Accessibility – Moderate+
Height – 35′
Distance – 6.2 miles (loop)
Beauty – 7
Photo rating – 7
Solitude – 7
GPS Info: LAT 35.15273 LONG -82.28757
Last Updated – 03-09-2025
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Cave Falls is the middle waterfall between Upper and Lower Cave Falls, and the nicest of the three. You can see it from River Road in the Chestnut Ridge Heritage Preserve during the winter months, but likely not in the summer. There is a narrow manway to access the waterfalls, and there are some things to climb over and around.
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 0.4 of a mile from the crossing, and on your way you can see Moonshiner’s Falls. The narrow spur path is on the right before you cross the creek. It will lead you to Cave Falls, and with a slight detour to Lower Cave Falls. There isn’t a great reference point for where to head down to get to Lower Cave Falls due to a lot of blowdowns, but if you look for a small rock culvert, and head down on the far side of that, it’s not too bad.
