Cliffside Lake, and other sights

Last of the vacation photos.

We were all set to hike around our camp area the last day because we wanted to get to 5:00 Mass before heading home on Sunday. We woke to the smell of a forest fire, somewhere, but didn't think anything of it. We started off with a hike around Cliffside Lake.

We were greeted by a US Forestry agent.  Come to find out, on the other side of the river over that mountainside was a BIG fire!

Not as big as the one recently in Gatlinburg, TN, but big enough, it had already claimed 5 cabins.  They had to close down the hiking trails in the area so the helicopters could make their water drops.

We have never seen that before, and asked if we could stand next to him to watch.  He allowed it.

The first helicopter in was with the bucket.  It only took it about a minute or two to fill it.

Next in was a helicopter that pumped it right into itself!  In just a few minutes it was loaded and ready to go!

Hmmm. Don't know how to get the video to turn the right way. Ugh!

We went ahead and explored other area sights that had gone overlooked as they weren't a priority for our trip.

For instance, there is the Cullasaja Falls visible off Hwy 64 south of Franklin.  You don't see it going northbound, and can miss it when not paying attention when going south. 

We traipsed around Bust Your Butt Falls, and no, we didn't fall and bust our butts! Evidently it is a popular swimming hole in the summer months.  As you can see there were many ropes tied to the trees on the opposite side of the river.

We had seen an abandoned cabin up on a hill.  We explored that too.  What we found out from a local resident is that it was relocated to that spot with the intention of it being a museum with a large parking area to give additional parking to Dry Falls.  People would be able to walk across a pedestrian bridge.  Obviously, that never materialized.  That's too bad because parking at Dry Falls on the weekend is sheer chaos.  So much so, they have park rangers to direct traffic!

Meanwhile, back at camp, the helicopters continued to make their water trips and flew directly over our camp.

We had a wonderful week camping at Van Hook Glade Campground.  The campground hosts were informative, and kept the bathrooms spotless and well stocked with toilet paper!