Bull Creek Preserve, Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
6/3/2026	3.7 miles	1 hour 45 minutes	185'	2.2 mph	170.9

Parking: 

• Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc. trails

I'm eager to get back to hiking new trails in Dupont, but this week is really busy. Back to Bull Creek Preserve. Krumm cut his lower lip open when some friends were over playing ball with him. We have no idea how it happened. We decided it was best to not do retrieving/swimming with him for a few days, so that it heals. We took him hiking today. We passed our swimming holes. He was confused as to why we weren't stopping. Poor Krumm. We did let him wade in one spot.

Getting the stink eye

Bull Creek Preserve, Swannanoa

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/29/2026	3.6 miles	2 hours 11 minutes	205'	2.1 mph	167.2

Parking: 

• Riceville Road, across the street from Berea Baptist Church

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Misc. trails

We haven't been hiking in a while due to soooo much rain. No rain in the forecast today, so we did a local hike. I would have loved to have gone out for trail maintenance or a Dupont hike, but my schedule is packed right now. The creek was very full, making for a good swimming day. We stopped at two places along the creek, because Krumm just can't get enough swimming in :) Our second spot was very muddy.

High Falls Loop, Triple Falls and Sheep Mountain Trail, Dupont State Recreational Forest

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/19/2026	8.1 miles	4 hours 2 minutes	732'	2.2 mph	163.6

Parking: 

• High Falls Access

Map:

• Gaia GPS app
• Pisgah Map Co., Dupont 

Directions:

• Take the High Falls Loop Trail from the parking lot. Where it splits for the loop, keep left. Turn left onto Triple Falls Trail. Turn right to take the spur trail down to the base of Triple Falls. Climb back up the spur trail. Turn right onto the Triple Falls Trail and take it to the Hooker Falls Access parking lot. Turn around and hike back up the Triple Falls Trail. Turn left onto High Falls Loop Trail. Turn left onto Base of Falls Spur Trail and hike to the base of High Falls. Hike back up the spur trail. Turn left onto High Falls Loop Trail. Turn left onto Covered Bridge Trail. Turn left onto Buck Forest Road and go on the bridge until the Conservation Trail. Turn around and take Buck Forest Road. Turn right onto High Falls Loop Trail and walk a few feet until the intersection. Turn back and turn right onto Buck Forest Road. Pass by the parking lot. Turn right onto the paved Staton Road. Turn left onto Sheep Mountain Trail (a forest road). Hike to the end at paved Staton Road. Turn around and hike back on Sheep Mountain Trail. At the end, turn right onto paved Staton Road, and turn left into the High Falls parking lot.

A warm day, but we are back at Dupont before we get several days of rainy weather. Taking advantage of the fact that it's a weekday, we did the High Falls Loop Trail, which would be packed on a weekend. We enjoyed both the falls and let Krumm wade on leash in the water (no swimming).  We've done these trails a few times before, but they are always enjoyable. We still had energy, so we went across the street to hike Sheep Mountain Trail. This is a woods road we had never been on. The highlight on this road were the flaming azaleas in full bloom. Otherwise, it was only okay. It had no one on it, which we kind of expected. There are a couple of intersections on this trail which aren't shown on Gaia nor our paper map. We checked Gaia on the way out to figure out which way to go. On the way back, we didn't. We ended up missing a turn - the way we went looked more obvious than the trail but was the wrong way. We figured it out when we reached a power cut and turned around. So, I recommend using Gaia on this trail.

Photos in reverse order

Narrow leaved blue eyed grass

We saw this at the end of Sheep Mountain Trail.
There was no sign about not entering from where we started.

Where Sheep Mountain Road ends. 
It looks like you could theoretically pull in here and park in the one space that's here.

One of the places where there is trail (road) that's not on the map

Bowman's Root

Mountain Laurel

I think this is where we were off trail.

An intersection on Sheep Mountain Trail that isn't shown on the map.

Carolina Sweet Shrub

Pass by the gate

Our map calls it Sheep Mountain Trail.
The trailhead shows it as Sheep Mountain Road.

Returning to the parking lot.

This section of Dupont past the covered bridge is still closed.

The top of the falls

Triple Falls

Trailhead