Monday, February 7, 2022
Remember when I said that I was hoping to get out to photograph a waterfall today with the clouds? Well, that was what I did today. When I got everything wrapped up from my local trek through North Wilkesboro last night, I started to consider my options for a waterfall trek. The weather was looking promising, at least during the morning hours with low and medium clouds filling up most of the sky until around mid-day when they transitioned to high clouds that usually mean just a light overcast. There were several waterfalls that I had not visited in a while that I was considering going back to but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I wanted to work a different location. I guess I got kind of spoiled finding Big Bear Falls last month where I really enjoyed the thrill of photographing something new. That could only mean one thing. It was time to break out Kevin Adams’ book on waterfalls in NC. This is a staple among waterfall photographers and a book that I have used many times as I searched out new locations to work.
I started to go through the book and found a few locations that I wanted to consider, but there were things in the writeup that would keep me from committing to venturing out to the location. I just kept on looking. I was getting further and further out and was starting to think that I would be better off just sticking closer to home and working some rural scenes. That wasn’t exciting me though. I kept looking at the waterfalls, page after page. Eventually I found myself browsing through the waterfalls in the Pisgah National Forest in the area of Transylvania County. This is the area known for waterfalls and I have had decent luck the times that I have been out that way in the past. I looked through the different falls and just wasn’t finding anything that struck my fancy. I didn’t want to get the same ones that everyone photographs which is the problem with this area. Most of the waterfalls have been photographed endlessly and there is very little chance that I could do any better than has already been done.
As I was thumbing through the pages, a picture of Cedar Creek Falls caught my eye. I started to read about it and didn’t see any cause for concern with the location or the hike. It was about two and a half hours away and looked to be about a mile hike to the first falls, with an additional mile to get around to the second one which looked even more interesting. Looking at the weather, I was going to need to be out there around 8:30 to get started so I would have time to work the locations before the high clouds came in during the afternoon. In order to make that happen, I was going to have to leave by 5am in order to be on location at 8:30. I am just not a fan of waking up early, but there are times when it just has to be done. This was going to be one of those times.
We turned in early which was easy to do since Toni was worn out from her day at work and ready to go to sleep right when she got home. I followed in behind her shortly thereafter. The clock rang at 4:30 and I was looking at the weather. There was a bit of rain forecasted right before dawn which meant that there would likely be clouds in the morning which was a good thing. The cloud forecast was holding pretty stable and I decided that I would go ahead and make the trip out to Cedar Rock Falls. I got a few things taken care of before I left the house and remembered that I needed to get gas. That was no problem because I would pass a station on my way out. Well, that station was closed which was a new occurrence from the last time I left early in the morning like this. No problem, I would just get it at another station. Thinking about the route to I-40 that I would be taking, I didn’t see much in the way of gas within the 50 miles I had left on this tank. I opted to drop by the Shell Station which I hated to do, but desperate times and all. I filled up and was on my way down 268. When I got out of Boomer, the rain started, and I noticed that it was icing up on my windshield. This wasn’t expected and apparently came up kind of last minute. I plowed through and continued to get ice on the windshield until I was nearly in Asheville. I had no problems on the road fortunately, and with all the rain I was fully expecting good cloud cover through the morning.
I had the GPS set for the falls and also had the book in the passenger seat to confirm the turns. When I turned onto the Forest Rd, I saw the sign for the hatchery where I was going to be parking and it said that it was closed indefinitely. I wondered if I had made the trip in vain and would have nowhere to park. When I got to the hatchery, I noticed that there was a fence up all around the building with warning signs indicating that it was closed. The GPS was telling me to continue down the road so I thought that it might have other ideas for me. Well, it pulled me off onto a gravel shoulder with no trail to be seen so I figured that this was probably not the right place to be either. I double checked the book and confirmed that I was supposed to be at the hatchery, so I went back down the road and pulled into the parking lot. It was open and appeared that it was just the building that was closed off for repair or something like that. I read through the trail directions real quick in the book before getting out and loading up my gear. I had Kevin’s web page up on the phone in case I didn’t have connectivity so that I could refer to the directions along the way. I wasn’t sure if I could even access the trailhead since the instructions said to go in front of the main building.
