Linville Falls - Part Deux

Taken from a big rock in middle of the river down in
the gorge. Most definitely the best angle for a picture.

When my youngest and I were at Linville falls several weeks back we ventured onto every trail except the one that went down in the gorge below the falls. So I went back this past weekend with a hiking-partner-in-crime and we went rumblin, stumblin, bumblin down the trail to the river.

The first half of the trail was uphill and reasonably well maintained, the second half was downhill and quite dodgy, mostly roots and rocks and mud. Its not a trail I would advise taking if it were wet, just too many slick rocks and steep, muddy sections to be safely lugging around a tripod and a back full of camera gear.

It was well worth the effort to get down there for the views. Most definitely the best view of the falls. The laurel along the trail was blooming and a few painted trillium were still in bloom. The trees were leafing out so they had that nice lime green thing going on.

We wandered around for about an hour, snapping a bunch of pictures, trying not to think about the inevitable scramble back up the mountain. The trip back up wasn't as bad as I figured. We stopped a lot, lamented the lack of beverages, got off-trail only once, lamented the lack of snack foods, and eventually clambered back to the top

,

3-shot panorama taken from a rock in the river.

We skipped the plunge basin overlook because there were no beverages or snacks there either.