Macon

From the junction of US 64 and NC 106 in Highlands, drive 8.8 miles west on US 64 to the narrow pullout on the left. This is 10.25 miles east of US 23/441 in Franklin.

If you’re driving from Highlands, I recommend that you drive past the pullout and turn around farther down the road at a safe spot and drive back to the pullout. That way, you’ll be able to enter and exit the pullout without having to cross traffic at this dangerous curve.

Cullasaja River makes a final plunge over Cullasaja Falls before leaving the gorge and calming down. What a final statement it makes! When the water is flowing well, this is about as good as it gets from a viewing and photography standpoint. Jane Corey, in 

Exploring the Waterfalls of North Carolina

, calls Cullasaja Falls the “’blockbuster’ of six waterfalls along the Cullasaja River.”

 I agree, but I think Dry Falls is close on its heals.

Unfortunately, viewing the waterfall is problematic. There is very little parking at the narrow pullout and trees now block the view from the road. Several years ago, after the Forest Service (I assume) cleared the trees, you had a spectacular view right from your car. Now, to get an open view, you must climb up the little knoll and then down the steep slope. Loose rocks make this a sketchy affair.

The section of US 64 near Cullasaja Falls is one of the more spine-tingling in the state, with the road literally carved out of the near-vertical mountainside. As one newspaper article stated, “Those who handle the drills hang to the side of the gorge in saddles swung from ropes fastened to iron pins set in holes drilled further up the mountain. A fall here would mean instant death. Across from the highway on the opposite side of the river rises a solid rock cliff more than 500 feet in height an ideal spot for Borglum to carve a memorial to the Cherokees.”

Several years ago, the Forest Service had engineers study the feasibility of building a parking and viewing area suspended on piers, but as far as I know there are no plans to build such a structure.

Read the Cullasaja River section for an overview of the river and its waterfalls, including a list of landmarks with mile markers. You can find it by clicking the Little Tennessee River Basin button on the 

View roadside

Walk up the road a short distance, climb up on the little knoll, then descend until you get the view you want.

From the lower end of the pullout there is a rough path that descends steeply to the base of the falls. Once you reach the river, you must do a lot of scrambling to get views of the waterfall. I’m not crazy about the view from down there, but I know others who like it.

Early photo of visitors at Cullasaja Falls. (025F-12)

GeorgeMasa photo of Cullasaja Falls. This image was used to make postcard 025F-04. (025F-13)

R. Henry Scadin made this image of Cullasaja Falls, captioned Lower Sugar Fork Falls, in 1898. Barak Wright and his wife pose at the base of the falls on the left side of the photo. (025F-15)

Cover of Our State magazine, July, 2008. Photo by Kevin Adams. (025C-10)

Illustration of Cullasaja Falls in the book 

The Blue Ridge Highlands of Western North Carolina

, published in 1898. Note the name of the falls is listed as Sugar Town Falls. This book was published to advertise the Highlands region as a superb location for relocation. (025F-14)

Early photo postcard of Cullasaja Falls. This is a slightly different version of 025F-11. (025F-01)

Early postcard of Cullasaja Falls. This is a slightly different version of 025F-06.(025F-02)

Early postcard of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-03)

George Masa photo 025F-13 was used to make this postcard of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-04)

Early photo postcard of Cullasaja Falls. George Masa photo. The image was also used to make postacrd 025F-08. (025F-05)

Early postcard of Cullasaja Falls. This is a slightly different version of 025F-02. (025F-06)

Early postcard of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-07)

Early postcard of Cullasaja Falls using George Masa photo. The same image was used to make postcard 025F-05. (025F-08)

Early photo postcard of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-09)

Early postcard of Cullasaja Falls. This is a slightly different version of 025F-01. (025F-11)

Autumn view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-211266)

Autumn aerial view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-0463)

Autumn aerial view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-0470)

Autumn aerial view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-0474)

Autumn aerial view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-0476)

I made this image of Cullasaja Falls sometime in the 1990s. Trees now block this view. (025F-1107F)

I made this image of Cullasaja Falls sometime in the 1990s. Trees now block this view. (025F-1108F)

I made this image of Cullasaja Falls sometime in the 1990s. Trees now block this view. (025F-1564F)

I made this image of Cullasaja Falls in 2013 from the road. Trees now block this view. (025F-089037)

I made this image of Cullasaja Falls in 2013 from the road. Trees now block this view. (025F-089047)

Autumn view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-171098)

Autumn view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-171114)

Autumn view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-211264)

Autumn view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-211271)

Autumn view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-211293)

Autumn view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-211306)

Autumn view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-211312)

Autumn view of Cullasaja Falls. (025F-211337)

I made this spring image of Cullasaja Falls in 2010. Trees now block this view. (025F-54877)

Cullasaja Falls is in Cullasaja River Gorge beside US 64, between Highlands and Franklin.

