Vogel State Park - Day 2

    Our campsite here is next to the last on the first loop of campsites.  Somehow, unexpectedly, we awoke at almost 9am this morning.  I did wake briefly about 6 but saw the time and rolled back over.  There was a smokey mountain fog laying over the park above us and as I stepped outside and I had the distinct sense it was raining.  Nope, our campsite is situated just between two little mountain streams and between them it just sounded like rain.  A beautiful 72 degrees, an ever so gentle breeze mingled with the sound of the water and the scent of the pines and rhododendrons saturated the senses.  Back inside and I got breakfast together and prepared for a visit from an old friend.  

    I hadn't seen Jack in almost 40 years, the last time I saw him he had recently moved to the Atlanta area and I was taking a family trip to Florida.  We lost touch after that, both focused on raising families and providing for them.  We had worked together for several years at Emerson Electric in Harrison, Arkansas back in the early 80s before Emerson packed up and moved to Mexico.  I had every so often dug around looking to make contact with Jack expecting to find any hint of where he might be.  A couple years ago I made a concentrated effort and located him not too far outside of Atlanta and confirmed it was him when I noticed his previous address from Arkansas.  There was no way to actually contact him without just showing up at his door but there were enough clues to narrow my focus.  I finally located his son on Facebook and left a message in hopes he wouldn't ignore a message from a complete stranger.  We finally connected a few months ago and this trip provided the perfect opportunity to meet up.  We could have rambled on for days, but made the most of the few hours we had available and said our farewells.

    I wanted to drive around the campground and get some pictures for the blog but when I did there was little I found that would do it any real justice.  This picture from the public swimming area was what I decided to use.  Not happy with that alone, I thought I might drive up the mountain seen in the background and get a good shot from above.  The campground itself is in that area between the mountains in the background.  I drove out the park entrance and headed up the mountain in hopes of finding a nice observation point to pull off.  No such luck.  Fortunately, a small sign was pointed down a narrow road and marked "Helton Creek Falls".  Being the sucker that I am for waterfalls, I couldn't resist.  The little one lane road snaked down the mountain and was lined with a dozen homes and short dead end lanes to likely more homes nestled in this deep wooded crevasse between the mountains.  The narrow pavement came to an end and another small sign pointed the way adding 2 miles to its face.  I continued on in search of the falls, worried I might come upon another vehicle traveling up the road but there were none.  I rounded another corner and knew I was there.  A dozen cars parked on the edge of the road and a footpath disappearing into the woods.  It wasn't a long hike but it was steep in a few spots.  I came to a split in the path with steps going up to the right and steps rounding down to the left. And There it was.

I walked down into the creek to get a good shot, Pictures just cannot do it justice.  The Waterfall was cascading down a rockface about 40 feet. I noticed a wooden structure at the top and realized it was where the other steps went to.  After I got the shot, I clamored up the steps to get a shot from above.  But wait, there's more.  I was already a little tired climbing up to the overlooking deck, but there was more further upstream and I had to go on.  I'm so glad I did. This trail, steep as it was, required I take a short break midway to catch my breath only to take my breath away at its terminus.  

This was what I came to see.

Sunday we'll get a few errands done and make ready to depart for Waynesville, NC on Monday.  That's all for now, I hope you enjoyed it. (don't forget, you can click on any picture for a better view)

PS. Happy Birthday Mom, I love you.