Guest post by dzr1107
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Long Creek, SC is just under a 3 hour drive from Augusta, GA or Charlotte, NC and has several waterfall trails in its vicinity. We wrote down directions before leaving, as we had zero cell reception once we hit gravel roads.
Opossum Creek Falls trail head is a few miles up Turkey Creek Rd, all gravel. It is not overly marked, so the first collection of cars you find is most likely the trailhead. There are two markers on a vertical post that do indicate you’re at Opossum Creek Falls. There is one by the parking “area”, which will lead you down an overgrown offshoot trail that meets up with the real trail. Instead, walk back up the road towards the way you came, and until you find two large boulders and a trailhead marking. Take that one, it’s easier.
It’s about 2 miles downhill to a sandy beach area on the Chattooga River. It’s a perfect swim spot, and rafting trips down the river will pull up for lunch breaks. The actual trail continues to the left before you hit the sandy beach part, and you hike another .5 mile back up the creek until you get to the waterfall. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and we had it all to ourselves at noon on a Friday. There are several large rocks you can sit and take in the view or have a picnic. The hike back is all uphill and does feel longer than the 2 miles down, but we also hiked during a heat wave in July.
We then drove to Brasstown Waterfalls, which is a very high “bang for the buck” stop. To get there, you’ll travel down Brasstown Rd for about 4 miles. It will turn to gravel. You’ll go right when you see a bridge to the left, and turn onto “751” which dead ends at the trailhead. The half mile trail is a T shape. We went to the right at the beginning and very quickly found waterfall 1. There are three waterfalls to the right, all different segments of the river. We did not hike to the bottom two due to being tired and the elevation change, but the first segment was very impressive. The waterfall to the left requires you to cross a wide log over a river (also probably able to wade across) and is very pretty. It’s overall a very easy stop with very impressive and private waterfalls.
Traveled in July 2020
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