You Are Here: Welton Falls - Cardigan Back Country

I've been hesitant but curious to explore the back country trails of Cardigan Mountain. They intimidate me with their seeming remoteness, lack of maps showing exactly where they are with trailheads/parking etc.. and lack of trailheads in general! My pre-planned hikes of the area are longer and more technical than a lot of the other hikes I have planned for the Southern AMC Trail Guide because of this.. and that intimidates me! I'd heard the area was finally snow free, so I decided to tackle a few trails. I headed for the AMC Cardigan Lodge and hoped that this time I'd find available parking. The one other time I tried to park here, it was full by the time I arrived. With that in mind I scrambled to think of alternatives before arriving so I wouldn't be disappointed if that ended up being the case again. Thankfully when I got there I found abundant parking (it would be full upon my return though). While everyone else headed up towards Holt/Manning Trails to climb the mountain, I headed in the opposite direction on Lower Manning Trail, which starts right opposite the porta-potty in the parking lot. The trail starts through some camp sites then wanders into the woods. Soon you reach a brook, which was flowing significantly with all the recent rains we've had and it was so incredibly beautiful. I stopped and admired the cascades several times. The trail descends with one significant water crossing that was easily doable today and after just over a mile reaches the highlight of this trip, Welton Falls. At the sign for Welton Falls you can take a side path to the left which goes alongside a big drop off into a cave like rock formation over the top of the falls. There is a fence, but it was still really scary for someone like me afraid of heights! I was determined to make it into the cave though. Back around on the trail, it continues to follow a big drop off before reaching the view point in front of the falls. Again with the rains we've had, the falls were definitely in full flow! The whole area is really beautiful. The trail now follows the brook right alongside it. At one point, I didn't realize the trail actually crosses the water and I kept going before shortly realizing I wasn't seeing blazes any longer. I backtracked and found the water crossing, but it was too high for me to get across, so I kept backtracking looking for a spot that was safe to cross. There were plenty of rocks, but always one that was just too far apart for my vertically challenged legs, and the water was rather deep (like above the knee deep, not over my head deep) and I didn't want to take the chance of falling in. A couple tenths from the true crossing I found an area that looked doable. My feet still got wet, but it didn't go above my shoes thankfully. I made it across and bushwhacked back down the trail and continued. The trail was now an old road until it joined with Old Dicey Road (named Welton Falls Road on some maps). I took a left and followed Old Dicey Road for about a mile, which was uphill gravel, a lot of the time without shade. Nothing exciting on this stretch except at one point I passed a parked car, which ordinarily wouldn't have concerned me, except it had FL license plates.. so all these visions of too many Dateline episodes started going through my head about a solo female hiker in the remote back country of Cardigan Mountain. I quickened my pace as much as I could and tried to be fully alert for any sounds around me. Thankfully no bad guys emerged from the woods. I turned onto Back 80 Loop Trail and immediately crossed back over the brook (this time on a bridge) and re-entered the woods to come up on another water crossing, across some pretty cascades. The trail crosses one more set of cascades (here I saw a couple sitting enjoying lunch, probably the FL car and thus wiping out my concerns!) and then climbs back up to meet Back 80 Trail. This section was my least favorite. It was messy with debris and blowdowns, it was quite steep and the mosquitoes were out in FULL force. I was not upset to meet up with Back 80 Trail and start my descent to the lodge. This trail was the complete opposite, lovely and clear. Wet in some places, but overall much nicer. Once back at the Holt Trail intersection, I headed a short ways down Holt to pick up the Nature Trail, which is a short interpretive trail basically alongside the campsites. This trail is currently under construction and halfway in I encountered a trail closed sign as they are working on improving erosion and making it an accessible trail. I just backtracked to the car and called it a day!

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