The Cascades - The Adventure That Never Was and Mountain Lake, Pembroke, VA

Yesterday we went adventuring since the weather seemed nice and we have a friend visiting for a few days who also enjoys adventure. We thought we'd go see the waterfalls known as The Cascades.

An excess of water at a waterfall? Oh...no?

Sadly, that adventure was not to be. As you can see in the picture here, the road was closed due to flooding and we were warned not to enter.

Because they left the marker with the white board (you can see it at the bottom right) I may have written "Darn" on it. I wanted to write "Unless you are a fish" but decided that was just too much; you never know what people might think they have gills.

I snapped a few photos in this area but we didn't get to see the real falls, unfortunately.

This was about 2 inches high. Still counts!

The alien-like creature, is a ladybug larva! Weird looking, no?

Not to be deterred, we allowed the sign to stop us. Instead, we went a few miles away to a place high up in the mountains called Mountain Lake. Apparently, during the time of the settlers, the first people through this area wrote back home to say "Hey, there's this lake on top of this mountain. It's a great place to water your horses and resupply!"

When the next batch of settlers came through, they arrived at the town where the first bunch finally settled and had murder in their eyes. "You sons of bitches! You said there was a lake on that mountain where we could resupply and your joke almost killed us! There was nothing for miles!*"

What neither batch knew was that the entire area was riddled with Limestone deposits and this lake actually drained into an underground cavern! It would then fill back up over the course of time but meanwhile there was either no lake, or a much smaller lake than expected.

The area was beautiful and it was very serene. Walking where the old lake used to be to get to the shores was an interesting experience, knowing that where I walked was once a giant lake.

Oh, and did I mention that this was where they filmed Dirty Dancing?

Fans of the movie should recognize these cabins.

This was a dock, once surrounded by water.

These amazing rock formations were on the other side of the lake and were easily several people tall.

Lois was attacked by the wildlife! Daddy (that's me) saved her.

Some of the flowers growing at the resort near the lake.

More of the local flora.

We drove through the mountains nearby and  this little girl stopped to let us snap a few photos.

While the adventure we had may not have been the one we started off on, sometimes I think it's important to realize that maybe the accidental adventure is the best one you can possibly have.


*This story may not be 100% historically accurate but the gist is true as I understand it.