Icicles and Icy Waterfalls

Our trip to the Brevard, NC area this past week was FABULOUS. As I have said before, I "love" winter, so hiking in winter is my favorite time!!!! We did NOT see snow--but that is okay since we were traveling some treacherous mountain (gravel and dirt) back roads. In three days we visited 25 waterfalls --with 18 of them being new ones for us!!!!!

This week has been VERY COLD in the south--including the mountains of North Carolina. I don't think the temperature got ABOVE freezing from the time we left home on Thursday morning ---until Saturday afternoon. And most of that time, the temperatures were in the 20's. For that reason (and since that area has had ALOT of rain lately), there were HUGE icicles hanging from rocks all along the roadsides and even on the huge rock mountain tops in that area.

SO-today I'm featuring some of the waterfalls and icicles we saw on Saturday. Above is a picture of George and me standing beside Dry Falls (north of Highlands). There was another couple checking out the falls, so we took their picture together --and they took ours. Below are more pictures.. Be sure to put on your heavy coat when checking out these pictures!!!! ha




Icicles along the roadside; We saw many, many areas like this!!!!




Some of these icicles were HUGE--hanging down from the high rocks.




I liked this picture from the top of a rock ledge.. Pretty, aren't they???




This icy waterfall is named Bridal Veil Falls---and can be found north of Highlands, NC. We have seen this one MANY times --but never with so much ICE. Usually, you can drive your car behind this waterfall ---but not on this day!!!!





This is a great picture I think. George is standing almost BEHIND the falls to get this picture...




Here's one more picture of Bridal Veil Falls---showing all of the ice around it at the bottom and top.




This HUGE waterfall is Dry Falls (which obviously is NOT dry).. This waterfall is between Highlands and Franklin, NC. One can see it from an overlook --or can hike down. We did BOTH. The path down was a little icy--but I held tight to the fence rails!!!! We have also seen this waterfall several times --but never quite like this.





George walked down to the place where we usually can walk BEHIND that waterfall. Obviously, there was no way to walk behind it this time. SO--he took some great pictures of the ice and icicles behind the falls.





It's not easy sharing the magnitude of the amount of water coming over these falls... Unbelievable!!!!! What an incredible sight --for waterfall lovers like us!!!!

Many more pictures to come--since we took about 350 pictures on this trip... Yipes!!!!

Hope all of you had a great week/weekend. We will catch back up with your blogs gradually!!!

Hugs,

P.S. We did come home to a not-so-great surprise... We had a broken waterpipe in our front yard.... George will blog about this I'm sure!!!! Ain't life Grand?????