Tomorrow our daughter and grandson are scheduled to fly home, so today is our last chance to take them to some of the Natural State’s finest, and Lost Valley certainly qualifies. We have visited Lost Valley a few times, it seems
to be one of our go to places whenever
we have guests in town.
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dogwood
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I tend to avoid
all the mega-popular tourist destinations and Lost Valley is right up there near the top
of the list. Now of course, there are good reasons for this massive popularity, and that would be the massive amount of
natural beauty. So, we’re out the door as
early as possible to hopefully beat the crowds.
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Natural Bridge Falls
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This will also be our first time to Lost Valley since the big makeover
was recently completed. The first change
we notice is the new parking lot, this has got to be the biggest parking lot for
a hiking location I’ve ever seen. And it appears we have definitely beat the crowds, there are only three cars in
the lot when we arrive. So of course, we
get a good spot close to the trailhead, which is the old road close to the old park entrance area. |
Lower Eden Falls
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Past a big grassy area that contains restrooms and a picnic area, where the parking lot used to be, we begin our hike
at the normally dry Clark Creek crossing.
We have had a pretty wet spring this year and today Clark Creek is very
much a wet crossing, so everyone gets wet feet right off the bat.
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Lower Eden Falls
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There are plans for a new bridge over the
creek, but it hasn’t been built yet.
This first part of the hike is usually pretty mundane, but today Clark
Creek is putting on quite the show with whitewater cascades and loads of
spring wildflowers. So as a result, we seem to arrive at the Natural Bridge in no time. I understand you can climb through and then out the back side of the
Natural Bridge.
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lots of waterfalls
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But this isn’t what I
would picture a ‘natural bridge’ looking like.
What it is, is a beautiful little waterfall flowing out the mouth of an
apparent cave. Whatever it's called, it
doesn’t matter, it's a magical place with huge boulders up and down the creek
out in front of the falls. A bonus today, we have a very tall pouroff falling
off the bluff just a hundred feet downstream of the Natural Bridge. |
Middle Eden Falls
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We continue our hike and soon arrive at Cob Cave which is a huge shelter
cave. Archeologists have found evidence
of ancient habitation in this shelter, including little corn cobs, which gives Cob Cave its name. After climbing around a little under the
shelter we head upstream.
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tunnel entrance at falls
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Not far from
Cob Cave is Eden Falls. Eden Falls is
really three waterfalls that sort of twist their way down a very steep Clark
Creek canyon. Although they’re stacked
up almost right on top of each other it’s about impossible to see all three from
one place. The trail climbs through here
up to Eden Falls Cave giving us glimpses of Lower Eden, Middle Eden and Upper Eden Falls along the way.
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at entrance to Eden Falls Cave
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Being here at Eden Falls has a sort of, other
world feel to it, like stepping into another dimension. Somewhere mythical and magical like in the
movie ‘Jurassic Park’ or ‘Avatar’ is what I’m reminded of. Lost Valley although not a valley and definitely not lost is the perfect name, it’s like entering a ‘Lost World’! |
pouroff near Natural Bridge
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After a pretty good climb the trail ends at the mouth of Eden Falls
Cave. This cave is unique in that it is
one of the few caves in Buffalo National River that visitors are allowed to
explore inside. I don’t know why that is, but we brought headlamps and flashlights, so we’re ready to check it out.
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impressive bluffs
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The girls decide to wait outside, so it’s
just me and grandson. From reading about
the cave, I know there is a big room in the back with a waterfall. We carefully make our way around to the west
then the passage becomes tight as it curves to the south. In an especially tight spot the elevation of
the floor drops, this is where grandson Aidan very calmly announces his ‘claustrophobia
is kicking-in, and we should probably turn around and go back.’
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Cob Cave entrance
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Oh…Ok…we didn’t get to see the waterfall in
the big room, but still had a good time exploring Eden Falls Cave. By the time we return to the light of day and
begin our hike out of Lost Valley the crowds have descended. It is as if we're going the wrong way down
a one-way street, during rush hour. On our way out we take a short spur trail over to Moss Falls which isn't as well-known as most of Lost Valley's attractions, yet still a beautiful little waterfall well worth a side-trip.
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Moss Falls
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I’m
glad we got an early start this morning, we beat the heat of the day, and almost beat the crowds. By the
time we return to that ‘big new parking lot’ it is almost full, even a couple busses are here. The popularity of Lost Valley is inevitable really,
anywhere this fantastic is going to be popular.
All I can suggest is come early to beat the rush.
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beautiful but rugged
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Including our extra explorations, we hiked just over 3 miles round trip with about 500 feet of elevation gain. What a wonderful way to spend the last day with our guests. I know we’ll be back, now I have additional incentive; I have got to see and hear the ‘waterfall in the dark’ at the back of Eden Falls Cave.
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water water everywhere
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Lost Valley: Statistics Chart 22 Pretty easy to get to, the big parking
lot is at the end of Lost Valley Road (NC 1015) about 0.3 miles from the turn
off Highway 43. This signed intersection
is 1.0 mile south of the Highway 74 intersection, or 3.3 miles north of the end
of Hwy. 43 at Highway 21.
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base map before fair use alterations is property of ArcGIS--licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License
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