Adventures in Cleveland

Recently we had a break from winter weather and I was invited to go on an adventure searching for a waterfall in the woods.

Mark, Eric, my son, and I all headed up to Cleveland, SC and started on our adventure.

We were looking for a waterfall named Spider Tunnel Falls by a blogger.  He briefly described how to get to the falls and we used his description as we entered the woods where no trail exists.

We followed the creek and as we worked our way through the woods tried to stay close to the water.  At one point we approached a large cliff that forced us away from the water to get around it.  We continued up stream and found a small waterfall.  Not what we were seeking.  We felt like we had traveled a bit too high and decided to start our way back down.

On our way back down we found an old rusted barrel in the creek.  Could this be a remnant of a moonshiner?

We also found some old metal bands that may have been used on barrels or containers.  Again, moonshiners?

When we re-approached the cliff from the top side we heard the waterfall.  In our trip up we had went too far away from the water but this time we heard it.  We made our way through the trees and found the top of the falls.

The falls were terrific.  Water flowed off the top of the cliff and into a hole in the rocks big enough to jump through.

Following the rock around we climbed down to find the "tunnel" part of Spider Tunnel Falls.

The tunnel is wide enough to easily walk through but it would require wading in the water (no more than knee deep) but being the middle of January we chose not to walk to the base of the falls.

Here is some video of the falls:
Upper portion:

Lower portion:

After our success we walked up the road a bit more where we found some abandoned home sites and the shell of a building that Eric said was previously a gas station.  Bamboo had been planted around this area of the gas station and home sites and had become very thick.

Next up was walking North along Highway 11 for a few minutes where we came across another creek pouring near the road.  We headed into the woods to follow the creek.  Mark had traveled this creek before and knew we were in for a treat.  Very quickly we were greeted with a waterfall but Mark encouraged us to continue walking.

That's when we found this waterfall:

And a short video of this waterfall:

On our way out of the woods I stopped and took a photo of the lower falls along this creek:

There are additional waterfalls that are not as well documented in the area but I had run out of time and needed to start heading back.  This is an area that I will be returning to in the Spring or Summer.

A big thanks goes to my adventuring friends Mark and Eric and to Mark for organizing this trip!  It's been way too long since I've been in the woods and it was time for another adventure.