2005/04 Deep South trip - Cullasaja Gorge |
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We saw lots of storm damage: signs and awnings down, roofs peeled back, and many trees down. We even saw that a line of those beautiful flowering apple trees had been destroyed. Eventually we found a gas station that had power and then drove through valleys of the Appalachian mountains beneath snowy peaks to the town of Canton.
We were following a very strange set of directions to one of the sapphire mines. We were generous and concluded that the roads must have been changed since the book was written! The Old Pressley Mine turned out to be situated at the wrong end of a near-vertical muddy track. It consisted of a beaten-up old shack and a rickety flume for washing dirt off the rocks. However, although all the literature said that it was open 364 days a year, the old lady that owns the place (Old Ma Pressley herself?) obviously thought otherwise and we found that it was closed on Sundays.
We moved on fifty miles to Franklin where we had planned to be on the next day. We knew it was too late by then to do any mining, but we thought we’d be ahead if we at least found the Mason Mine. It is situated at the head of the beautiful Cowee valley, with green fields, cottages, and mountains all around. (See the picture to left.) As expected the mine had closed for the day, but we told them we’d be back in the morning.
We were headed for the Hurricane Creek campground in the Nantahala forest, but we had no luck finding the forest road. We think the people who write these driving instructions never test them out. Our conclusion later was that we’d 
been on the right road but that it had been renamed as a state road. At the time, we just gave up while it was still light and headed thirty miles to an alternative site at Vanhook Glade. This turned out to be at the top of a very twisty and narrow road that climbed up the Cullasaja Gorge following the river. We passed a very impressive waterfall on the way up, but there was no room for us to pull off the road to look at it. There was only one other group at the campground. It was a warm evening, and still light enough for us to gather wood for a fire and cook bratwurst.
Monday April 4th
It was nice for a change to have flush toilets and water, but in the morning the toilets had been locked up and the water 
turned out to be laced with chlorine. However, the good news was that the sun was shining and the wind had dropped. We drove back down the Cullasaja Gorge. There was nowhere to stop to look at the waterfall, as the road was only just wide enough for two vehicles. Parking at the bottom and walking back up the road would not have been smart. The trail up the river is also somewhat dangerous, so all I have is the picture above, harvested from the Internet, with much less water than we were seeing as we drove past.