Pinnacle Mountain Falls

Last weekend, the wife and I used the holiday to squeeze in two hikes; Jones Gap Falls at Jones Gap State Park and Pinnacle Mountain Falls at Table Rock State Park.

Pinnacle Falls is off the Palmetto Trail behind the conference building near the Table Rock State Park campgrounds (get directions here).

You park at the trailhead and it’s a pretty easy hike until the abandoned dirt road near the ridge. From there, it gets a little more challenging as you make your way down the hill and parallel to a dilapidated church camp that looks like the abandoned set of a teen horror film. A little while later, you cross a little creek on what looks like an old stone cross-vane. After fording the creek, and I use that term loosely, the turn-off for the falls is maybe about a hundred yards ahead on the right. It’s demarcated by a tree with yellow paint on the trunk. A fallen tree blocks the unofficial trail to the falls, but it’s a well-worn path, as you can see from the picture below.

The trail up to the falls is tough. Really tough. The first two hundred yards or so are easy, but then you hit a boulder field that goes all the way up the mountain. It’s like climbing the stairs of a thirty-story building. As soon as your legs turn to jelly and you think it’s time give up and turn around, you’ll be about to see the falls. Climb a little higher and you can rest for a while in the waterfall’s cool mist.

Click on the first image to enlarge. It may take a moment to load, then use your right arrow key to advance:

Pinnacle Mountain Falls
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