Today we leave the New River to look for Purgatory Falls. We drove for about and hour and a half until we got to the gate leading to the trailhead. To our surprise the gate was locked – the falls were part of a Methodist church camp. We wouldn’t have been able to get in if the camp director hadn’t JUST pulled up behind us. We shared our story with her and she happily gave us permission to hike the trail leading to the falls! The beginning of the trail was covered with leaves – no one had hiked it in a while.
The creek on the way up
We followed a creek all the way up, and wow! The waterfall was spectacular! Not very high, but very pretty. My brother and I jumped across rocks to see if we could find the view.
Running along the rocks
We sure found it. It looked almost exactly like it! The water flow had changed a little bit, but the overall scene was fairly accurate.
My brother wanted to be a little dramatic!
We walked up further to the falls and sat on a large rock. Gazing at the base of the waterfall I noticed small fish jumping around. We began our hike back down after eating a snack and looking at crawdads. On the way up we had seen an AMAZING great blue heron fly past us. So we looked for him in the same spot on the way down but we didn’t see him. We jumped into the car and drove to Peaks of Otter. Below the campground there was a lake with otters!!! When we arrived at the campsite it was dark, cold and windy. My brother and I set up our tent without being blown away. We needed a fire to cook supper so my brother and I searched for sticks everywhere to feed the fire. For supper we had nice sausages! That night I slept nice and warm.