It was two years ago the last time we went hiking on Hudson Mountain, a
return visit is long overdue. On that adventure our hike ended up being a
lot longer than we had planned (see: 115 Macedonia Loop). Today I want to keep
it short (sore knee), so I decide to
check out the bluffs on the west side of Hudson Mountain up above Wolf Creek.
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The Courtyard
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The parking area is about 800 feet off Cowell Road in a clearing with a
campsite and a Forest Service gate. The
good trail follows the old road (FR 92153M) downhill for about 0.4 miles to a
rock cairn on the left side of the road.
I continue down the road a short way to two more road exits, the first is also marked by a rock cairn. Any of these ‘exits’ can be used to enter the
bluff area which has amazing rock formations galore. |
| parking in campsite |
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beginnings of the bluffline
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I backtrack up the road to the first rock cairn and the steepest
descent, the lowest exit although basically a bushwhack would probably have
been the easiest, but this higher exit sports some new-looking stone steps that
I just can’t resist. The stone steps
work out fine, someone has obviously put a lot of work into these steps, and
they do shorten the hike by maybe 100 yards. |
in The Courtyard
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The bottom of the stone steps puts me smack-dab in The Courtyard, a park like setting of huge boulders with
crevices, overhangs and little shelters to the south and west, and the beginnings
of a bluffline heading east then soon south.
I head downhill to explore, between two of these huge rocks is a tight
little passage with a stone roof that appears to be sliding off the rock. |
| crevices, passages and small caves |
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sliding stone?
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I have never seen anything like it, apparently rushing water has scoured
out the rock on the back side creating a small shelter cave leaving the outer
smooth rounded crust-rock quite thin and hanging down over the shelter
opening. It’s sort of like a ‘stone drapery’
hanging off the big boulder, back up into the Courtyard I head east along the dripping
bluffs. |
stone drapery
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This smooth (and very wet
today) bluffline grows taller very quickly as it turns south and enters The
Corridor, a long passage ten to fifteen feet wide. The Corridor is probably a hundred yards long
and I can only imagine how it was created, but I’ll assume erosion and shifting
masses of solid stone were involved. At
the end of the passage a tall tree that’s still alive is leaning against the bluff. |
| entering The Corridor |
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dripping bluffs
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Out in front of the bluffline is the biggest boulder I’ve seen yet, sort
of a squared-off rock with vertical
sides and a flat surface on top that includes a few trees. I walk all around this huge boulder admiring
two or three nice rock overhangs, and other nearby boulders creating some short
scenic passageways. Since entering The
Courtyard although there aren’t really any ‘trails’ down in here along the
bluffs, this is very easy hiking on clean forest floor and large slabs of ‘non-slip’
sandstone. |
many 'side' passages
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When I’m almost completely around huge ‘Flat-top Boulder’ I notice a
narrow crevice in a smaller boulder
between me and the main bluffline, as I get closer, I can see light coming
through: a tight ‘crevice tunnel’ 20-25 feet long. I continue around the smaller boulder back to
the bluffline and south. Right away I
see a crevice here on the other side and assume it’s the other end of the
narrow tunnel. |
| Flat Top Boulder on left |
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overhang on Flat Top Boulder
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Upon closer inspection, there are two tunnel entrances here, one on top
of the other (‘double-decker’ tunnels) and both are quite narrow. I squeeze through the top tunnel that emerges
maybe twenty feet later up above and slightly north of the ‘crevice tunnel’ I
had spotted earlier, but I never noticed this ‘upper’ tunnel. There is no easy way down, so I return the way I came then pass on entering the lower tunnel as this would involve a drop down into
a hole followed by low ceilings. |
another overhang, this one much lower
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Here east of the Double Tunnels there appears to be two paths south
along the bluffline, one higher and one lower. I first go up on the ledge (super easy) for
about 100 feet till I reach a dead-end, this is almost to the top of the bluff
and has an easy short climb for a bail-out exit if I was so inclined. But no, I backtrack to the lower path and
continue along the base of the bluff. |
| impressive tall bluffs |
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looking back on a 'rocky road'
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Almost 100 yards further along the bluff is a nice little two-part waterfall,
the top tier is only five or six feet tall and almost as wide. It then flows off a little rock point and plunges
10-15 feet further to the base of the bluff.
It is pretty although more water would be nice, after which the
bluffline temporarily gives way to a little steep dry drainage. Here in this little side drainage is an easy
exit up a short ledge to the top. |
tight narrow tunnel
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But straight ahead I see a nice wide bear crack to the top which I just
have to check out. The bear crack itself
looks a little steep but what got my attention is a big dead tree hanging in another large tree right over
the bear crack, yeah, as I make my way up through the crack to the top I pass
directly under this big rotten tree (root-ball gone) hung up in another live
tree. A little steep yes, but not bad
and at the top a little climb up the smooth sandstone ledge. |
| under the bluffs |
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easy hiking along bluffline
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Now on top the bluff I head north through mostly open woods occasionally finding and following a faint
trail. Yes this is a bushwhack, but
pretty easy and only about 300 yards till I’m back on the road. Uphill on the old road about a quarter mile
doesn’t take long, I’m back at the truck waiting in the clearing/campsite in no
time. |
waterfall off little rock point
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I wanted a short hike today and that’s exactly what I got, only 1.7
miles with 351 feet of elevation gain, a really easy hike. This is a beautiful little spot along the
bluffs, and this hike could be expanded into a little longer hike pretty easily
by either continuing down the road further to the middle sections of Wolf Creek or going further along the bluffs south to the upper most parts of Wolf
Creek. I’m sure I’ll be back for the extended tour version. |
| hanging tree from top of bear crack |
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back on the old road
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West Hudson Bluffs: Statistics Chart 171 To get here you could continue
south on Cowell Road (NC 6560) after passing Ricketts and Owens Mountains, see:
(71 Owens Ricketts Mountains). The easiest way here though is to head north
out of Cowell at the intersection of Hwy. 7 and Cowell Road, go north on Cowell
Rd./NC 6560 about 4 miles to FS 92153M (unmarked and easy to miss), turn left
and continue 800 feet to the parking area. |
base map before fair use alterations is property of USFS--licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License
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