Well, I was able to skirt along the fence which followed Kevin’s directions exactly. When I got to the trailhead, I saw a big warning sign that indicated that bridges were out on the trails, and that there was a trail closure. As I looked at the map, they had a red line on a trail and said not to use that trail. There was an alternate trail that went along the road. I checked with the instructions, and they said to turn onto the trail to the right, right after crossing the bridge. Looking at the blaze on the trail, I could see that it was red. I went back to the map I had been looking at and it said to stay off of the trail in red. It was still early, and I admit that I was a bit confused about this. Looking at everything, I only had one other option to follow, and that was the forest road beyond the gate. I could see that it would intersect with the trail about a mile down. This coincided with Kevin’s directions that said the trail would cross the road about a mile in. I went ahead and set out on the alternate trail which wasn’t the red blaze trail. Sure enough, after a mile of easy hiking I came to the trail just as both sets of instructions indicated. Right there at the juncture, I saw one of the scenes that had caught my eye in the book the night before. It was a lot smaller than I remembered it appearing and all I could think about was Toni telling me how I can make a small waterfall look huge. Well, I had fallen victim to that. Surely this wasn’t Cedar Creek Falls though.
I got down into the water and moved over close to the section of the creek that interested me. I got the camera set up with the 24-70mm lens and a polarizer and started to work out compositions. I had a general idea of what I wanted here but was left feeling a little let down at the size of it. It was enough to get me started with the day though and you know how important those first shutter releases are. At least I knew I was on the right track and was starting to get images that I was looking for. The weather was holding for me as well. The clouds were looking good, the light was good, but it was sure cold. This was the first trek of the year where I had to wear my gloves and a scarf to keep warm. That was going to change soon enough though, so stay tuned.
When I was done with this section of the creek, I made my way back to the trail and did some quick figuring about my location. Deductive reasoning pointed me in the right direction for where I needed to go. Looking at the directions that I had, I started from the point where the trail crossed the road. I was looking at 10-15 minutes before I came to split on the trail that was like a “V” and I would be going to the left. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, there was a “V” in the trail. To the right was the John Rock Trail and to the Left was the Cat Gap Loop Trail that I had been on. The division was well marked and I wasn’t sure how Kevin thought that this was a hidden fork in the road. I took the left fork and it continued up a hill that got steeper and steeper. I was no longer hearing the water, but according to the directions, I was supposed to be hearing the falls at this point and be able to walk towards them. Feeling that something was wrong, I turned around and went back down the hill to the fork. I went to the right this time which put me closer to the creek. I walked this way for a few minutes and then decided that this didn’t feel right. I did a quick internet search and found that the waterfalls were located on the Cat Gap Loop Trail, and this was a trail to a scenic overlook high atop the mountain. With the sky not looking all that interesting, I didn’t feel like climbing a mountain today so I turned back around and went back to the fork.
For the second time, I was hiking up an ever-increasing slope with hopes of finding a waterfall soon. I kept slogging up the hill and realized that I was about to die from the heat. It wasn’t hot mind you, there was still ice on the ground. I was burning up though and had to start opening up layers as I walked. I was really thinking that I had missed the turn-off that Kevin cited in the book. I was even thinking that the little cascade was actually the waterfall that I had been looking for. I started to look at the next set of instructions which put the second waterfall a mile further down the trail, but I was going to have to transition to a different trail in order to get there. I had not seen the trail that he said to turn on. I was still seeing the blazes, so I was certain that I was still on the trail, but was I on the right trail?
I had snapped a picture of the map at the entrance that showed the detour. I started to look at it for clues. There was no mention of the waterfall on the map that I could see. I could make out about where I was on the map though. As I started to look around zoomed in, I could see way off on the corner, a marker for Cedar Rock Falls. I was now very much awake, and my brain was functioning much better than it had been before. I realized my error, and really wanted to kick myself. I had gotten so tied up in figuring out the detour that I never even realized that I didn’t need to take that side of the trail. The right turn that Kevin had said to take wasn’t the forbidden trail at all. It was the direct route to the waterfalls. Had I gone that way, I would have been looking at a short 20 minute hike to get to the falls. Instead, I was probably an hour in. To make matters worse, looking at the map, my position was the polar opposite from where the waterfall was located. That meant that if I turned around, I would have the same distance to go if I just carried on the way that I was headed. I had bought the ticket, I might as well ride the ride. I was still climbing though, and that made me mad. What was supposed to be a mile hike to the first falls, was turning into roughly 3.5 miles…mostly straight up. If I went to see both of the waterfalls, I would be looking at about 6.5 miles of hiking it would appear.
