Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tory's Den

Let's talk now about Tory's Den and Falls. These are still in and around Hanging Rock State Park. Even though you might leave the park boundaries as you travel you will usually pop back into the park as you get close to the parking lot.

Last time I talked about being out at the Lower Cascades on Hall Road. If you continue west on Hall Rd you will be driving around the north rim of the park and looking south. As you travel you can see the back of what is part of Moore's Wall Loop. As you continue to drive you will come to Mickey Rd where you take a left. Proceed to Charlie Young Rd and take another left. As you do this you will drive up a small hill towards the parking lot.

Both the cave and the falls are on the same trail and close together so you might as well take them both in. The map says the trail is 2.3 miles one way but it didn't seem like that at all. Ther sources say .6 round trip.


Apparently the story of the caves naming goes back to the Revolutionary War. The story goes that a member of the Whig party lived nearby and had a daughter that was kidnapped and held for ransom by the Tories. The daughter was eventually rescued. The cave isn't very deep but it's a large room and you can see evidence of smoke all throughout the walls of the cave. I don't know if this is the kidnapped daughters doing but I'd spend a night here for sure!

The adjacent falls are more drippy then anything. I'm sure it lets go after a good rain but the day we visited, not so much. However, toward the bottom of the falls there is a little gully that is fun to climb around in. All in all, the hike was short and the cave was cool. You can see the falls just fine from rock ledges around the falls plus there is a wooden observation area with steps down to it so this is fairly kid friendly.

Have fun!

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