rock Gap, I climbed down and then it’s one of those areas where there are so many trees and roots that there is no vegetative growth. It was hard to see exactly where the trail was. This is an area too that I want to point out whenever you’re hiking and you get to a place where you’re not quite sure of which way to go, take your poles or grab a stick or something and make some notation in the dirt so that you know which way you came in. If you have to backtrack, you can find it. If I had gone into this one area where Shining Rock was and didn’t notice how I entered, there were lots of ways to exit from there because there were so many routes and it wasn’t an obvious path until I got through and found the path on the other side of maybe 100 somewhat feet.

In fact, anytime I come to a fork and I’m not 100% sure, I take a second. Make a little notation on the dirt so you can find a way back. I always know I can find my way back to the car. I might get lost heading out and I can always find my way back home. I always feel comfortable that way. This trail was not blazed, which is not my favorite. I like blaze trails where they’re marked and I feel comfortable. I follow little red dots, or the white blazes or whatever the case may be on the trail. This one did not, so I had to use my map. I had a nice National Geographic map that I would not go into these woods without a good map and a good compass. I get to Shining Rock Gap and now I did the hard part getting there. I had not an easy hike, but a relatively easy hike on the way back along the Shining Creek.

 

When I get to near where the two prongs, there’s a north prong and south prong. When I get near where they’re going to meet, obviously I see both of the rivers converging together. There was a big tree that was going across the second creek and I said, “That must be the path.†It was simply a little drop of a couple of feet down, which is a little more dicey than I would normally like. I said, “I remembered something when I went to Miraval Spa outside of Tucson.†They have these challenge events there where one of them is you climb up a 50-foot telephone pole to a platform and you’re harnessed in ropes, so you cannot get hurt doing this. It’s a mind over matter challenge and then there’s another telephone pole, 50 feet going across to yet another 50-foot-high telephone pole. Picture a big arch. I’m up 50 feet in the air about to walk 50 feet across to the other platform and your knees are shaking and you think you’re going to die.

I remember the lady saying, “You know how to walk in a straight line.†I was like, “She’s right.†If this was on the sidewalk, no problem. I know the pole is skinny, but it was at least six inches or so. I can walk that. Sure enough it’s a mind over matter. I had to use that same trick crossing this tree even though it was not as near as high. There was water down rushing. I wouldn’t have gone far down the river, but I could’ve hit my head on the rock or something, so it was a little tricky. Remembering that I know how to walk a straight line, I get across the creek and everything’s fine. I’m looking for the trail and I realized, “It’s not on the trail,†and I look up, I had crossed the creek maybe 50 feet before I was supposed to. There was a nice rock skipping a bridge across the creek that I was supposed to take. If something looks like it’s not quite right, double-check before you plunge ahead like I did that may not have been the smartest thing to do considering I saw nobody. Should I have hurt myself, I’d been a long way away from getting any help.

 

I make it back across the creeks and now I’m where the creeks are now together and it’s gotten much larger and it was beautiful. This is a good time to take my lunch break and so I found this big rock right overlooking the creek. It was just me and a salamander hanging out for half an hour or so enjoying the scenic beauty, the peace and the quiet. It was very nice and beautiful. I eventually made it back to my car and on the way up, I noticed that there were some pretty campsites along the creek and I’m sure they will be taken by the time I get back.

I got to my car and all we have is the girl’s car with the dog and the Georgia guys. I cannot believe not one person has snagged these campsites that I saw. I took maybe the fourth one in from the road. The trail is up above the campsite itself, but somebody had made log stairs and stone stairs to get down maybe 30 feet down to the campsite, right on the river. It’s an absolutely perfect campsite. I cannot believe I can get this gorgeous campsite for absolutely free. This was my first-time primitive camping by myself.

 

At first, I was a little uneasy and I was wondering, “Should I be scared?†I knew that they had some bear signs out. I wasn’t worried about the bears because I wasn’t going to keep any food at the campground, so I had nothing of interest to a bear. I wasn’t worried about that so much. I was a little bit concerned about flash floods. They had eleven inches of rain the week before and thunderstorms the day before. They had a sign saying they could get up to ten feet very quickly in a flash flood. I have supersonic ears and I’m a light sleeper. If I hear the water getting really loud, I can climb up the stairs that I came down pretty quickly and so I felt I can mitigate that risk.