To make matters worse, I was doing my best groundhog impersonation because I was starting to realize that I was seeing my shadow. Now, does that mean 6 more miles of uphill? I can’t remember how that goes. My fear was that I was losing the light so that when and if I managed to find the waterfalls, I would have lost the lighting needed to capture them. I was just hoping that the clouds would at least continue to diffuse the light for a bit longer. I was hiking as quick as I could to get to the first of the waterfalls. At least I was starting to come across landmarks on the map that I could match up. If only I had looked closer at the map to find the stupid waterfall!
When I finally got to the junction where Cedar Rock Falls should be, I started to try to match up the directions from the book to find it. There was no “V” in the trail to lead me to the waterfall, and the only significant water I saw was a chute between some rocks. There was nothing there to photograph so I started to think that this was a wasted stop that I had struggled to get to. I had one other waterfall to go check out, and the directions were based off of the Cedar Rock Falls and a camp site. I had no idea where to turn, and I had cut the map off right at the falls, so I couldn’t see anything beyond that. As I was snooping around the trails, I saw a marker for Butter Gap Trail. This was familiar from the directions, and I was able to pick up the directions from that point. I was finally cooking with oil and well on my way to see Grogan Creek Falls which was probably the prettiest of the falls.
My good mood changed to a familiar sense of frustration within 30 yards of hiking. I found myself in a clearing with no blazes and no recognizable trail. This was getting to be an all too frequent occurrence on this hike. I just backtracked to confirm I was supposed to be seeing blue blazes on the trail. When I got back to the marker, I could see that there was a trail that was right next to the one that I had gone on, but this one was slightly elevated. I hopped up there and started to hike for just a few steps before I saw a wooden sign for Butter Gap Trail. Now I was on the right track. The hike was relatively simple, and I was able to follow the instructions rather easy at this point. I even took the correct turn at a fork in the trail. Before long I could see the large wall of white water that I was sure was the waterfall. I was so happy to have found this one, and it was even prettier than the pictures had indicated. I took a few minutes to scramble down to the base of the falls and I just took it all in. This was unlike any waterfall that I had seen before because of all of the layers. It appeared that I was able to go out on the rocky surface that the water was racing across which would give me a much better angle for the photograph.
I started out with my 24-70mm lens, but quickly realized that it was not quite wide enough to capture the foreground that I was so happy to see. I went back to the bag and swapped out the glass for my wide-angle lens along with the polarizer. I went back out on the slick rocks trying my hardest not to slip and slide downstream. I started to work several different variations on the composition and bracketing my shutter speeds with each composition. I was around a half second down to 1/5 of a second. This was a tricky waterfall to photograph because I wanted to keep all of the detail in the water, while showing the motion. These relatively quick shutter speeds did the trick. What I spent the most time with was getting the camera positioned just right. I wanted to minimize the negative space in the lower right corner, while keeping some to balance out the trees in the upper right. It was a game of inches in all directions in order to get the location that I finally thought was the right one.
Even though I only worked a single composition here, I’m glad that I committed to it. I had some misgivings about the sky entering in and in some of the variations, I had cropped it out completely. Between varying the shutter speeds and composition, I was able to get an image that I am quite proud of. In fact, this is my favorite image from the day and possibly one of my favorite waterfall photographs in recent times. There is a wonderful dramatic quality to the scene that would have been missed with a different shutter speed. The water flow was perfect in comparison to what I have seen in other photographs. There just isn’t anything that I don’t like about this one. It still might be the fact that I worked so hard to find this one, but time will tell if I’m still as happy with it as I think I am now.
I was fortunate that the light was holding on for me at this point. There was a bit of sun, but it wasn’t causing any problems with the waterfall, and as long as I remembered to shield the lens with my hat during the exposures the sun wasn’t causing any problems with the camera either. I didn’t want to push my luck though and I was sure that I had what I needed from here. I went ahead and packed up my gear and started on the hike back to the parking lot. Since I now knew the trails, I was pretty sure that the hike was only going to be a couple of miles and that was certainly better than the long route that I had taken out here in the first place.
