Cashiers, North Carolina has been a mystery, ever since moving to North Carolina. It was said to be the home of scary climbing and absurdly rich housing. Both which proved to be true. Alexis and I set off on a Saturday through South Carolina to check out this western Carolina area.
We had a brief stop at the South Carolina state park called Table Rock. (They are not very original with the names of some places). After looking around and taking a few pictures, we continue on and around Lake Jocassese avoiding the traffic of weekend boaters. Eventually we made up and over the 1st mountain range, and wandering into Cashiers, NC. Immediately we notice all of the car networth to be more than $100k. We made our way past the cheaper Multimillion dollar houses which were still visible from the road, to the parking lot of Whiteside State Park. Finding a spot quickly, we did a little loop hike of the mountain and enjoy the breeze at the top. Alexis enjoyed eating the fresh wild blueberries. We explored around a bit and found some old anchors for a route, or rappelling the face of Whiteside’s. We ate hummus and drank water in the parking, while watching the rich shitshow of sweaty entitled people.
Refueled, we left the parking and headed to Panthertown Valley to hike a small loop. Panthertown was a really pretty area that leads to the climbing area at Laurel Knob, but it also hosts the scary climbing of Big Green. We took a trail down through the laurel at hidden waterfall. We cooled off and continued down the path of squishy dirt. Eventually, we saw the cut off the “great wall” that climber refer to as “Big Green.” We crossed the creek, with some rock hopping and found the shelter at the base. Here we ate some wild blackberries and located the base of the wall. Everything was pretty wet and slippery, it was not the season to be climbing there at all.
On the hike, out we stopped at the Saltrock Overlook and saw a thunderstorm beginning to roll in. A rainbow appeared and crested over the valley. Our legs sore noticeably tired, but we made the struggle back to the car to get to the hotel.
We stayed at the Skyline Lodge, which was first constructed in 1929 and then fell in to disrepair until the 1950’s. They model after Frank Lloyd Wright style of architecture. We got the tennis court room, cleaned up and went to explore Highlands, NC, the bigger town in the area. This town was the essence of rich outwest ski town without the skiing. The rich stores and expansive restaurants were everywhere in this isolated bubble. We managed to find a reasonable dinner at the Ugly Dog Pub, which just so happened to be a massive Pokémon stop. We ate, drank, and spun the Pokémon stop. We returned to the lodge and went hot-tubbing with a Nalgene full of champagne.
The morning came and we had a interesting breakfast at the lodge. From here we left for the roadside tour of waterfalls. One of the most famous waterfall in the area called “Bridalveil Falls” turned out to be a massive and funny disappointment. The waterfall was a small drip and trickle that you could drive your car behind. From here we went farther down the road to the “Dry Falls” area. This was one of the prettiest falls, I have seen in the NC yet. Massive in scope and relief, it allows you to walk behind the high flow of water. The only problem is that you have to time it right so you are not inundated with other tourists.
We left the cashier’s valley after we were unable to find any magnets for the area. On the drive back to the Charlotte we stopped at one of the lesser known state parks called “The Gorge”. This state park is basically a rain-forest located in the south east. They get an average of 91 inches of rain a year. The visitor center was impressive and offered great resource. We decided to do a quick hike down to Bear-wallow Falls. An easy hike led to a overview of the cascade , but then we disappeared off trail and through laurel to get to the base. We took some pictures and admired some mushrooms before turning around and heading out on the drive back to Charlotte.