Get Your Bearings

The road makes Cullasaja Falls perhaps the most dangerous waterfall environment in North Carolina. When someone tells you to be careful at a waterfall, it usually means you shouldn’t do anything that would cause you to fall. At Cullasaja Falls, it means watch out for traffic! A narrow road, blind curves, sheer drop-offs, and drivers paying more attention to the scenery than the road make for a treacherous combination.

Special Considerations

Read the Cullasaja River page for a look at the origin of the Cullasaja name.

Early names for the waterfall include Falls of the Chulsagee, Sugar Fork Falls, Lower Sugar Fork Falls, Sugar Water Falls, Sugar Town Falls, and Low Falls.

Naming

Obtaining an accurate height measurement of Cullasaja Falls is problematic for a couple of reasons. There is no good position from which to get a reading of both the base and the top, and even if there were, determining those points would be subjective.

An often-cited height for the falls is 250 feet. By any account I’ve considered, this is much too high. Using LiDAR, I got a measurement of around 125 feet, but again, determining the top and bottom is highly subjective. If counting lines of the USGS topo map, the height would be around 200 feet, but this is among the least accurate methods for measuring a waterfall.

My best assessment is 180 feet. I obtained this by using my rangefinder and taking two separate readings, one of the main, lower section that I took from a point down the slope, and the second of just the upper section that I took from up on the little knoll. I’m confident that the measurement is reasonably accurate, but it does not account for the subjectivity of precisely where the top of the falls lies, and some may consider the base of the falls to be farther downstream from the point I chose.

Measuring

, 1913, Margaret W. Morley writes, “In the picturesque Cullasagee (sic) Valley—‘Sugar Fork’ the people call it, rudely translating the soft Indian name—you leave the main road and go through the woods to the fall whose thunder prepares you for the headlong leap of the stream down nearly a hundred feet of vertical cliff. It is one of the noblest falls in the region…”

"Sugar Fork Falls —a series of delightful cascades, walled in by moss-covered rocks and luxurious forests…” comes from 

Summer Resorts and Points of Interest of Virginia, Western North Carolina, and North Georgia

, an 1884 promotional book for a railroad company.

Edward King traveled through Cullasaja River Gorge in 1972 as part of his tour of the South. His guide was Silas McDowell, a well-educated man who promoted the region for resort development. King’s articles appeared in 

 and in 1879 they were published in the book 

. Following is an excerpt from King’s article about his journey through the gorge where he talks about visiting Cullasaja Falls.

The stream along whose banks we were now ascending the mountain is known as the ‘Sugartown’ or ‘Sugar Fork’ of the Tennessee river, and comes foaming down the wild slopes of the Blue Ridge through some of the most romantic scenery in America. Beautiful as the Rhone in the Alps, majestic in its tremendous waterfalls, and the wild grandeur of the passes through which it flows, it is strange that few travelers from other States have ever penetrated to its upper waters.

It was not without difficulty that our party reassembled the next morning. The Colonel and the sprightly Jonas came galloping from a town ten miles away, where they had been compelled to remain overnight, and the others came straggling to the rendezvous. The village physician from Webster, who knew every foot of the way for forty miles around, the cheery landlord from Waynesville, and the writer climbed the steep hill-side slowly under a broiling sun; the artist, hungry for sketches, browsed lightly on the delicate vistas afforded by every turn in the road; and the Judge, who had enlisted in our service that genial and venerable mountaineer, Silas McDowell, was actively hunting for the obscure pathway leading to the lower falls; while the colored servant guided an overloaded buggy along the rocky road.

As we reached the crest of the hill a sound like the sweep of the wind through the forest in autumn, or the distant echo of the rush of a railway train, drifted to our ears. Now it was swept away, now came back again powerfully. It was the voice of the fall in the cañon below, and old Mr. McDowell, reining in his horse and placing his hand to his ear, listened intently a minute, then announced that the pathway to the falls was not far, between Lamb and Skittles mountains, from that spot. So we began to search for it, some one meantime volunteering the information that the ravines abounded with rattlesnakes, and that one must tread carefully.

"What do you think of that?" said one, turning to the gray-haired guide. "Had we better go down this way?"

"Sir," said he, fiercely, "I have a contempt for snakes, sir. I kick them out of my way, sir. I kill them before they have a chance to bite me, sir."

Cold comfort, but no alternative; and, Indian-file, we moved toward the descent. After a walk of 200 yards through a pleasant grass-grown space, we came to the hill’s abrupt sides, broken by ledges and clothed with tangled vines and underbrush. A slight and scarcely perceptible trail led along the dizzy height, but was now and then lost entirely as one came to a rock, over which he was compelled to crawl and drop cautiously into black-looking caves and dens, out of which the only sortie was another still more difficult scramble.

Bears are often seen in these mountains now-a-days, and "hard times" bring them into the vicinity of the farmers’ cabins. The bear of this region is black, grows somewhat larger than in the swamps of the eastern part of the State, and has a glossy fur-like coat of hair. One sometimes comes upon the wallows in the moss where Bruin has been taking his siesta.

