A Snowy Hike to an Amazing Waterfall
Hiking and snow in East Tennessee are often associated with the Great Smoky Mountains but many forget about the rest of the area. The other often overlooked fact about the area is the weather. A warm sunny day can often be a cold, snowy mess at higher elevations!
The Cherohala Skyway is a 43-mile connector encompassing the Cherokee National Forest and the Nantahala National Forest crossing from Tennessee to North Carolina. Both of these forests hold many amazing trails, hikes and waterfalls with arguably to most popular being Bald River Falls.
Bald River Falls is not only a beautiful site but you can drive right to it without having to hike into the wilderness. There is a small amount of parking just across the bridge to allow you the opportunity to take a few pictures before venturing on.
After the obligatory visit to Bald River Falls we loaded up and continued East on the Skyway to the West Rattlesnake pull off where the trailhead is located for the hike to Falls Branch Falls. This trailhead is just over 4000′ in elevation has a parking lot for use with the trail starting on the far left.
The trail leading to the falls is designated #87 by the Forest Service. Additionally the falls is located within the Citico Wilderness area meaning signage and trail blazing are virtually nonexistent. Cell phone service is also nonexistent so plan to have paper maps and/or offline maps on your phone. I use GAIA GPS and it works extremely well for all our needs.
We started our way down the trail and quickly noticed there were other tracks in the snow! My guess would be the bear was moving because of the hunters in the area running dogs and fortunately we never met; although I’m quite certain it knew we were there!
The last portion of the trail is steep and with the snow melt it was basically like hiking through a mountain stream. The ground gets extremely soft and we were happy to have plenty of yellow birch roots to use for footing.
At the bottom of the trail we were greeted by views of an amazing 70-foot waterfalls cascading through the trees above. This is where we spread out a survival blanket to have a snack before the hike back to the top.
After our hike we continued across the Skyway taking in the views. This took us over snow covered portions of the road and over a mile high in elevation. We then continued through Robbinsville, North Carolina and back on U.S. 129 across the Tail of the Dragon which holds 318 curves in 11 miles!
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