Cedar Falls Park, near Simpsonville, SC

As most of you know by now,  when George and I travel,  we enjoy breaking up long trips by stopping along the way to see some new waterfalls.    WELL--on this day (May 11, 2012),  we left Ocean Isle Beach and headed to Simpsonville, South Carolina where we would spend the night and also check out some area waterfalls...

The first group that we saw ended up being one of my favorites of the entire trip.   Thanks to our book (Waterfall Hikes of Upstate South Carolina by Thomas E. King) --we found a fairly new park (Cedar Falls Park,   part of the Greenville County  Recreation District) which contained some fabulous waterfalls and cascades.

The Reedy River, which flows through the city of Greenville,  reaches southern Greenville County at Cedar Shoals.  A 20 foot high masonry dam stretches across the river there and creates a 50-foot wide shoals that drops 12 feet.

This Cedar Falls area has an industrial history much like other sites along the 65 mile long Reedy River.  The shoals were used as early as the 1820's to power a woolen mill,  a saw mill, and in the early 1920's an electrical power generating plant.  A general store located between the dam and Cedar Falls Road served local residents.  Foundations from some of these structures and area homes remain on the site.

Hope you enjoy seeing some of our photos from this neat little park.  Be sure to click on the photos in order to see them larger.   The picture above is the dam. 

George said that I captured his 'best' side when I took this picture.  He was using his tripod while getting some great shots of the dam.  The shirts that we wore that day came from another favorite place,  Cloudland Canyon in Georgia...  The back of the shirts say:  Hiked It;  Liked It!!!!!

After we left the dam,  we made our way down to Cedar Falls.   Isn't this a beautiful waterfall?

I sat on a rock and just enjoyed hearing all of the powerful water around me.   Can you see why we loved this place so much?

This is what I call the Upper Cedar Shoals... George took this photo and I love it... I may ask him to print out an 8x10 for me to frame...  Pretty,  isn't it?

As we walked on down to see the Lower Shoals,  we spotted a Great Blue Heron.   I got a couple of pictures before he flew away ---but didn't have my long lens with me.  I marked where he is on the photo above so that you can see him... I got SO excited since this is the first Great Blue Heron I've ever captured with my camera.

I did read --when we got home ---that this Cedar Falls area of South Carolina is the  home to the only Great Blue Heron rookery on the Reedy River... There are about 10-12 mated pairs --who raise their young here.   Isn't that neat????  (Makes me want to go back and look for more herons!)

And here is a picture of the Lower Cedar Shoals.   We were so impressed with this entire area ---and needless to say,  it was hard to bring the total picture to you through photos since there was so much water in that entire area...  It was so awesome!

Finally,  I'll close by sharing a picture of George and me taken near the dam.

Hope you enjoyed the Cedar Falls/Shoals area.   Now that I know about the herons,  I definitely hope that we can return next spring.

Have a wonderful day.
Hugs,
Betsy