Hickory, North Carolina

Moving south, we had picked out a recommended campground right outside Hickory, North Carolina, Indian Springs. I plugged it into the Garmin and away we went. Those of you who use GPS units know we sometimes rely on them too much and today I began to have my doubts as to their accuracy. Remember our rig is 45' and with the towed, we are right at 65' long, so simply making a U-Turn is not an option. Being directed onto a one lane road with no pavement markings creates a Oh! Shucks! kind of moment. We made it though and enjoyed our stay at this small but wonderful park. We also got to see a beautiful waterfall....

Exiting off Interstate 40, we encountered this one lane road. Not too bad, it had no markings but was wide enough and paved. The "Slow" sign should have been a warning sign...

After about a mile and a half, the road ended at this gate. The sign reads, "PRIVATE" No Trespassing. Trespassers will be considered thieves and treated as such".  (Note: anxiety level increases) We push a button, announce ourselves, and the gate opens automatically.

We proceeded through the gate, the road is now dirt, somewhat rutted and appears to go nowhere. Adventure time. We considered unhooking the car but decided we could do that whenever we needed to as the traffic on this road was light....

What we initially thought were turkey buzzards turned out to be nothing more than harmless wild turkeys. They watched as we came upon them then scurried off to some safe haven on the other side of the gate.

Rounding a curve we were treated to a small and intimate campground on a beautiful river with wide spacious sites and outstanding owners. We were warmly welcomed and settled into our end site. We would certainly stay here again if in the area and highly recommend it to anyone.

Just outside Hickory is the South Mountains State Park. We had read about it on Trip Advisor and decided we would take a day trip and picnic to see what the area looked like. One of the "must see" items listed was the Shoal Falls.

The brochure stated it was just a short hike back to the falls on an improved trail. Jasmine loved the new smells but was unhappy I wouldn't let her go swimming.

The "improved" trail became an "improvised" trail meandering over rocks, across the river and around trees. They did have several wooden stairways to get up and over some of the rougher areas. It was very scenic, quiet and serene.

As we proceeded deeper into the forest we came upon a sign saying the "Falls" were only a mile further...past the point of no return we pushed on.

This was one of the many river crossings. Glad our phones had GPS although the service was spotty. What we did see, was this area was used by many locals as a place to cool down on a warm and muggy afternoon. Wherever the river changed direction there was a small wide spot filled with laughing children and adults. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, including us and Jasmine.

Jazz headed off in front of us to do her own exploring. She wasn't too happy I kept her on her leash, at least most of the time.

We could hear the sound of the falls as we got closer. The water was cool but not cold. Most of the rivers we had visited east of the Mississippi were muck brown and not too inviting. This one was running cool and clean. Very inviting, as the humidity was very high.

 The waterfall is on the Jacobs Fork River. After the falls, it continues over a series of cascades for approximately 1/4 mile past here, where the stream loses approximately 300 ft  in elevation.