Conley Cove/ Linville Falls

1/6/19

Sherri and I

Sherri picked me up from the B&B at 10 am and we headed into Linville Falls. We decided to go to Conley Cove Trail. Neither of us had done this trail before. We were excited to be on a new trail and to get to the river. On the way we passed Babel Tower trail and I told her to stop because I saw Nick and some friends. They were getting reading to hike it. We said hi and then we’re on our way. But first we went to Wiseman’s View. This spot would be very touristy because it’s so easy to walk to but not today we had it to ourselves.

Well except for a couple slackliners off to the left. We went over to see what they were doing and they were just setting up. He said they normally drone their line across but this time one of them went down to get the line and bring it up! These people fascinate me!

Then we headed to the Conley Cove Trailhead. There were three cars there. One guy was headed down Rock Jock which is just off this trail. I just can’t help it I talk to everyone. We headed down the trail. It was a great trail about a mile and a half down to the river but it has switch backs so it’s a moderate trail. My phone was dead and I broke 2 iPhone cords so I couldn’t charge it. This was making me nuts because I couldn’t take pics or use my Avenza App.

This trail went along a nice stream for the most part. It’s nice to here the water all the way. There were a lot of nice rock walls also.

If I had my Avenza map I would have known the pic below was Conley Cave. But I didn’t so we just walked on past.

Along the trail we could see Table Rock in the distance and even Little Table Rock.

There was one huge dead elm that must have been 50 feet tall. It fell along the trail like a barrier. It was real cool.

We were getting close to the river it was getting louder. Then the sign the Linville Gorge trail sign! I’ve never seen it before.

There were two guys camping down there. They were packing up. I thought it would be nice to camp here because the loud river would drown out all the noises that would scare me at night! 🤔

The river was awesome. Lots of big rocks. They said this was a popular swimming hole but I didn’t think it looked like it. We sat down on a big rock to have lunch.

Sherri saw who she thought was Nick behind us. She said he had the vest with the radio on it. Turns out it was Jon. He came over to say hi. He was down there collection trash. What a great guy! It’s amazing how big this Gorge is and we can still see people we know!

We enjoyed the river some more, took some more pics and headed up.

Sherri is the first tree hugger I ever met. I think that started my love of trees. She can’t help hugging the most majestic trees! It’s tree therapy. ❤️

Up we went. We made good time. We did the climb fairly easily. The guys camping struggled somewhat but they were carrying back packs. Still we felt pretty good about it.

We got to the car and headed back down toward the falls. Mike texted and said he was at Wiseman’s view. I told him we were at Babel trail and he was going to go out the other way after he watched the sunset. We went to Linville Falls and took the trail to the falls. We didn’t go to the first overlook – too many people. We went down to the next one and ran into Cypress. We follow him on Instagram and met him at Hanging Rock. See small world.

We went to the next overlook and got some great pics of the falls. Cypress told us we can get to the base of the falls by taking a trail from the visitors center. Good to know! Next time!

As we were walking back down we ran into Mike. He was gonna stay, watch the sunset then get home late. I was ready to get home and have some time to chill so I was going back with Sherri. We said bye and headed to the car.

That was some weekend. Did a lot,saw a lot and saw a lot of people! Fun fun