Bull Creek Preserve, Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
8/4/2026	3.2 miles	1 hour 51 minutes	142'	2.1 mph	215

Parking: 

• Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc trails

Steamy day at Bull Creek Preserve. We came across a jogger who ran into a bear along the trail, but we didn't see it. We knew there was a chance of rain, so we did our route in reverse, making it easier to take a shortcut back to the car if needed. It started sprinkling just as we got to Krumm's swim hole. We still let him swim of course. It started thundering near the end of our hike, so we did take a bit of a shortcut back to the parking lot.

Bull Creek Preserve, Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
7/31/2026	3.0 miles	1 hour 48 minutes	192'	2.1 mph	211.8

Parking: 

• Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc trails

Steamy day at Bull Creek Preserve. Lately the trails have become quite overgrown. We are skipping one section of our normal route due to a ground nest. There were already people hanging out at our 2 normal swimming spots, so we ended up at a shallow spot on the creek.

Grassy Creek Falls, Dupont State Recreational Forest

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
7/29/2026	3.9 miles	2 hours 1 minute	372'	2.2 mph	208.8

Parking: 

• Lake Imaging access area

Map:

• Gaia GPS app
• Pisgah Map Co. Dupont

Directions:

• Take Lake Imaging Road from the parking lot. Turn right onto Hilltop Trail. Turn right onto Grassy Creek Falls Trail (no sign). Hike down to the waterfall. Turn around and stay on Grassy Creek Falls Trail, passing the Hilltop Trail on the left. Turn left onto Lake Imaging Road and return to the parking lot.

A hot day in Dupont. We've never hiked the Hilltop Trail or visited Grassy Creek Falls, so that was our goal. Lake Imaging Trail is actually one of my least favorite trails (despite having a lake) at Dupont due to the high concentration of mountain bikers. It was a weekday which helps - we only saw a dozen today. We didn't see any mountain bikers on the Hilltop Trail or Grassy Creek Falls Trail. Many of the waterfalls at Dupont are crowded, but this one had no people. That said, there isn't a large access area for it. We hiked to the bottom of the falls, but there really wasn't a good area for swimming unfortunately, so we just hiked back up. 

The bottom of the falls

One of two lookouts

Bull Creek Preserve, Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
7/26/2026	3.5 miles	2 hours 3 minutes	220'	2.0 mph	204.9

Parking: 

• Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc trails

85 degrees with high humidity made today's hike feel like a sauna. 

Bull Creek Preserve, Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
7/25/2026	3.5 miles	2 hours 3 minutes	220'	2.0 mph	201.4

Parking: 

• Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc trails

Back to hiking after returning from a trip. It's raining a lot here, which means lots of mushrooms along the trail.