We were able to get an early start out of Beckley and headed east on I-64 to the Sandstone area for our first two falls of the day. Brooks Falls was rather underwhelming, but Sandstone Falls (below) offered several lovely shots and was an easy raised boardwalk hike.

only one half of the falls, a little further down you see this.

Our next stop was Twin Falls State Park, which I can safely say is the the absolute middle of nowhere. Although the drive was crazy long and we had to go all the way back north near Buckley to get on the interstate to go south, it was some lovely scenery. Pup also enjoyed the mile or so roundtrip hike (and a few pieces of cheese from our lunch).

Marsh Fork Falls

The next two spots were just off the interstate, so easy hikes for the rest of the day!

Campbell Falls

Brush Creek Falls

We stopped at Foothills Brewery on our way back home for a beer and dinner. Both were delicious.

As always, you can see directions and more photos from all the waterfall hikes we did on this trip (and others) on our waterfall photography page.

Ever since we bought this book a few years ago, we have been planning to head up to West Virginia to seek out some waterfalls. Back in early May, we had the perfect combination of cool weather and nothing planned, so we hit the road with Riesling, some snacks, our tripod and Canon XT.

Some of the sites were a little disappointing photography-wise… for example it was way too bright (and windy) to get a decent shot of Falling Spring Falls at noon, but it did take us right by the Homestead where we had a relaxing lunch.

Falling Spring Falls

the Homestead in Hot Springs, VA

It was very obvious when we crossed over into West Virginia, the towns became more scarce. Disappointingly, the Hills Creek Falls area suffered some damage over the winter, so we could only get a decent shot of the middle falls. Fortunately, the weather was comfortable and we still enjoyed a walk in the woods.

This waterfall was a bit out of the way, but totally worth it. The roadside access means it was swarming with people, but Eric’s wide angle lens allowed him to get much closer and therefore, no visible people!

Cathedral Falls

On our way south on Route 16 from Gauley Bridge to our resting point for the night in Beckley, WV we passed a series of beautiful falls on the side of the road. Eric hiked up the road to get some shots of these unnamed falls along Laurel River.

waterfall on Laurel River

We ended the evening with a quick beer at a very sketchy bar in Beckley, WV. Thankfully we had our pizza leftovers from the Homestead lunch to sustain us!

Visit our waterfall photography page for directions and more photos from all the waterfall hikes we did on this trip!

One the main ambitions of this trip was to see as many waterfalls as time would allow. We only hit one falls, Bwa Nef, in our first two days, but on the trip to our middle hotel, we drove right by the Emerald Pool thanks to a road closure. This detour took us about 1.5 hours longer than we were planning for, so it was a lovely surprise to have the heavily-touristed Emerald Pool to ourselves. We bought our week-long sites pass ($12 each) here and it was also the only time we ever had to show it even though it was required for at least three other sites we visited. No matter, it goes toward a good cause… like all the road work.

true to it’s name

See that pale hat-wearing person in the middle of the photo? That’s me(!) climbing up roots and stone with the help of a rope to get to the second Spanny Falls. Worth it, no? To give you some perspective, in the upper right is the pool for the first Spanny Falls. There was a fair amount of climbing involved for many of the hikes we did, which made it a little more adventuresome than the walks in the woods I am used to in the States. Thankfully, someone is usually selling cold drinks by the trail heads to most of the waterfalls we visited. These are quite welcome considering the heat, humidity and change in elevation of the typical Dominica trail.

We saw a ton of these orange characters at many of the waterfall sites. They usually scurry off and hide when you walk by but sometimes they act all big and tough. And then we take pictures of them.

Definitely the easiest and possibly our favorite falls of the trip, Jacko Falls. According to ‘the book‘ you are supposed to donate to the site owner but there was no one around and we didn’t want to start knocking on doors.

posing on the trail to Middleham Falls

a place to rest our weary toes on the way back from Sari Sari Falls

We tried to visit waterfalls either first thing in the morning or right before sunset to avoid the intense sun and cruise crowds. Luckily, the only time we got stuck in a crowd was at the Titou Gorge when we were surrounded by floatie-wearing adults waiting in line to jump off a small cliff next to the waterfall we were trying to photograph.

It was a toss up between well-signed waterfall sites with parking lots and nearly impossible to find trail heads. Unfortunately, we did have one disappointing experience in trying to find Victoria Falls. According the book we referenced heavily in planning our trip, Victoria Falls was well marked and while a guide was recommended for the hike, one was not required.  Upon driving into the town, we found no official signs so we asked a kid on a bike where the falls was located. We had asked for directions numerous times in Dominica, and this was a first: he refused to tell us unless we paid him to be our guide. He was one of a fairly large group of people standing around for this very purpose, and since we didn’t feel comfortable trying to get past them to figure it out (and didn’t want to pay someone we didn’t know), we just skipped it. Later we found out that signs were up but the locals had tampered with them in an effort to create guide business. Honestly, this was an isolated incident for us, and I hope the tourism office can replace the signs and prevent this behavior in the future.

You can see all the waterfall photos from Dominica here.

Morne Trois Piton park is a World Heritage Site set outside of Roseau, the main town. From my research I was expecting a spectacular tropical setting with great hikes, boiling lakes, waterfalls galore and spectacular views.

And the views were great:

Wotten Waven valley

Trafalgar Falls (mother)

Middleham Falls

enjoying the cool water on my feet after our two+ mile hike to Middleham Falls

treading water in Titou Gorge

Unfortunately, the park is undergoing significant road construction, leaving the roads very dusty and extra bumpy (and that is saying something in Dominica!), and more importantly, the road signs were down. It’s amazing how lost you can get on a road with so few intersections… Having written that, the constructions crews are amazing. They were working on incredibly steep slopes with construction equipment just slightly smaller than the road, and still managed to allow traffic to pass by with fairly minimal interruption.

a common sight on the main road to Laudat – a cement truck parallel parking!

