Bridal Veil Falls, Dupont State Recreational Forest

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
10/31/2021	6.7 miles	3 hours 14 minutes	722'	2.3	415.1

Map: Pisgah Map Company, Dupont State Recreational Forest; 100 Favorite Trails (not for navigation)

Parking: Fawn Lake Trailhead

Carolina Mountain Club Challenges: 

• 100 Favorite Trails Challenge, Hike #68
• Waterfall Challenge, Bridal Veil Falls

Directions: From the parking lot, head towards the trail kiosk. Turn left on Fawn Lake Road. From there, see 100 Favorite Trails of the Smokies and the Carolina Blue Ridge map for directions.

I wanted to hike yesterday, but couldn't get the motivation to do a longer hike on a cold rainy day. Glen is still in NY, so Krumm and I hiked by ourselves. We headed to Dupont State Forest, a park we haven't been to yet. The trails in this park are multi-use, so you can see hikers, mountain bikers, and horseback riders. 

We saw the occasional biker and hiker, but it wasn't crowded at all. The trail was mostly dirt trail with a few roots, not very rocky. I'd call this an easy/moderate hike. It was very quiet and peaceful, and I enjoyed looking at the fall foliage. This is a loop hike, with the waterfall closer to the end. There was one bicyclist at the waterfall when I arrived, and he left soon after I got there. So, we had the waterfall to ourselves. I was surprised, as there were a lot of cars in the large parking area (mostly bicyclists). We stopped at the falls and had a lunch break. The waterfall has one drop at the beginning, and then a second drop, where the water cascades thinly over slickrock. Beautiful! Based on what I read in the North Carolina Waterfalls book by Kevin Adams, this waterfall was used in the filming of the Last of the Mohicans and the Hunger Games.

We continued on, and walked on the Airstrip trail, which takes you to an actual airstrip. I've read it is sometimes used by the park, but it doesn't look in good shape. The end of the airstrip has a view, and using the Peak Finder app, I was able to identify Mount Pisgah, which I had hiked on Wednesday with my Yoga for Hikers class.

 

From there we passed by Fawn Lake. Another dog was already playing there, so we continued on. There are multiple lakes in this park, so I'll need to bring Krumm back on a warm day to try to work on his swimming.