The forecast on Sunday showed intermittent rain. I thought I’d use the cold, gray day to visit some short waterfalls I’ve been putting off in pursuit of bigger miles. Wintergreen Falls is a summer swimming hole in DuPont State Forest, just down the road from Hooker Falls, Triple Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls.
The entire area is a favorite of mountain bikers. I usually avoid majority mountain bike trails because I listen to audiobooks while I walk and don’t want to be diving out of the way of bikes at the last second. But this trail was almost entirely on wide gravel roads that would be better biked than hiked. And I was the only person there.
I hung out eating breakfast at Stax’s Original in Greenville until the heavy part of the storm passed. Then I drove to the trailhead and speed-walked the 3½ miles to and from the falls. This might sound odd, but I had the distinct feeling of being watched much of the time I was there. I never saw any bears, but I did see a couple of piles of bear scat. I got lucky and the rain didn’t really start to fall again until I was in the home stretch on the way back to the car.
There’s really not about this hike much to describe. The trail follows undulating gravel roads that are easy walking. Signs point to the waterfall, which features swimming holes both below and above the falls. That said, this pales in comparison to both Hooker and Triple Falls. The only reason anyone would select this spot to swim would be to avoid the summer crowds. And the crowds are very large on warm weekends in the more popular areas of DuPont.
The rocks around the falls are slippery, so you might want to pack some water shoes. I listened to Men Of The Otherworld while walking.
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