Take a ride with me: Horsepasture Road
SUNSET, S.C. — I own a four-wheel-drive pickup truck. I don’t need a four-wheel-drive truck, but I own one anyway. And because I own a four-wheel-drive truck that I don’t actually need, I look for places to take my four-wheel-drive truck so that I can at least get some use from its four-wheel-driveness. This is how I found one of my favorite little corners of the world. Come along with me for a beautifully bumpy ride up Horsepasture Road.
Horsepasture Road is one of the most rugged ways into the Jocassee Gorges Wildlife Management Area, which hugs the southern side of the Carolina border in Pickens County, South Carolina. It’s a perfect road for somebody with minimal off-road driving experience and/or a fully stock 4x4; fun enough to be a challenge, with enough of a payoff to be worth the challenge, without too much undue risk.
Thursday wasn’t exactly a beautiful day in Upstate South Carolina, but that was OK. Horsepasture Road is nice on a beautiful day, but it’s equally intriguing on a day where the low clouds and the fog were an accurate reflection of my mood; a lower-hum energy, energy that rolled out steady and slowly, energy that required taking in less color and more contemplation.
U.S. 178 takes you to Laurel Valley Road, a casually marked turnoff that indicates the entrance to that part of the Foothills Trail across South Carolina. The first quarter-mile or so of the drive is a good preview for what’s up ahead. You don’t need four-wheel-drive, but it’s very nice to have, and you’ll appreciate the extra ground clearance even if you don’t fully require the extra traction.
The first payoff comes about five minutes in: Mossy Creek Falls, a little waterfall that makes its way down the rock into Mossy Creek. It’s one of several small roadside waterfalls you’ll encounter.
The road is pretty smooth up to this point, but it’s not far past here that you’ll at least start thinking about shifting into four-wheel-drive. The road begins a climb with some less-than-gentle undulations, and you’ll occasionally feel the traction slip away under your rear wheels. It widens a bit to compensate, and to help you develop some confidence as you keep the truck on the track.
Just past this climb is the next payoff view: A beautiful vista down into a valley, from which you can see all the way into North Carolina and the bluest parts of the Blue Ridge.
On a clear day, this peak is layers and layers of beautiful color. On this gray but warm December day, you look between levels of fog down into the valley. At this point, you’re at about 2,500 feet above sea level, near Laurel Fork Mountain.
Past here, you have a few choices. You can turn off on Dawkins Flat Road, which is a challenging track on which you will need your four-wheel-drive to make your way down to a water crossing and a pedestrian suspension bridge. You can keep going toward Jumping-Off Rock, which provides a fabulous view of Lake Jocassee. Or you can push toward Cane Creek Road, which will lead you out of the Gorges back to a paved road, but not before a few pretty tight twists and turns. On this day, I chose the Cane Creek Road route, not wanting to find out the hard way how thick the mud would be on Dawkins Flat after recent rains.
Once on Cane Creek Road, you can choose to cross Cane Creek either on a little wooden bridge, or through the creek itself. Most days, I choose the former. On this day, just for fun, I chose the latter.
The truck was, of course, well up to the task. My truck is a 2018 Chevrolet Colorado Z71, which is pretty much just like everybody else’s Colorado with one exception: It’s equipped with the rarely chosen Duramax Diesel engine. The diesel is as extraneous as the four-wheel-drive on my hierarchy of needs, but man, it’s nice to have. The Duramax runs better under load than it does with the truck empty, and it’s wonderful in off-road environments where you want your power to roll out low and slow. After years of turning over my fleet and keeping vehicles for way less time than the average person, I’m pretty confident that I’ll own this truck for as long as it’ll run.
Cane Creek Road leads me to the back entrance to the Gorges on Cleo Chapman Road, back to pavement, back to civilization, back to driving 55 mph, back to fully not needing four-wheel-drive. The transition itself is relaxing; after an hour or so navigating the bumps and twists and turns, it’s gentle relief to be back on fully maintained asphalt.
The relief is refreshing, and makes me feel rebuilt and rebooted. It makes me ready to face whatever 2022 wants to throw at me. And if I turn out to need four-wheel-drive to get through it, I’m ready.