From the Mountains, To the Valleys

...from the rivers to the lake!

We spent our Labor Day weekend traveling around the upstate. We started in Asheville on Friday, then took the Blue Ridge Parkway to Brevard for dinner before finishing our night in Greenville.

Caesars Head

Sliding Rock

Sunset on the parkway.

I feared that we would be crashing the Stier girl’s reunion considering that Jenny and Ella Joy were in town visiting Anacapri. But we don't get to see them very often so I put my fears aside and we joined them. Saturday we took EJ for a waterfall adventure!

She and Maggie were so cute all cuddled up in the back seat. After a few 'how-much-longer's we established that she judges time based on My little Pony shows. And 4 shows later we were at our first overlook. She didn’t like being close to the edge but she loved the “bear cave” and trails.

The "bear cave"

Our next stop was High Falls in DuPont State Forest. After the adventure at our first stop Ella Joy made it from the car, through the parking lot, to the trail head before she got tired. So Pat carried her the majority of the 1 mile hike, it was so cute!

He carried her and she carried Maggie's leash.

I love this picture!

I hate that this looks foggy but the mist of the falls was covering my lens.

My favorite picture from the weekend!

We enjoyed our alone time with Ella Joy and I hope she remembers all of the things we did to tell her brother and sisters. I think we are becoming a professional Aunt and Uncle duo (minus the upset stomach at the end of the day, oops!). Who's next?!



Sunday morning was a troubling one...Rob and Shelly's house was so comfortable yet we had so many other options. To stay in the mountains, to go to the lake, to head to Isle of Palms??? Ahhh! We couldn't decide!At 12:30 I said, "Let's get in the car and then figure out what we want to do." After lots of driving around and without any discussion Pat decided we were going further into the mountains for a hike and then to the lake. Finally we had a plan!

This time we went to Gorges State Park. These falls have been my favorite since we visited in May of last year (the post where my camera died and Pat got bit by a dog...remember? http://stierclear.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html). This isn't what I would classify as strenuous but it also isn't the easiest. That is another reason I am drawn to these, the hike offers 3 beautiful falls as a reward for the trek was well as huge rocks to rest on.

Stairway Falls

See what I mean by strenuous? And the rain showers didn't help anything!.

Rainbow Falls was next and one of the most impressive. Due to the wet conditions we didn't go all the way to the bottom this time but the view was just as good from the top.

Lastly we went to Turtleback Falls. I remembered on Saturday Pat kept saying he wanted to take Ella Joy to Turtleback. Is he crazy?! We never would have made it with her. It’s way too long, way too hard - way too everything!! But he loves that you can slide off of the rock and contrary to our experience on Saturday very few people were there.

Turtleback Falls

And what better way to relax after a long weekend than a day at the lake?!

 A perfect ending to another fun-filled weekend.