2008 Panorama: West Virginia Waterfalls

Any day you hike the Highlands of West Virginia, at some point, you find yourself trudging over roots, rocks and boulders and then suddenly you stop—distracted from your revelry—turn your head left, then right. You sniff the brightly-dampened air. You are in a trance as you calculate the direction towards the sound of cascading water. Your steps become light as you become a bloodhound searching with sound and smell for the waterfall cascade. You turn sharply off the edge of the trail and descend steeply—a controlled slide—down the hillside. Branches slap your face. Leaves an dirt are driven up the back of your shirt. At the bottom—you are within sight of the waterfall—you slip-slide your way across moss-covered rocks to your glorious destination. Serenity overcomes you. Time and place become immutable, the moment eternal.

Sometimes as you dash to the base of the waterfall, you misjudge the slipperiness of the rocks, and you fall. Your brain is momentarily incapacitated. You are embarrassed by your foolish rush to the waterfall. That happened below this first panoramic. It is along the east bank of Red Creek in Dolly Sods. We spent an hour photographing this pretty little spot.

Pendleton Falls is one of those cascades that never ends. It tumbles its way down into Blackwater Canyon over dozens of smaller falls. The challenge of photographing it is to avoid photographing it all in one shot. This precious little corner of the falls was barely flowing during the dry summer of 2008.

Douglas Falls is a cool spot. You can easily walk or hike to it along the rail-trail. In the winter, the view is better because the trees aren't obscuring it. The boulders in the creek are a vibrant orange while the water has a Caribbean blue-green look to it. I'm not sure why this little creek is immune to the normal red-brown tannins that normally color the streams of the Highlands. My guess is that upstream the creek is treated with lime. This is frequently done so that creeks can better support fish and by extension fishermen.