Finding Home in Gorges State Park
Everyone needs a place to call home.
Some may have that in the comfort of their actual houses where family is present and love is abundant. Some may have found home in their workspaces where they and mutually-minded coworkers strive to hone their craft and share it with the world. It could exist not in the spaces but within the people one chooses to surround themselves with. For me, home lies atop a roaring waterfall.
Gorges state park is a collective. It is the living remnant of colonization, Native American culture, the logging industry, the Duke Energy Company, the great flood of Lake Toxaway, loads of biodiversity, and so much more. Families have relied on this land to make a living, and some have had to bury their loved ones here. This is a land of deep, dense valleys abundant in green tunnels of mountain laurels and beautiful, powerful waterfalls. Gorges is more than a walk in the woods, it’s a dive into the forest, and it’s where I call home.
I grew up about two miles from the park, and that made it the ideal adventure destination for a young boy unable to drive himself to the multitude of other adventure destinations in the area. I’ve walked to rainbow falls back when the park was little more than a parking lot and the old logging road was used as a trail to access both Rainbow and Turtleback Falls (and Bustyourass Falls, but people aren’t allowed there anymore). The park has grown since then.
Nowadays the old logging road is an emergency access trail used for the multiple evacuations that take place every summer. The solitude offered by Rainbow Falls has vanished with record year after record year of visitors, and with increased slips and falls aside, that’s an ok thing. I find myself claiming moments of peace and serenity under starlight when the gorge is empty. In the darkest hours of night, the moon illuminates the waterfall, and the river sings its song to me as the fireflies dance in celebration of summertime. It’s a grande performance for an audience of one, and I keep coming back to watch it again and again.
A higher volume of traffic on the trails has pushed me further into the backwoods of the park. I’ve followed valleys deep into areas where the highest tree cannot help one locate the civilized world. Mountain streams guide me to hidden waterfalls and emerald swimming holes. The morning sun illuminates cliffs that no man has climbed, and beds of wildflowers bloom where none will be there to enjoy them.
With almost 8,000 acres in its possession, and vast expanses of national forest lying just just beyond its borders, the amount of adventure Gorges has to offer far exceeds what I’ve explored thus far. I look forward to many years of crawling through tunnels of mountain laurels and jumping off the rock ledges that sweep beside the waterfalls.
This is where I call home.
Adventure On!
-JGM