Half-way down the mountain we could hear the roar of the fall, and sometimes, through an opening in the trees, catch a glimpse of the white foam as it poured over the rocks. Guided by the Judge’s cheery halloo, and the occasional crack of a revolver, we reached the valley, swinging down by branches of trees, and tearing our hands against the rough rocks. The Colonel suddenly disappeared.

Many a halloo failed to bring him, and I waded through the cold pool at the foot of a great ledge, staggered out of the knee-deep, chilly water on to a shelving platform, clambered over a half-rotten tree-trunk, and reached a pinnacle midstream, from whose jagged summit I could see the top of the falls and the twin pine-trees leaning over the huge chasm as if it awed at the spectacle. Around this pinnacle ran a whirlpool, which made a fierce eddy at the very base of the projection on which I stood. Forcing myself up among the extending boughs of another pine-tree, with my boots in one hand and my staff in my I was just teaching the top when a limb gave way, and I slid rapidly down twenty feet directly toward the pool. A desperate wrench at a knot on the tree stopped me, however, and I finally reached my perch in safety.

To the right was a ledge, a hundred feet high, down which trailed moss and vines, and along which grew tiny white blossoms in dense masses. Far below this ledge on a rock, which he had reached by a dexterous drop, sat the artist, sketching. In the distance was Jonas, clambering on all fours up a wet stone directly under the shadow of the fall, and now and then turning to whoop at the others. No Judge, no Colonel visible ! but now and then a faint halloo showed them still struggling in the glens.

A gap in the mountains, high up, was pierced by a rapidly flowing stream, which boiled into whitest foam as it sprang down the sides of a great rock from a shelf jutting out of the mass. At the right grew tall trees and infinite small foliage, clothing the walls, which descended hundreds of feet, with living green, and with blue, white, and red blossoms; on the left the ledge ran up into a peak in front, then receded toward the crest of the hill which we had left. Eighty or ninety feet below the shelf from which the foam leaped it met some obstacle, and, springing to the right in blinding clouds of spray, which at times filled the cañon for some distance, it formed a second fall extending thirty feet down to the lower channel.

On the left, across the face of the lower part of the cliff, ran minor torrents, bubbling and seething, and everywhere the current was swift, strong, and musical. Landing as I did midstream, and facing the fall, there seemed no exit from the valley save by balloon. On every side the walls appeared to rise perpendicularly, and, indeed, the trail was found only after vexatious scrambling among the rocks. When I reached the top, the others had departed, and I overtook them at a log-cabin, where they had halted for dinner. The Colonel smilingly presented himself.

Literature

, published in 1916, seems to include a verse about Cullasaja Falls. The verse is out of context with surrounding verses if it is about the waterfall, but the book includes a photo of Cullasaja Falls with a caption taken from the verse, so I’m going to assume Jarrett was writing about Cullasaja in this verse.

From the cliffside in the mountains
Roll a thousand little streams,
Laughing as they greet each other,
Where the sunshine never beams;
Rippling, idling, swirling slowly,
Leaping down a waterfall,
You can hear the drops of water,
Sweetly to their compeers call.

Poetry

When Congress banned cigarette advertising on television beginning in 1971, magazine ads increased substantially. The Kool campaign from the 1970s featured waterfalls from across the country, with the taglines stating how smooth and cool their cigarettes are. I’ve tracked down seven of these Kool ads that feature North Carolina waterfalls, including at least three of Cullasaja Falls.

The Chalet Les Cascades—Swiss Alpine Tourist Center, uses Bird Rock Falls as a draw in this ad that ran in at least two issues of 

 Magazine. This one is from the June 15, 1966 issue. Bird Rock Falls, which is on the property, is a very scenic waterfall, so I don’t know why the ad uses a photo of Cullasaja Falls.

Brewed by Satulah Mountain Brewing Company in Highlands, Cullahaza IPA features a photo of the top portion of Cullasaja Falls on Cullasaja River.

Advertising

It is no longer possible to make a good photo of Cullasaja Falls from the road. To get an open view of the falls, you must ascend the little knoll and then climb down the steep slope under the towering cliff. That’s where I shot most of the autumn photos in the gallery. The slope is covered in loose rocks, making it sketchy to climb on.

Some photographers like to shoot from the base of the falls but I’ve never liked that vantage point. You can’t see all of the falls from down there and since you’re looking up at the falls, the sky becomes a problem.

Photography

Be sure to check out some of the other waterfalls in Cullasaja River Gorge, including 

Accessibility:	Roadside view
County:	Macon
River Basin:	Little Tennessee
Watercourse:	Cullasaja River
Watershed:	Medium
Type and Height:	Steep, cascading falls about 180 feet high
Landowner:	Nantahala NF, Nantahala RD

Beauty Rating:	10
Elevation:	2600 feet
USGS Map:	Scaly Mountain
Hike Difficulty:	View roadside
Hike Distance:
Waterfall GPS:	35.11782, -83.27071
Parking GPS:

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