The small sections of completed road were quite nice, and I’m sure the new road will be great. Until then there will be a lot of confused tourists wandering about the park.

Eric purposely booked us into a place near the airport for our first two nights, so when we arrived in the late afternoon all we had to do was get into a hammock and enjoy our delicious welcome chocolate rum punch or the local beer.

The next morning, we drove west along the coast to Bwa Nef Falls. We didn’t know it at the time, but the clearly marked trailhead was the only one we were going to get on the entire trip. After about 15 minutes and several stream crossings later, we reached a sign letting us know that a fee of ten dollars (or more!) was required per visitor. Yeah, right. I’m all for entrepreneurship, but there was no trail or guidance provided, so we put in $2 US.

Bwa Nef Falls

Bwa Nef Falls was beautiful, a tall waterfall in a small canyon, tucked away from view until you are right below it. Well worth the hike!

The north side of Dominca features a lot of banana fields, palm groves and a volcano you can drive through with a cold sulphur springs in the middle.

a palm grove next to the road

Also in abundance, stunning ocean views and sandy beaches!

the red rocks of Pointe Baptiste

Pointe Baptiste Beach near Escape Beach Bar

Rough Bay just north of the airport

Before our flight out, we made one last trip to the north coast to have a delicious rum punch (highly recommended) amidst the palm trees at Escape Beach Bar.

The weather was supposed to be unpredictable on Sunday, so we rescheduled our planned snorkeling trip via email to Monday and headed down to the Humacao Nature Preserve instead. Supposedly, this place doesn’t get a lot of visitors and I can testify that it was almost completely empty on a Sunday afternoon. In fact, about an hour went by when we didn’t see see anyone else and with views like the ones below, we couldn’t have asked for a more lovely afternoon hike.

We even witnessed an iguana digging out his nest and one sunning himself on a pier.

Since we were so far south already, Eric suggested we drive into the lower part of El Yunque to see if there were any good waterfalls we could get to.

the view from a very twisty road

Rio Cubuy waterfall

Eric had to cross below the waterfall to get the above shot, but there were locals swimming below the falls and jumping into the water, so clearly it wasn’t too dangerous.

We ended the day with a trip to the Loquillo Kiosks where I got to try some lovely fish ceviche at the Ceviche Hut (#38). The owner is originally from Peru and he came over to us at the end of the meal to see if we’d ever tried ceviche before. We told him about our great experience at La Mar in Miraflores and shared some other highlights from our trip to Peru last fall. Tasty food and friendly owners, highly recommended by us!

fish ceviche!

One of the main reasons we decided to stay on the northeast side of the island was to be close to the El Yunque and all the waterfalls. So, on our first full day, we packed up the camera and headed south into the rainforest. It was lush, green, absolutely beautiful…

waterfall on Juan Diego River

…and pouring!

Eric and I both agreed that we had never been more wet on a hike, ever. Eric was also lamenting his decision not to bring a tripod. Amazingly, many of the shots came out anyway, but he’s had lots of practice!

La Mina Falls – some folks just weren’t wet enough on the trail

Coco Falls - a brief moment when no one is standing in front of it!

Thankfully, this meant that we didn’t have a lot of company as many tour buses didn’t bother coming out.

One thing to note: entrance into the actual park is free BUT they charge you $4 per person to enter the visitor’s center which is the only place you can get a printed map of the park. Inside, there are some large panels with park history and information and also tables set up to sell you stuff. I am guessing one of those items is a poncho since every other person on the trail was wearing a branded clear plastic bag. Most of the trails are clearly marked, so my advice would be to do a little research before you leave about what you want to see and skip the “Interpretive Center”.

After the long drive on forest service roads to several waterfalls on Sunday morning, we headed a little further down the Blue Ridge Parkway, enjoying the views. The sun came out nicely at the Craggy Gardens visitor’s area, so the term “Blue Ridge Mountains” was in full effect.

those red things on the trees are berries, not flowers!

We had enough daylight to hit a few more falls before the three hour drive home. Despite the cruddy weather on Saturday, we had a great time overall but I’m sure Eric was happy to have a chance to get some waterfall shots while staying dry!

Setrock Creek Falls

Whiteoak Creek Falls

Some forest service roads in Georgia and North Carolina have made us wonder how we could change a flat tire on a one lane mountain road five miles from civilization. Others, like the two we were on for sixteen miles on Sunday, simply surprise me at how well-maintained and drivable they are for cars even lower to the ground than our small SUV.

The drive to Walker and Douglas Falls was both beautiful and moody.  Plus, it took all morning because around almost every switchback, there was another unnamed (but scenic) waterfall waiting to be photographed.

This drive was about six miles on a gravel road, then two miles on a well-paved road through a small valley community named Dillingham, then back on gravel for another eight miles. At the very end, we were only about a mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway, but with no connector, we had to backtrack the way we came in.

The two named falls did not disappoint and pup was much happier about walking around on the wet ground when we wasn’t getting soaked from above.

Walker and Douglas Falls

Despite all of the rain on Saturday, we still managed to photograph a few waterfalls (although after the Linville Falls incident, pup remained in the car). Plus, there were some lovely cascades along the Blue Ridge Parkway, so I guess rain does have it’s good points sometimes.

After our second mile-long trek in the damp, we decided to scrap hiking for the rest of the day and hit Jack of the Wood, a brew pub in downtown Asheville. We warmed up with a Green Man porter and ESB which went ever so nicely with the basket of chips with scallion blue cheese dip and ploughman’s lunch. Mmmm. We figured we would retrace our steps on Sunday and hit the waterfalls we missed in some better weather!