High Shoals Falls and McGalliard Falls

Buster and I went to South Mountain Park in Connelly Springs, NC to visit High Shoals Falls. We made a brief stop at McGalliard Falls in Valdese, NC. We then headed home, stopping along the way at Circus Hall of Cream in Hickory, NC for dinner.

South Mountain Park
We drove all the way through the park to the main (and last) parking area on the left that leads to several trails. 

Overlook from the parking lot. So beautiful

We took the scenic (and easy) Hemlock Nature trail. There were lots of learning stations along the trail where you could read about plants, fish, animal tracks, etc. The Hemlock Nature Trail is .3 mi and leads directly into the High Shoals Fall Loop (2.7 mi total). This trail is marked strenuous, but for the most part is fairly easy until you get across the long narrow bridge over the creek. Once over the bridge it's nothing but stairs, some natural rocks and some wooden, but all steep. We got to the viewing deck at the top right as my hams/quads started burning like crazy. You can take more stairs up to the top of the waterfall and loop back around, but we didn't do that. We went back the way we came, which was much easier than going up!

Biggest cut tree we'd ever seen

 

High Shoals Falls

High Shoals Falls

One of the many cascades along the way to the main falls

McGalliard Falls
These falls are located at McGalliard Falls Park, but for some reason when you google McGalliard Falls it shows a map of the Valdese Rec Center. If I hadn't had my Kevin Adams book I wouldn't have found my way to these falls. I can't find an exact street number but they are located on Falls Rd in Valdese, NC. "Falls, 1100, 1162 Falls Rd, Valdese, NC 28690, United States" shows you the park in Google Maps.
I walked to the left then behind the picnic shelter to an overlook of the falls and mill. 

View from the overlook

 Then you have to go the opposite way along the trails, over the creek, and down behind the mill to get to the base of the falls. It was a nice pit stop and great place to have a picnic.
 

McGalliard Falls

Circus Hall of Cream
Weird name, but good food. This local restaurant is drive-thru or walk-up only. There is only outdoor seating, but it was a beautiful, breezy day and Buster can't go inside anyway. The bathrooms are around the back and Buster had to go in with me because I couldn't leave him in the hot car. 

Buster's first time in a public restroom.

I got their footlong combo with fries and a soft serve vanilla shake. (Buster had dry dog food I brought with us. He was disappointed.) Great food and I would go there again if I were in Hickory! Their hours are M-F 10-9p. Sat 10-4p. Closed Sundays.

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Richmond, VA

A friend of mine, Analise, moved to Richmond, VA recently. She put herself through college and graduated from UNCW and intends to go to VCU for a Master's in Social Work. So proud of her!

She graciously allowed me to come visit her and showed me around. I arrived about 1:30p on Sunday June 8. Brought my stuff in and we went out to lunch at City Dogs on E. Cary St. I liked their fries and shake but was not impressed with their dog. It was actually one of the worst dogs I'd ever had. Go figure!

Then we walked around downtown and I learned there is a river running through the city: the James River. Who knew?! I wanted to take the Canal Cruise, but Analise wasn't interested, so we strolled.

Riverfront Canal Cruise

Later that evening, we went to one of the top ten doughnut shops in the country, Sugar Shack. We showed up about 5 minutes before closing and each asked for 2 doughnuts. The lovely employee said "It's almost closing, I'll just fill in the rest and give you a dozen." So we got 6 free doughnuts. Their maple doughnut is TO DIE FOR and I don't even like doughnuts that much.

These were gone 2 days later

Monday we did some geocaching. We went to Hollywood Cemetery.

The first geocache we tried for required we go visit a specific grave, gather some information and then use it  to go to the final stage to find the actual cache, which we eventually found.

The first cache site

The little girl buried by this dog loved this statue so much, her grandfather bought it for her. When she died of scarlet fever, he put it by her grave to prevent it being melted down for metal during the Civil War.

We continued our walk through the cemetery and stopped by Jefferson Davis' statue.

Our poses were supposed to match. I didn't angle myself right.

Then we moved to the trails past the cemetery to find the next cache at Texas Beach. Analise had heard about this place, even written it down, but had never been. We learned a lot on this hike. It was a very, very long hike. There were not clear markings from the cemetery to the Beach so we actually went much further than we needed to. We ended up in a parking lot, but that lot had a map. So we jumped on another trail that crossed paths with the other, then went up and across a large metal bridge.

We saw a truck driving on the train tracks, without tires, as we descended the many, many stairs. But FINALLY, we arrived at Texas Beach and made a quick find of the cache.

The beautiful Texas Beach

We soaked our feet in the James River and made our way back, which took longer than expected after a shortcut proved unsuccessful and we had to double back. But eventually we made it to the car and off to dinner at The Galaxy Diner, which was DELICIOUS. Highly recommend!

Tuesday we made some homemade cinnamon rolls and then went to the Edgar Allan Poe Museum.

Poe statue in the garden

We saw Poe's writing desk. The back of the chair is cut to encourage Poe to sit up straight.

Poe's Writing Desk

And then we took a final picture in the gift shop amongst the ravens.

Nevermore

I stopped off at the Sugar Shack again to pick up another half-dozen of doughnuts to bring back to my dad to thank him for watching my dog, Buster.

Clockwise from top L: Caramel drizzled cinnamon bun, chocolate glazed, oreo crumble strawberry glazed, salted caramel, original glaze, salted caramel

I had a ton of fun in Richmond. I hope to make another trip up there in the future and then continue on with Analise to DC and Baltimore, Maryland. 

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