Hiking the Cliffs in Wilson’s Creek Area

11/10/18

Sherri, Lori, Mary and I

We all met at my house at 7am. Sherri drove and we headed for Big Lost Cove Cliffs Trail. This is the one closest to the west side of Wilson’s Creek area. We came in from the west and took a dirt road to our first trailhead. It was 29 degrees! We parked next to this guy in a truck who was clearly a hunter. I asked if he was hunting today? He said Yes we let the dogs go and are waiting to see what they find. I said up there? (I pointed to where we are going) he said no behind us. I asked if that was cheating to get the dogs to flush out the deer? He said they were not hunting deer they were hunting bear! Seriously? I thought he was messing with me but his front tag said Dogs and bear hunting. Hmmmm I didn’t know people hunted bears and not sure how I feel about that.

So we walked across the street and headed up our trail. Sherri and I have this thing we call bearanoia. Bearanoia immediately set in when we could hear the dogs barking in the distance! 😳 This is a remote trail and we were alone out here. We continued on.

Within a few minutes Mary broke the tension by falling down in slow motion for almost no reason! Of course I grabbed my camera and yelled “Blog Picture!!” We laughed so hard it practically took all 3 of us to get her up.

This is a really nice trail. 1.7 miles long, a lot of flat areas some ups, some downs. Most of the leaves have fallen so it was basically a trail on leaves which is so nice visually although it covers the rocks and roots you can trip on. A few minutes later a young couple hiked passed us and Bearanoia gone. I guess because we weren’t alone anymore. 🙄

The wind was whipping above us the closer we got to the end of the trail. We could hear it approaching from the left and then it was overhead then it passed us. Over and over! It was so loud too. It was swaying the trees at the very top but luckily not so much down where we were.

The cliffs have amazing views of Grandfather Mountain, the Linn Cove Viaduct, Rough Ridge and the surrounding area. There was snow on the mountain in Boone. We could see it from here. It was so cold up here all the puddles were frozen.

Me on this windy day.

We didn’t linger because it was cold! We got off the cliffs and headed back down the trail. We passed more people heading up the trail. When we got back to the trailhead the hunters were gone.

We got in the car and rode down to the second trailhead for Little Lost Cove Cliffs. The temp was up to 41! A heatwave. Everyone was enjoying sitting on Sherri’s heated seats. They did not seams to want to get up! Even the backseats were heated.

We headed up the trail. This trail was a steady climb to the summit with a series of long switchbacks. This trail was about 1 mile. The elevation was a little lower than the last so there was much more color. The color of this trail was yellow.

At the top we took a short right turn to the summit. This trails views are the same as the other trail but we are closer to Grandfather Mountain. It was super windy at the top.

It’s pretty brrr so down we go back to the car. We drove down the road about another mile and stopped at the Darkside Cliffs Trailhead.

This is a quick half mile trail at an even lower elevation. Mary decided to stay in the car so the 3 of us went. This trail had the same view of Grandfather Mountain but we were now eye level with the red colors.

We followed the trail which was marked with blue blazes. I think this is the only trail in Wilson’s Creek I’ve ever seen blazed. To the right there was a huge deep bowl of color that we stopped to look at.

When we started hiking again we missed the turn in the trail and kept hiking till we ran out of trail. We retraced our steps and found the trail. So far all 3 of these trails have a steep decent before the cliffs. Weird. The view here was slightly different because you could see a “gorge”.

It was a quick 12 minute hike back to the car. Mary was still enjoying those heated seats and was about to snooze when we showed up.

We got in the car and headed down to Betsy’s Old Country store and campground in Mortimer. Bruce who owns it, once drove out to Gragg Prong to pick us up when daylight was running out on our hike. I wanted to say hi and get a cheeseburger and a T-shirt. They were big cheeseburgers cooked on the grill and I had mine with chili and cheese. I’m not sure I burned enough calories today but oh well!

He raises money for a clean Wilson’s creek. They remove trash daily from the area. So if your in that area stop by and patronize him or make a donation! Check out the Facebook page for summer concerts also. All proceeds go to the Wilson’s Creek clean up fund.

We left and drove out through the gorge area. It’s so amazing.

Today we did about 7 miles. I just love this area and there are lots more trails to do here!

Until next time!