HikingWNC

Accessibility – Hard

Height – 35′

Distance – 3.3 (out and back)

Beauty – 6

Photo rating – 4

Solitude – 10

GPS Info: LAT 35.18499 LONG -82.96571

Last updated – 01-02-2025

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I’m going to start with this. This hike included five waterfalls spread across two creeks on the northern face of Big Pisgah Mountain. The details above are for Big Pisgah Falls, which was the easiest one to reach, and by no means was it easy. I will include a table with all of the waterfall info, but this isn’t even close to the kind of hike I can even try and explain. In all honesty, if you can’t figure this out from the starting point I list, the GPS locations of the waterfalls, and some brief information on the basic topography, this isn’t a hike you’re going to enjoy, and one you might not be ready to make. That isn’t meant to be negative, but this was hike was frequently a “dead-reckoning” adventure, reading the grade and ground cover to determine the best route. We went into it with the same information I’m going to provide, a starting point and some pins.

Where to park: The hike started at the Dismal Falls Trailhead just off NC281 on Winding Gap Road. The last part of this road is gravel and narrow. It ends at a parking area where a gate blocks a trail that heads down while the unmaintained section of the road goes a few feet and ends in a pile of downfall. The parking area GPS is: 35.1881, -82.95349.

The hike: This one is going to be vague, but it’s what we had to go on. Start by hiking past the gate like you’re going to Dismal Falls. We stayed on the trial past the spur to Aunt Sally’s Falls, electing to strike out through the woods 0.75 of a mile from the TH. It seemed like a nice open spot, and not far off the trail. it descended steeply to a crossing of the West Fork French Broad River, which was done on a fallen tree to avoid a knee deep wade on a 26 degree morning. Our crossing point was due North of our first pin. We crossed a utility access road and started climbing through a surprisingly open section of forest.

A ridge splits the two creeks, which may or may not show up on a lot of maps! We went to the right, drawn by the more open woods, and it didn’t take long before we got to the first drop of a day, an ice-encrusted freefall with a huge rockhouse. When we first got to it, we thought it was Big Pisgah Falls, but we soon came to realize it was something else. Either way, it was a heck of a first waterfall, and now that the easy part was done, it was time to climb higher. There was a steep route between the cliffs, but with my ankle not a hundred percent, I swung around the cliffs on river left, and rejoined my group for the ascent. The plan was to continue up to Diamond Falls, and beyond, but our first drainage only led us to Faux Diamond Falls.

With nothing about Faux Diamond Falls, and two new pins on the map, we crossed the ridge heading east. We found a very open and flat area and used it to make out way to the real Diamond Falls, which was at the same elevation as the one in the adjacent drainage. It was a very nice drop, and maybe just as nice was the rocky outcrop at the top when we climbed up that way to get to Laurel Blossom Falls. The remoteness of the area was never more apparent than when we were under the huge rockhouse. It was the kind of natural shelter that almost always has remnants of human activity, like a campfire remnant. The rockhouse wrapped around into the drainage and left us facing Laurel Blossom Falls.

We were at the highest point of the hike, and the only thing left to do was hit Big Pisgah Falls on the way out. The descent from the rockhouse was really steep, but soon after, the ridge moderated and took us past the route to Diamond Falls. The ridge spine steered us below Big Pisgah Falls, and a relatively open area curved us around toward the base. Big Pisgah Falls was the tallest waterfall of the day, and the only decent vantage was in the middle of the creek, where someone in the past had cut back the rhodos. I’m guessing not a lot of folks make it out this way, but I can probably guess who cleared some of the limbs. The same ridge that got us to Big Pisgah Falls and Big Summit Falls led us back to the utility access road.

I’m going to guess that the higher water helped a lot of these, especially the ones further up the mountain, but the overall geography of the rock faces made it worth the effort. All I got from this hike are crappy cell phone pics, but I’ll bring the Nikon in the spring for some better pics after some cleanup.