When I got to the junction with the trail that I had come in on, I started to look for Cedar Creek Falls once again. The only waterfall that I could see where the map showed the falls wasn’t pretty at all and I had no interest in capturing it. As I was reading the instructions in reverse, since I was hiking with the short boots today, I found that there was a camp site that I needed to be looking for. I had seen one of them when I was scouting the area before. It was down a small scramble path that I decided to take. When I got to the base, I could see that there was a waterfall located just around the bend. My luck was finally turning around. I moved over to it and scrambled down to the water. I really wasn’t all that interested in this waterfall because the majority of it was actually a water slide which just doesn’t photograph all that well in my opinion. There was a redeeming quality though at the top of the falls. That was where the cascades were located, and there was some really nice visual interest behind the water. It was enough to convince me to give it a try, so I pulled out the camera and started to rock hop at the pool’s edge to find the right position. There were trees in the way on both sides, but I managed to get a workable angle on the waterfall by putting the tripod out in the water while I leaned on a rock with my foot wedged between two rocks to keep me from standing knee deep in the water.
The pictures were coming out fine, but they lacked the excitement that I felt looking at this waterfall. As I examined the images, I realized that the problem was the vast real estate that the waterslide was taking in the frame. It dwarfed the section that I was actually interested in. I tried to zoom in on that section which helped the photo a good bit, but it was still feeling forced. I needed to get a different angle on it. I moved the rig over to the right and tried to get a more sideways angle on it. That helped, but still wasn’t getting what I was after. I paused and looked around to see what I could do about my position. It appeared that if I was careful, I might be able to get closer and a bit further to the right if I did some rock hopping. I decided that it was worth the try so I grabbed the camera and started working my way around.
I made it to the spot that I thought would work out, but the trees were in my way. No matter where I put the camera, there was not a clear view of the area that I liked. I tried to do an overall shot from this angle and that failed miserably. I stopped again and pondered my options. What I wanted to do was climb up that waterslide and get closer to the section that I wanted to photograph. In order to do that, I was going to have to jump across the water and land on a wet rock that was roughly at a 30-degree incline. That just seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. I opted against that plan and saw a safer way of doing it. I placed the tripod completely in the water between the rock I was standing on and the sloped rock that I was going to hopefully be standing on soon. I went back towards the shore and used a fallen tree to climb through brush to get onto the sloped rock. I then worked my way back to the clearing and tried to get the camera. It was just a tad too far out to get though. I got as close to the edge as I dared and held onto a small tree as I stretched out over the water. I could just touch the grip of the camera, so I used a finger to pull it closer and grabbed the grip. I lifted the whole contraption out of the water with three fingers barely holding onto the camera. I just kept thinking to myself that this might be the reason that I get that R5, but I wasn’t looking forward to dunking the camera in the water. It made it safely over to the sloped rock thankfully.
From here, I slowly worked my way up the slope to get to the top of the waterfall where I wanted to get set up. The closer I got to the falls, the more moss I ran into on the rock. Wet moss on a slick rock is a recipe for a mess so I made sure that I was very careful about checking the grip of the surface before putting my body weight on it. I got up to the area that I was hoping to get to and put the camera out on the rock in the fast-flowing water. There was nothing there to lock the tripod to, so I just had to pay attention to it and try to keep it from getting swept away. Meanwhile, the water was spraying over my feet and drenching my pants from shin down. I had no options here because I needed my feet to be on the grippy portions the best that they could be. There was no doubt, I was not in a good location and if Toni was here, I could just hear her yelling at me. It wasn’t smart, but it was necessary in order to get the photograph that I was wanting.
