Sunday, December 11, 2011

Book Reviews: Hiking Waterfalls in Georgia and South Carolina and Hiking Waterfalls in North Carolina

This year Donna and I have taken to finding and photographing waterfalls here in South Carolina. So far we've made at 3 trips to upstate South Carolina and thus far were able to find all of the waterfalls we tried to find except one and boy did we have an adventure on that hike! Along the way we've been doing some product testing which I'll reveal later this month but for now I wanted to write about a couple of new books we bought to help us with our waterfall quests.

Melissa Watson has written two guides that we bought: Hiking Waterfalls in North Carolina and Hiking Waterfalls in Georgia and South Carolina. At the bottom of this review are links for the books on Amazon. If you click on the link and buy a book I'll earn a little commission. So far I think I've earned enough to buy a lens cap but hey every penny helps! The guides list 35 waterfalls for Georgia and 18 for South Carolina and 113 for North Carolina which explains why it gets its own book. I'm a bit disappointed with the South Carolina coverage because we have over 30 waterfalls here in our state so the coverage is a bit light in my opinion. I do have to give the author credit though she personally has hiked to each of these waterfalls she has written about and has provides turn-by-turn directions, with mileage for making your way from the trail head to the base of the waterfall. She has included GPS coordinates for the trail head and waterfall. For each waterfall she includes a map with the track she took to get from the trailhead to the waterfall, height of the waterfall, her beauty rating for the waterfall, distance, difficulty rating, trail surface, approximate hiking time, blaze color to follow, county the waterfall is located in, contact information for the waterfall, and map information to use to look the waterfall up on topo maps. That's a lot of information!

I've compared her write up of some of the waterfalls Donna and I have already found and found her descriptions to be very accurate. My only complaints about the book are: (1) lack of coverage for South Carolina and (2) there's a few errors in the GPS coordinates that I've found. Fortunately I was able to discover the errors while entering the coordinates into my mapping software and not while out trying to find the waterfall. Fortunatly the errors are minor. In one case she listed the trailhead and waterfall with the same coordinates but the description says it's a 1 mile hike to get to the falls so obviously one of the coordinates is wrong. I've passed along the issues I've discovered to the publisher and author and received a brief response from the publisher and am waiting to hear back from one of them with the correct coordinates for one waterfall. Given the amount of information she provides and that I was only able to find a couple of mistakes I think she really put a lot of work into these guides.

Overall I'm very impressed with the guides and I'm sure they will get lots of use as Donna and I continue our waterfall quests. It'll be next spring before we get a chance to use the guide. I don't think we'll be doing any more waterfall hunts this year but you never know. If we get an unusually warm weekend we may head north west to upstate South Carolina and put the guide throuh a test. Once we've had a chance to use it in the field I'll post a follow up.

Below you'll find a list of the waterfalls listed in each of the guides.

Georgia Waterfalls
Ada-HiAmicalolaAnna RubyBecky Branch
Bull Cove (North Carolina)Cane CreekCrow Mountain CreekDenton Branch
DesotoDick's CreekDukes CreekEastatoah
Falls #1 on Waters CreekFalls #2 on Waters CreekFalls on Deep Gap Branch (North Carolina)Flat Branch
Helton CreekHemlockHigh ShoalsHolcomb and Ammons
Horse TroughLitle Rock CreekLittle ridge CreekMartin Creek
MinnehahaPanther CreekPanther and AngelRaven cliff
Sea CreekSliding Rock on Wildcat CreekStonewallSylvan Mill
ToccoaTrahlytaWaterfalls of Tullulah Gorge 


North Carolina Waterfalls
Big BradleyBig LaurelBridal Veil Bridal Veil Falls in DuPont State Forest
Bubbling Spring BranchBull CoveCamp BranchCascade Lake Dam
Cascades on the Cullasja RIverCathey's CreekCedar Rock Creek Falls and Falls on Grogan CreekChestnut
ConnesteeCorn Mill Shoals in Dupont State ForsetCourthouse FallsCrabtree
CullasajaDenton Branch (Georgia)DillDouglas
DryDuggers CreekEastatoeElk River
Falls on Cove Creek, Little Sliding Rock, and Cove Creek FallsFalls on Deep Gap BranchFalls on Long BranchFalls on Long Branch, Hendersonville Reservoir Dam, and Falls on Fletcher Creek
Falls on Tributary of State Rock Creek and Pound Pup FallsFalls on the West Fork of the Pigeon RiverFrench Broad, Mill Shoals, Rooster Tail, Lower Rooster ail, and Bird Rock
GlassmineGlenGlen CannonGranny Burrell and Frolictown
Grassy Creek Greenland CreekHarper CreekHickory Nut
Hidden and Window Falls in Hanging Rock State ParkHigh Falls on Mills RiverHigh Falls on the Thompson RiverHigh Shoals Falls in South Mountain State Park
Hooker Falls in Dupont State ForestHunt FishHurricaneJackson
John's JumpJuneywhankKeyLake Powhatan Dam
Lake Sequoyah DamLaughingLittle BradleyLooking Glass
Lower Cascades in Hanging Rock State ParkLower Falls of Upper CreekLower Falls on the Little Beartrap BranchLower Satulah
Lower and Upper LinvilleMcGalliardMerryMidnight Hole and Mouse Creek
MingoMooneyMoore CoveMoravian
North Harper CreekParadisePeason's Picklesimer Rock House
QuarryRangerRaven RockRoaring Fork
Rough Butt CreekRufus MorganSchoolhouse and Warden'sSecond Falls at Graveyard Fields
SecretSetrock CreekShunkawaukenSilver Run
SilvervaleSkinny Dip HoleSlick RockSliding Rock
SocoSouth Harper CreekStone Mountain, Middle, and Lower Falls in Stone Mountain State ParkTom's Branch and Indian Creek
Tory's Falls in Hanging Rock State ParkToxawayTriple, High, and Grassy Creek Falls in DuPont State ForestTurley
Upper BearwallowUpper Cascades in Hanging Rock State ParkUpper Falls at Graveyard FieldsUpper Falls of Upper Creek
Upper Falls on Little Beartrap Branch and Falls on Big Beartrap BranchWalkerWalking StickWaterfall off Moore's Springs Road in Hanging Rock State Park
Waterfall on Avery Creek and Twin FallsWaterfall on Log Hollow Branch and Falls on Tributary of Big Bearpen BranchWaterfall on Sam Branch and Wash Hollow
Waterfalls of the Horsepasture River: Rainbow, Turtleback, Drift and StairwayWhite OwlWhitewater and LaurelWidow's Creek Falls in Stone Mountain State Park
WildernessWintergreen Falls in DuPont State Forestwildcat and Falls on Flat Laurel Creek 

South Carolina Waterfalls
BrasstownBull SluiceCedar CreekChau Ram
Chauga NarrowsFall CreekFalls on Reedy BranchIssaqueena
King CreekLong CreekOpossum CreekPigpen and Licklog
Raven CliffSpoon AugerStation CoveTwin Falls
Upper Sloan Bridge, Lower Sloan Bridge, and Hiker's PerelYellow Branch

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