We
make a trip to Broadwater Hollow about once a year, and why not this is a
great little hollow with some beautiful waterfalls and so much more. It just rained a couple days ago, as we
drive down the dirt road to the parking area we see water falling from rocks on
the hillsides north of the road. Also water is flowing down the road in a few places, as a result the road is
starting to get washed-out a little.
This road has seen its share of washouts and closures but we have
no problem getting to the parking area.
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at the top of Paige Falls
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Across the road from where we park, I notice a trail heading into
the woods, thinking maybe there’s a campsite back there, we go to check it
out. It’s a short trail (about 100
yards) back to a great overlook about 15 feet above Paige Falls. A beautiful spot, with a fire-ring and some
big flat rocks to sit on, not to mention a different perspective of gorgeous
Paige Falls below. This would be a good place for a picnic not a campsite, we head back to the road. |
| Columbine |
From there it’s down the road, across the creek, then leave the road heading down into Broadwater Hollow. Today there is more water than we normally see in Broadwater Hollow, so
we stop right here below the road and explore along the creek marveling at all
the fantastic big boulders, cascades, little falls along with the spring greenery and wildflowers. We stay near the creek down till we’re almost
at the top of Paige Falls.
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Broadwater Hollow Falls
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There we
follow the mostly level Broadwater Hollow Trail around the corner as the creek
drops away. Soon the creek is 30 feet or
more below us, soon then we’re at the spur intersection which heads down to the
base of Paige Falls. We stay on the main
trail, today our goal is to reach Cecil Cove Loop Trail which is where this
trail ends. |
rocky Broadwater Hollow
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Next, we pass by Broadwater
Hollow Falls right on the heels of Paige Falls.
Both falls have good water flow today and of course we stop for a few
photos from up here on the trail. Continuing
down we notice quite a few volunteer trails leading down to the
creek, we keep going though, and soon pass impressive Devil’s Den sinkhole. |
| spring wildflowers near bottom of Broadwater Hollow |
In another 200 yards is the smaller sinkhole I like to call ‘Son
of Devil’s Den’ and today a nice waterfall behind the sinkhole. A wet weather fall maybe twelve feet tall in
a beautiful setting full of boulders
right next to the little sinkhole. On down the trail a
little more is a nice spot right off the trail on a ledge with a great view
down into Broadwater Hollow, just above its confluence with Cecil Creek. Now Broadwater Trail turns left to the east and follows above Cecil Creek.
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lower Broadwater Hollow
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Last year around this time Cecil Creek was dry as a bone through here (see: 20 Broadwater Hollow), today
rolling and tumbling whitewater, I hope we can cross! Another quarter mile down Cecil Creek we see
an old rock wall on the other side of the creek, the trail merges onto an old road just before the
crossing. We however turn left up a
little hill to a campsite on Bartlett Cove. |
spring flowers
|
A lovely small campsite with a nice view up Bartlett Cove from a flat
ledge overhang a few feet above the creek.
Looking upstream I can see Bartlett Cove is rugged but
beautiful. We head back down the old
road maybe 100 feet to Cecil Creek and the crossing above Bartlett Cove. Slipping our creek waders on, we make the crossing
easily, I see a pair of hiking boots drying in the sun on a rock and wonder... |
Bartlett Cove
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Below the crossing, we are heading south, in 100 yards is a large
campsite with ‘improvements’ just off the trail down next to Cecil Creek. Someone has done a lot of work here moving
large stones to create a huge fire-ring with stone chairs and little tables around
it. All these ‘furnishings’ seem a little ridiculous to me although the spot on Cecil Creek is just gorgeous with flat
bedrock along the creek and a great shallow swimming hole.
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Cecil Creek at campsite
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Continuing south another 200 yards is the end of Broadwater Hollow Trail at the intersection of Cecil Cove Loop
Trail. This intersection was intended be the
‘turn around point’ for today’s hike, but after reading the trail sign Kat
(always a sucker for an old cemetery) decides since we’re this close we should
check out Jones Cemetery. |
Mud Cave
|
A right turn at the intersection and up the hill we go. The trail still on an old road comes to a right
turn and continues uphill, we leave the trail here, sort of straight ahead on a
volunteer trail. Following this trail
upstream in a tight little side drainage about 75 yards brings us to the mouth of Mud Cave at
the grotto at the head of this little box canyon.
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in Jones Cemetery
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The entrance into Mud Cave is low and wide and involves climbing
down large slippery rocks, and besides ‘Mud’ Cave doesn’t sound too appealing
anyway. Oh yeah…it’s illegal to
enter most caves in the Buffalo National River.
We gaze down into the black hole awhile before heading back to the
trail, then onward and upward. From
here to Jones Cemetery is over half a mile, mostly uphill and in many places
the trail is in pretty poor condition with washed out sections and many mud
holes. |
Jones Cemetery
|
On the right side of the trail is fenced Jones Cemetery, not very big but with maybe forty tightly spaced graves most
of which are from the Jones family.
The cemetery seems to be cared for, while Kat takes a few pictures
I consider our options from here and decide to continue uphill just a little farther to Jones Homesite. Before reaching the old homesite we spot a
campsite on the left then 50 yards past that a faint trail off to the right
into an overgrown thicket of small trees and all sorts of vines, ivy and
thorns.
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sign at trail intersection
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And in 50 feet or so Jones
Homesite, or at least what’s left of it.
Just a fireplace with most of a chimney and some foundation stones. With everything half buried in the ‘jungle’
there may be more ruins, if we come back someday during ‘leaf off’ season we’ll
do more exploring here, but for today this is the
end of the road. There is much more to see farther along the Cecil Cove Loop and someday we should do the entire loop, at just over seven miles. |
fireplace at Jones Homesite
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We head back the way we came, much quicker going downhill we soon come
to the ‘improved’ campsite on Cecil Creek and stop for a short break. Back on the trail and after crossing Cecil
Creek we turn west back to Broadwater Hollow, then north in Broadwater Hollow we soon
arrive back at the car. Although it did
get a little warm this afternoon, we still had a
wonderful time, the hike was just under 5 miles to Jones Homesite and back with
728 feet of elevation gain.
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road crossing at Broadwater Hollow
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Broadwater to Jones: Statistics Chart 50 It isn’t hard to find: about 0.8 miles north of the Compton Post Office turn right (southeast) on NC 2660 the dirt road can get washed out after a big rain, this is across Highway 43 from the volunteer Compton Fire Station. Follow NC 2660 down the mountain just over 2 miles to the parking area on the left, if you cross the creek you drove too far. |
| base map before fair use alterations is property of USGS Topo--licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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