North CarolinaNC Waterfalls

Everyone knows about Hickory Nut Falls in Chimney Rock State Park. I’ve given separate listings for two other waterfalls in the park, Silver Falls and Rainbow Falls. In addition to these, I’ve seen sixteen other notable waterfalls in the park and I’m sure there are more.

One of these, Pool Creek Falls, is no secret. It was widely talked about years ago when Conserving Carolina, then Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, spearheaded the acquisition of the exceptionable World’s Edge tract, which later became part of the new state park. The others are little known, although I know a few waterfallers who have hiked to a few of them and posted info online.

I debated how to treat these waterfalls. All are on public property, and you can visit them legally, provided you remain on state park land the entire time—not the easiest thing to do for some of them. However, none have trails leading to them, and the park isn’t crazy about people bushwhacking over challenging terrain. The difficulty level for reaching most of these waterfalls is very high.

The park is young. I know that long-range plans call for building trails to some of these waterfalls, but it will be a while before a full inventory of potential destinations is made and plans are drawn for trails. The superintendent and rangers are working their butts off managing the park and trying to plan for future public access. They don’t need the extra burden of dealing with inexperienced hikers wondering all over the place.

I’ve decided to provide no access information for these waterfalls, at least at this time. Hardcore waterfallers, the ones who have experience making hikes like this, will find them on their own and they’ll be fine. Given the challenging access, I imagine everyone else will be just fine waiting for the park to build official trails.