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September 1998
North Carolina - Waterfall Country
David Aaronson2005-09-23 22:11:55
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After visiting Six Flags near Atlanta, and spending one morning in Chattanooga at the Tennessee Aquarium, we drove into the region of North Carolina known as "Waterfall Country". There are several hundred in the area covered by a handful of counties, but here we present our favorites (of those we visited). Starting with this one right here. This is one of those waterfalls that is right next to the road, so you know if you're even a slightly experienced waterfall hunter, that it loses serious points from the start. Waterfalls are best experienced in solitude, preferably after a decent hike, even more preferably after a decent hike along an unmarked or non-existent trail. But enough philosophizing, this here is Dry Falls, which as you can see, isn't. Not only is it right next to the road but the semi-paved walk to the falls is under construction, so this is the best picture we could manage.
Our next stop was quite a distance away. We wanted to make sure to see this one with plenty of daylight left. This is Whitewater Falls, and unlike Dry Falls it lives up to its name. There is plenty of water, it is white, and there is more than one fall, so it actually deserves the plural form 'falls'. In light of this, we suggest renaming Dry Falls to Wet Fall. So anyway, this series of cascades is a good distance away in this picture but that's really the only way to get it all in one shot. Incidentally, this is also one of the highest falls in the eastern US, if you give them benefit of the doubt and let them measure the total drop. It's also a decent (but paved) hike.
Now we move on to Horsepasture Creek. One of the loveliest creeks anywhere. Not only does it have more waterfalls than we can possibly include here, it also includes kayakable class IV-V rapids. The downside, which is also the upside, is that it's fairly difficult to get to. There aren't really any official paths to it (that we know of), but
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See photographs from:
United States Gallery
