[GaliWalker]

New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, West Virginia (Oct/28/2023) Sandstone Falls I began my day with a stop at Sandstone Falls, my favorite spot in the park. In the past I'd always arrived there a little before sunset but had finally come to realize that sunrise was a better time. This better-late-than-never plan netted me the best conditions for photography that I've ever encountered there.

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Grandview For some reason, I'd never been to Grandview before, which is one of the iconic viewpoints in the park. The vista features a great view of the New River making a horseshoe bend around Backus Mountain (aka War Ridge). Sunrise was the time I'd have liked to have been there, but I'd decided to spend that at Sandstone Falls, so an overcast morning was what I got.

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Dunloup Falls Another favorite.

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The Endless Wall and a fruitless trip down Fern Creek The view of the Endless Wall from Diamond Point is one of the other iconic views in the park. It's also extremely popular. The parking lot for it was overflowing, so I had to park alongside the road, which already featured a long line of other cars. Thankfully, I was able to snag a spot right outside the parking lot. 0.7mi up the trail I left the crowds behind, to head down a climbers' access trail. After a gentle descent for a short stretch to a nice view of the Endless Wall the trail got down to business. Three ladders dropped me down to the base of some bluffs, where I headed right. The terrain was a jumble of boulders, covered by ankle deep piles of slippery leaves. Care had to be exercised, not just to keep oneself from slipping on the wet leaves – did I mention it was drizzling? – but also to not twist one's ankle as you inevitably stepped on seemingly solid ground, only for it to turn into a crack amongst the boulders. If there was a path, it was well hidden under the leaves, but I'd been here once before so didn't have too much difficulty keeping to the route. As long as I kept close to the bluffs to my right I was good.

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The route eventually brought me to Matteus Falls, hidden inside a deep crack amongst house-sized boulders. I rock hopped my way about a dozen feet into the 2ft wide, and quite dark cavern, but the falls were only slightly more than a trickle. They'd sounded loud and promising, but that was just a feature of the sound echoing amongst the walls of the cavern. My heart sank, because I knew that the waterfalls of Fern Creek would be similar, and probably not worth the effort. 100ft further along I reached Upper Fern Creek Falls, which were a similar story to Matteus Falls: a trickle inside a crack between two huge boulders. Right next to it were a bunch of climbers, who entertained me for a while, as I watched one of them climb an overhang.

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I continued along the climbers' access 'trail' for another 0.2 (slow) miles, until I reached an area where the rhododendron thickets to my left had thinned out somewhat. At this point, I headed straight down the hillside. It was steep, and I had to weave my way past rhododendrons, mountain laurel, spiky holly, deadfall, and find a way to somehow keep my footing on the slippery leaves. Huge boulders added to the fun, and often needed to be navigated around, when their downhill sides were impassible cliffs. It took me around an hour to travel 0.2mi, and descend ~400ft, at which point I was level with Middle Fern Creek Falls. I could see it through the trees. As I feared, this was a mere trickle. I was still around 50 boulder-strewn yards away from it but decided to not head over and photograph it. I would have to return for a more thorough exploration of Fern Creek after a long spell of rainfall, and finally make it down to the main attraction, Lower Fern Creek Falls. The way back up the hillside was a chore. In numerous spots I had to claw my way up the hillside on all fours.

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I retraced my steps back on the Endless Wall Trail, where I rejoined the crowds of other hikers. It had stopped drizzling a while back, and I even got to experience a bit of filtered sunshine at Diamond Point.

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[zephyr]

[Get Out and Go]

Wonderful set of photos…

[jaysway]

That Appalachian foliage is stunning. Beautiful photos!

[pipedream]

Stunning photos & strong effort to get them! These make me homesick... I used to spend 1-2 weeks in WV each Oct. visiting family - until they moved out west 5 years ago