I did the best that I could getting the composition figured out considering I had the camera an arm’s length from where I was. I was having to rely on the live view for everything here and then once I got the composition set, I had to bracket the exposures in the hopes that I would get the right combination to show the water the way that I was seeing it. I spent about 10 minutes up here playing around with some different variations before deciding that I had pushed my luck too far. I grabbed the camera and started the slow shuffle back down to the water. I placed the camera back in the deep water while I went around through the brush to the fallen tree which took me back to the rocks I started on. This time, it was much easier to grab the camera since I wasn’t right at the edge of a slippery slope. I took one more look around to see if there was another composition that I might have missed. Not seeing anything, I packed the camera back up and felt rather pleased with myself. I had managed to shoot the two waterfalls that I had come for and the light had maintained well enough that I could do it.
I was very tired at this point, and I was ready to get back to the truck to sit down and head home. I made it back up the scramble path to the trail and started on my way towards the parking area. I kept thinking about the “V” intersection that I was supposed to come up to first if I had been traveling in the correct way. There was another waterfall there, and while I didn’t care that much for the photos that I had seen, there was a larger part that insisted if I found the side trail to take it. I had invested all this time to get here and take the scenic route around the entire flippin’ park. I might as well see it all.
Sure enough, I arrived at a section where I could see a waterfall in the distance through the woods. There was a scramble path that took a hard left off of the trail. It didn’t look too terrible, and the waterfall was a significant one from what I could see. What the heck! I was off and running once again in search of a composition. My feet were tired, I was hot, and my back was sore, but there might be another photograph just around the bend. The trail was easy to follow, actually easier than I had expected from reading about it. When I came out to the falls, I wasn’t all that thrilled with the side view. It was the front view that I was most interested in, but that was going to require some rock hopping to get to. Well, my feet were already wet so I might as well do what I needed to do. It was easier than I thought, and I found myself in the position that I wanted to be in. The question that now faced me was how to compose this shot. There was a lot of clutter in the scene and the compositions that I wanted to do weren’t looking all that great.
I started off with the 24-70mm lens since it gave the best flexibility with my compositions and started to frame up some horizontal shots. I found a few compositions that kind of worked, but they weren’t all that strong and had the feeling of a post card. There was no way to achieve balance here without including the rocks on both sides which then dictated that the waterfall be placed directly in the middle which I didn’t like at all. I flipped the camera to the vertical position and started to work compositions in that fashion. They seemed to word better, but I was having a very hard time getting the elements organized in a way that made sense.
As I was playing around with the different compositions, I found that the rocks on the left, framed the pool quite nicely and the runoff from the waterfall balanced nicely with the rocks. That was the beginning of what would become my favorite composition from this waterfall. I worked that concept for quite a while moving the tripod between rocks and then an inch here and an inch there. I finally got the relationship that had the best visual balance for the whole scene. I was glad that I stuck this one out because I had almost left it after several lackluster compositions. It just goes to show that you need to really work the scene in order to get the very best composition. This is a lesson that I have to remind myself of at times because much of what I shoot I’ve shot before which means that I have the compositions all figured out before I get there. This is part of the fun for a new location because I get to start from the ground up and form compositions. If you would like to know more about this process, I’m doing a mini-workshop in May dealing with building compositions in the landscape. There are still a few slots open for that one, but it is likely to sell out before May gets here. If you are interested, go ahead and get signed up now to ensure that you have a spot held.
Once I figured out that composition for the last waterfall, I was done for the day. There was just nothing left in the tank. I was hungry and thirsty from going about twice as far as I had intended on going for this hike. I was glad that I had stuck with it though and I felt accomplished for finding all of the waterfalls even if I did go about it backwards. I think I need some more hiking practice in new areas. I used to be much better at this sort of thing, but here lately I’ve been really messing up on these trails. I hope to get that straightened out soon so I can get back to exploring the different hiking trails once again.
Thank you for joining me, and I do hope that you enjoyed the photographs from today’s trek. It has really been nice to get some waterfall photography in the bag once again. It has really been a very long time since I’ve done it with any regularity. In fact, when I showed Toni the pictures from today, she said it was like old times. She’s always enjoyed my waterfall photographs as well as my landscapes. I just haven’t been doing much of those here lately since I’m in the mecca of rural scenes. You just never know what I’m going to be in the mood to photograph next, which helps keep it interesting. In the last week, I’ve done a series of headshots, some geometrical artsy images, and landscapes photography. I’ve got another headshot session scheduled for Friday, so I’ll be in the studio doing that once again. I do enjoy playing with the lights.
Until next time….
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