South Mountain Stake Park

South Mountain Stake Park - High Shoals Falls - my favorite part of our trip to NC!

On our way back from Stake Conference from Hickory, we took a small detour to look at a beautiful waterfall at South Mountain. The drive was absolutely stunning. We were able to see some of the fall trees in their peak. 

My parentals have seen many waterfalls while in NC. They said that usually they are just off the side of the road. We were all expecting a waterfall off the side of the road to see. But as we started driving though the winding mountain, we realized it wasn't going to be off the side of the road.

Anyways - we finally made it to the stake park and saw many, many hikers ... experienced hikers/fishers i would say. We got out of the car to stretch our legs and asked some nice fisherman how far the waterfall was. They quickly explained it is only for the experienced hikers and that it was over a mile long hike and that we were not in any means capable of hiking to the waterfall. Now, let me paint a picture for you ...

Dad: wearing his 3 piece suit, tie, white shirt, and with his winged tipped shoes

Mom:  wearing her brand new Anthro dress, cream cardigan and 2 inch heeled boots

Me: My dress from the one and only, (yes, the real) Katie Couric that retails +300.00 and my 3 inch wedges

Lincoln: White shirt, sunday shoes, dress pants

Winston: NO shoes, sunday pants and white shirt and his BB

My dad, being so optimistic said "eh, it can't be that bad! Lets just walk a little ways up the trail" As we started going, my dad laughed about my shoe choice, I laughed at his shoes and then I decided to chance my wedges into my boots. (good choice!)

The groomed trail was beautiful! The trees were gorgeous! The trail followed a beautiful river. We kept walking and noticed a sign...saying that the falls were .7 miles away. We figured since we were already that far, why not keep going :) And we did just that, even though we were not prepared to hike that long. It would have been smarter to bring jackets for all of us, water, shoes for winn and a bottle for him - but hey...'When in Rome' right!? ..... Then the groomed trail ended...  Everyone we passed looked at us funny. And everyone we saw were dressed very appropriately for a mile long hike.  Some of the comments from passer just made us laugh! We were laughing the entire time - we were insane!

Lincoln loved "mountain climbing". Winston enjoyed being carried by Grandpa 85% of the time. And mom and I enjoyed the sights and kept a close eye on Linc to make sure he didn't do anything too crazy.

We made it up to the falls and it was gorgeous! And can you believe I only took 1 pictures of the actual waterfall?! I couldn't believe it!! After the hour and half hike to see it - I only got 1 picture! Luckily my madre took more :) 

It was honestly the best time. It was nice because it was just me, my boys and my parents....alone, on a mountain, hiking. No cell phones, no distractions.. just us. So many memories were made that day.