Accessibility – Moderate+
Height – 40′ (main drop)
Distance – 6.2 miles (loop)
Beauty – 6
Photo rating – 4
Solitude – 6
GPS Info: LAT 35.15253 LONG -82.28139
Last Updated – 03-09-2025
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Moonshiner’s Falls is a high waterfall visible from River Road in the Chestnut Ridge Heritage Preserve. There is a trail up to the base, but to get around the trees, you end up so close to the falls that it’s hard to get a picture.
Where to park: The trailhead parking that we used was on Oak Grove Road, maybe half a mile from SC11. The GPS coordinates of the parking area are: 35.1308, -82.28099. There was a pretty decent crowd, and the parking lot isn’t very big, so plan accordingly.
The hike: There are a lot of trails in Chestnut Ridge Heritage Preserve, and you can use quite a few of them to get to the waterfalls on River Road. We turned the hike into a loop using the purple-blazed Chestnut Ridge Trail, which leaves the end of the parking area by the kiosk, and we returned on the red-blazed trail that hits the other end of the lot. The Chestnut Ridge Trail is easy to hike, and the total ascent from the parking lot to where it tops out is less than 500 feet, spread out over two miles. The descent down the other side is steeper, but totally manageable.
From the intersection at the top of the ridge, the Chestnut Ridge Trail descends for 0.8 of a mile to a crossing of the South Pacolet River. This is likely going to be a wet crossing in all but the driest times, but there are enough places to manage it. Once across, you can find the purple blazes and follow the trail up to River Road, or you can use any number of other obvious paths to reach the road. Make a left onto River Road. The creek is just about 0.1 of a mile from the crossing, and you can see the waterfall, at least when the leaves are off. There is an obvious trail leading up to the falls, but getting a decent shot that doesn’t include half the forest requires getting very close to the falls.
From here, you can continue on River Road to the next significant drainage and visit Cave Falls and Lower Cave Falls. Both were visible without the leaves on the trees, but probably not in the summer.
