Winding Stairs

It's been awhile since I've hiked this trail. First time was with Pam and the weather was mostly a drizzle. Today was almost the same, but still enjoyed getting out of the house since we didn't get to hike any last week. There was 14 of us today and we gathered in Walhalla to car pool to the trailhead. I'm learning how to read GPS coordinates on the google maps and today I was able to follow it to the trail head parking area. We visited the 75-foot Miuka Water Falls with a bit of a scramble to its base. I choose not to scramble this one since I had already seen it before. You can still see a good bit of it without the extra effort. The 7 mile round trip, beginning from the southern trail head on Winding Stair Road, is a nice woodland hike up to Cherry Hill Recreation Area. A good place for lunch and actually got to sit at picnic tables instead of rocks or the ground. This was a mostly gradual and steady 1000 ft. climb with switchbacks and several creeks to cross. On the return leg, several decided to do the one third mile spur below Miuka to Secret Falls. Again, I stayed back, mostly because it is somewhat difficult to view and the trail is not marked very well.

Miuka Falls

NOTES: Directions - GPS34.922325, -83.077492 We traveled 7.5 miles NW on SC28, bear right onto SC 107. Go another 5.8 miles, then right onto FS710, variously named: Cheohee/Winding Stairs/Tamassee Rd/FS710. Today it read FS710 and Cheohee. We continued for 2.5 miles on gravel to a small parking area and trailhead on the left.