Road trip to West Virginia, with a swim break on the Chattooga river

After getting home from the airport late last night, there was no need for an early start this morning. I had to get my things together, and we planned to drive only part way to West Virginia today, so it was late morning when we left Vin's house in Alpharetta.

We made a short stop at Tallulah Gorge State Park on Hwy 23 in Georgia. It is about an hour and a half northeast of Alpharetta. Vin used to come here sometimes with his wife and children. There are some nice pools and a waterfall in the park. Here is a photo of the pools below the highway.

Upstream, on the other side of the highway, is a dam.

There was a crane and some maintenance equipment around the dam. Check out the metal platform, hanging on cables, part way down the dam. How would you like to be lowered on that platform to do dam inspection or maintenance?

Vin likes to go kayaking on the Chattooga river. He calls it his home river. The put-in spot, Bull Sluice, is about a 2 hour drive northeast of Alpharetta. He does a 4 mile river run that includes 5 small waterfalls -- Bull Sluice is the first. It is located off Hwy 76 on the Georgia / South Carolina border.

We put on our swimsuits in the restrooms and walked down the trail to swim in the river. It is a beautiful and popular spot. 

There were several people at the river, and we passed several on the trail. The flat area in the foreground is the put-in spot.

This is Bull Sluice, the fall line at the start of the river run. In the winter the water is a couple of feet higher and too swift to kayak.

While we were there, the guy in the white shorts climbed to the flat area on top of the rocks on the far bank and did a flip into the white water below the falls.

We continued through North Carolina and Tennessee, passing near the Smoky Mountains, Asheville, NC, and Bristol, TN  it was a beautiful drive. I took one photo out the car window, but it really doesn't do the area justice -- rolling mountains covered with trees.

We learned about Stony Fork Campground by searching the area on recreation.gov, and thought it would be a good stopping point for the night. It is located about an hour north of Bristol, and a little northwest of Wytheville, Virginia. We arrived after dark and set up our tents.