You would worry about the bugaboos, the human element. I got to think of all the times I’ve been in the forest, there was only one time I was a little spooked. That was on my very first long-distance backpacking trip when I came across a guy that looked a little crazy to me. When I look back in hindsight, that was probably the first Appalachian Trail true hiker I had ever seen because the guys often don’t shave the whole hike. I was in North Carolina, so he’d probably been on the trail for over a month and so he had a grizzly months’ worth of beard and was unclean obviously because he’s been hiking for days probably since his last rest stop. That was the only guy that I remember being spooked. Most of the people I’ve ever met in the woods have always been nice.

Pisgah National Forest is a true biker’s mecca and at all different levels. Share on X

I do try to keep the rule of not camping within walking distance with a case of beer. I try to stay at least two miles from a road, so I worry more about townies coming in to have a party and then me being in the wrong place at the wrong time rather than fellow hikers. I did break the rule on this night because the road was so desolate and in the middle of nowhere. It’s not where people will be going by to go drinking. I was nowhere near a town, almost an hour’s drive to town. I was like, “I’m cool. You’ve done this before. You can do this.†Within an hour, I was so enjoying myself sitting by the river reading that all those fears went away. Now, I’ve got the confidence, “I can do this.†I did my plus one. That’s what I want you to do. Whatever it is you’re doing, try to do it one more plus and build your confidence in the adventure things that you can do. All in all, it was a spectacular day, a beautiful evening, and I was very proud of myself for doing my plus one.

On a cautionary note in this land of waterfalls, of which there are hundreds of waterfalls and I have only highlighted some of the prettier ones. There is some common sense things you need to do for waterfall safety. Unfortunately, about half a dozen people die each year because they are silly. They get too close to the fall and then the rocks are very slippery and then once they slip, they go over the ledge. In fact, I was up at Turtleback Falls a few years back where it’s very safe. It’s a really fun place, also in the Pisgah Forest, but you’ve got to get to it, from a different area that I have been talking about.

On Turtleback, you can climb up this rope up to the top of this cliff, which is fairly safe. You get up there and then you slide off this rock, I believe it’s a 30-foot drop into this deep pool that’s very safe. You’re not going to hit your head on the bottom or anything like that. You’ve got this little area to swim around, but then they have a rope and you’ve got to stay behind that rope because after that rope is Rainbow Falls, which drops 150 feet. In fact, one of my campmates on that trip had a friend die the year before because she went past the rope. She got caught in the current, went over the falls and died. You need to use common sense. Most of the accidents are preventable if you do what they say to do. Stay on the trail, stay in the areas that they designate are safe, and should you happen to get caught in one of these fast streams for whatever reason, don’t try to stand up.

That’s the second reason people get hurt or die is because they try to stand up, their foot gets caught in a rock, and then the current pushes them down into the water and then they drown. I hate to be a downer on all this, but you need to be prepared in case something does go wrong. Above all, don’t be silly with the selfies and get too close. Be safe, be smart, have fun and enjoy the beautiful waterfalls of the Pisgah Forest. Do you understand why I want to retire in this area? It’s amazing. I hope I piqued your interest in exploring our national forests. You can of course get lots more details and links at ActiveTravelAdventures.com. Plus, you can get the handy Travel Planner by downloading it directly from the site, or if you’re a member of our newsletter, I’ll send it to you directly at the beginning of next month. If you haven’t done so already, please be sure to subscribe to the Active Travel Adventures podcast so that way you don’t miss a single exciting episode. I’ll be back with another incredible adventure and you don’t want to miss it. Until then, thanks for reading. Until next time, adventure on.

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Adventure Travel US National Forests: Pisgah National Forest by Kit Parks is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://activetraveladventures.com/pisgah.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://activetraveladventures.com/contact-us/.