After taking the Daniel Ridge Loop trail and seeing all the beautiful scenery along the way, I decided to go back and do some more exploring. This time I wanted to check out what was further up the Davidson River, past the point where the washed out bridge is. I'm not sure how far up it's still called the Davidson River, but I'm going to assume it's all the way up. If you've got the Pisgah trail map, you can see what I'm talking about. I parked in the same place off FR 475, crossed the bridge and took the Daniel Ridge Loop trail. The first 2 photos are a couple of other small cascades you'll see if you take the smaller trail along the river after the log stairs, and the 3rd is a different view of last falls before the red blazed trail turns to the right, away from the river.
I had already changed into my water shoes to get the above shots - I'd rather not go barefoot - and kept them on for the rest of the river hike. At the washed out bridge, I crossed Right Fork and picked up the trail for a short ways. It was too far away from the river to get good views, so I headed back and started wading up stream. It doesn't show it on the map, but that trail goes as far as the intersection on Daniel Ridge Creek, then stops. My plan was to go about 1.5 miles to the intersection of Shuck Ridge Creek, then take it up to the falls and pick up Farlow Gap Trail back to Daniel Ridge Loop Trail. I didn't find any big waterfalls, but I swear it looked like no one had been this way in a hundred years. Moss covered everything along the way. Bushwhacking through the forest wouldn't have been an option because it was so thick and I came across a couple of places with steep rocky banks. Wading through the river wasn't too difficult and I only came across a couple of tricky places, but I really don't recommend doing this if you've never been off trail before. The next few shots are some of the many cascades I saw along the way.
I spent a good 3 hours along this section of the river, but a good bit of that was taking pictures and soaking up the scenery. The next shot is the point where Shuck Ridge Creek comes in from the right. From here, it's a couple of hundred yards up the the falls and trail and about 3.5 miles back to the parking area.
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