JeepGirl Travels

Waterfalls of Western North Carolina

  While in Western North Carolina we started out searching for waterfalls each day, and each day we had to hike, look, and hike some more.  Many of those days we ended up returning to our cabin without ever seeing a waterfall.  On our quest to find Big Falls Will, Scott, Mike, and I hiked into the woods for what we thought would be a short trek of about three miles.  However we would soon learn that was not to be the case.  We started hiking along the creek listening for that wonderful sound of rushing water flowing over a high drop.  As we walked we saw signs of the old railroad bed that used to travel through the mountains.  Some of the old crossties now make stepping logs across some of the wet areas.  As we continued our quest we stopped along the creek to listen and to look around at a place that's not often traveled.  We crossed marshy places.  We crossed over trees and we hiked around fallen boulders.  During our hike Will and I became separated from Scott and Mike when they hiked down to the creek.  We had hiked down to a different point and did not see them when we returned to the trail.  Thinking they had continued on we began our hike to the falls.  After hiking about another mile we came to where the trail crossed the creek.  It was here we discovered a long forgotten vehicle in the woods.  We still had not found the waterfalls and we were getting tired; therefore we turned a round and hiked for an hour back to our car.  We found Mike and Scott along the way (They had been looking for us.).  Since we didn't have any luck finding a waterfall that day we decided to buy a book called "Waterfalls of North Carolina".  This book told of the falls we had searched for and we discovered we had turned around about a mile from the falls.  After buying this book we had an easier time finding waterfalls. Another waterfall we searched for we learned was actually a cascade and not a waterfall.  These were called Twentymile Creek Falls. Most of the waterfalls we found were along the Nantahala River and along the road to Fontana Village.  Another waterfall we drove to is just out of Tellico Plains.  This is a beautiful waterfall.  On the day we drove to this falls we got caught in a rainstorm.  We had to stand under the bridge just a short distance from the base of the falls.  Also along the Nantahala River there were several falls.  We stopped along our trek to watch a group of teenagers jumping into the river at one of the smaller falls.  They would also climb up on a slick rock and slide down the falls into the water below.  After we left here we found a smaller sideroad.  As we turned down this road we found a waterfall off to the left.  We climbed over a few fallen trees and a few small boulders to get to the base of the falls.  It was here that Will fell into the water thus ending our trek to find more falls since he didn't have a change of clothes we returned to our cabin, but we had found waterfalls!  Buy a copy of "Waterfalls of North Carolina" by Kevin Adams now and start your own quest of searching for waterfalls.  If you would prefer a guided tour of North Carolina Waterfalls, contact Craig Miller at Miller's Land of Waterfalls.

Dry Falls near Highlands, NC

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