Over the river and through the woods, to …. well, sometimes you just don’t know until you get there! Do you ever just get in the car and go for a drive and see where you end up? We hadn’t just gone for a drive on the backroads for quite a while so last weekend we loaded up the dog and off we went. It was a nice sunny day, but a little warm. We headed out the backroads into the more rural areas surrounding the town in which we live and ended up on a road to a local lake that provides access to camping, boating etc. The lake wasn’t too busy, just a few boaters, a few people on jet skis and some swimming closer to shore near their camp spots.

We then continued on the lake road until it turned to dirt/gravel and just kept on going. Quite a dusty ride to say the least. Not much to see for a while other than a lot of dry grasses and some oak trees. We did see a few deer along the way though. When the road ended (at this sign), we turned right and kept following the dirt/gravel road.

While there isn’t much out there now, I found on the net that there was copper mining done here back in the early 1900s. My husband pointed out, as seen in the picture below, what looks like man-made rock wall that extended quite a ways. I wasn’t able to find any info on why this wall exists though. It looks like it must have been quite an undertaking!

Continue down the road and you see more grasses, trees, and as you near water you’ll see the ocassional wildflower.

And even further down the road, you end up at a spot where you can park – you can see an old bridge.

There is a gate on the parking side of the bridge as they do not want cars crossing the creek. Walk through the opening and over the bridge and you can go left which will take you to a swimming hole. I opted not to take a picture of the swimming hole as there were a lot of people there that day. We could see that hanging from the old oak tree that most people were sitting under that there were multiple swings which looked like fun on a hot day!

And according to the sign, if you go to the right, you can walk to the Falls. There are a couple of smaller old bridges, which we could see were built in August 1919 (a little hard to see in the picture).

However, we did not end up going very far. Our poor old dog (shown earlier in a photo), is an old girl. She’s about 13 now and has arthritis so we knew we wouldn’t be able to walk far. We went as far as she could go then turned around. The falls will have to wait for another day. In my searches on the area, it looks like the Falls are about a 2 1/2 mile walk each way. They don’t look very big from the pictures I was able to locate online, but still might be a nice walk in slightly cooler temps, so we’re planning on going back another day, without our sweet dog.

Here is what the creek looked like from either side of the first bridge.

So that was how our drive over the river and through the woods turned out. If you haven’t taken a drive to unknown destinations before, give it some consideration. Be sure, however, especially if driving in rural areas to be respectful and abide by Private Property and No Trespassing signs. But otherwise, enjoy the adventure….!