One of our goals for this trip has been to take back roads as much as possible. Yesterday, we found a real gem of back roads...the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway in South Carolina. Along with being an amazing road through quaint rural towns, about every five miles or so, there was a state park, National Forest, lake, state recreation area, or waterfall. In fact, there are 31 waterfalls in total, according to the map the lady at the SC visitor's center gave us. It was a gorgeous drive. We were so excited to begin seeing mountains and rolling hills, the scenery we've been craving after years spent in Florida. 

Even though it was getting late in the afternoon, we decided we wanted to try and see a waterfall. We picked Whitewater Falls after seeing the sign for it. It was 10 miles off the main Scenic By-way. We took the foothills trail to reach it. 

There was still a bit of snow on some branches and logs! 

We didn't make it all the way to Whitewater Falls because it was quickly getting dark, but there were a few great little creeks along the hike. 

Hiking back to the car at dusk gave us some incredible views! 

We could have easily spent days exploring the area, but we needed to get to Asheville, so we'll just have to go back some other time. What a great discovery.