Grassy Creek Falls & Little Switzerland

September 1, 2017

Grassy Creek Falls ended up being a bit of an adventure. It was a one mile hike downhill to get to the top of the falls. Then, it was a scramble down a very steep slope to get to the falls. We weren’t anticipating that, but I didn’t fall down the slope, so it turned out ok. There was one other couple there when we arrived and then they left so we had it all to ourselves. A benefit of being out in the middle of nowhere.

It was beautiful and the first time I had ever walked behind a waterfall. I remember thinking that the waterfall was bigger and more powerful in person than it had looked in photos.

We were just hitting our stride taking some photos, when it started to rain. Had this been in a different location, I wouldn’t have worried about it. However, knowing we had a really steep scramble to get back up to the path, I was afraid if it got too muddy, I wouldn’t be able to climb up. So, we quickly stowed our gear and took off.

It’s a good thing we did because the light rain turned into a monsoon. We had one umbrella to protect the bag with the camera gear so I let Erick take care of that. I was already in my bathing suit and didn’t bother getting dressed. Normally rain in June would feel good in the heat, but we were up high in the mountains and it was cold. We had a very cold, long, wet uphill hike back to the car. I was shivering. To say I looked like a drowned rat would have been an understatement. We got to the car, dried off the best we could and turned on the heat.

We didn’t realize how late it had gotten. We drove just down the road a tiny bit to an area called Little Switzerland. We found a restroom to change in so we could go to dinner. Normally, I would have been mortified to head out to dinner looking the way I did and hair dripping wet, but I was just thrilled to have dry clothes. 🙂 There are several hotels here with nice restaurants. We went to the Little Switzerland Inn and got a table near the window with a beautiful view of the mountains. We had a really nice dinner. I really wasn’t expecting much, but it was a pleasant surprise. It was really kind of weird to have this little enclave of Swiss-inspired hotels and restaurants in the middle of the forest, but we really enjoyed it.