Accessibility – Hard
Height – 50′ (cant’ see it all from the base)
Distance – 4.0 (lollipop loop)
Beauty – 7
Photo rating – 7
Solitude – 8
GPS Info: LAT 35.42243 LONG -82.72128
Last Updated – 12-24-2025
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Amphitheater Falls is an impressive waterfall on Bee Branch, upstream of Bee Branch Falls, and the hike starts out in the same place as Bee Branch Falls, and follows the same route at the outset. On this expedition, there were two points on an unnamed tributary of Bee Branch I wanted to explore, so the directions to Amphitheater Falls are going to include them. If you don’t wish to see these two drops, you could angle down the ridge we climbed up from Amphitheater Falls to reach the Big Creek Trail. I will provide the GPS for where we hit the trail on our ascent.
Where to park: The trailhead is located at the South end of the Little Pisgah Tunnel on the Blue Ridge Parkway near MP407. The GPS for the parking is: 35.42063, -82.74328. There is room for two cars.
The hike starts on the Big Creek trail, heading parallel to the parkway on a gentle ascent through the upper section of the trail. This part is overgrown, and you will have to push through some tall foliage for a short time before the trail enters the canopy and the ground cover abates. At about the same time that the trail begins its long downhill run, the encroaching brush goes away. The trail is in decent shape, not too rocky, and very easy to follow as it goes through a series of switchbacks, but it is unrelenting on the way out.
At one mile, leave the trail at 35.42098, -82.73066, or as close to it as possible, looking for the easiest path down the slope and through the undergrowth. It wasn’t terribly thick, but it was very steep in places. Our line was fairly straight, getting us to the tributary at the 3900-foot elevation, after a descent from the trail of 250 feet. The woods were very open around the trib, and it wasn’t hard to follow it downstream, which we did on river left. From where we met the creek, it was around 0.25 miles of open woods to reach Channel Falls, which was a nice slide with the water coming over the sloped rock into a channel. The rock had great color, and the overall height of the waterfall was 25 feet, give or take.
We crossed at the base of Channel Falls and very quickly reached the brink of White Stripe Falls, which required us to swing wide to get around safely. This waterfall was 15-17 feet tall, with a distinctive line of white quartz running through the face. From White Stripe Falls to Amphitheater Falls is 0.8 miles, most of which we covered on river right. The woods were still mostly open until we were very close to the large waterfall. We had to pass the falls to avoid the cliffs and come back upstream to reach the base. Our path wasn’t right on the creek, but wide of it, and we did have to go downstream a decent amount to find a good place to get to the creek.
When we left, we reversed our course to get around the falls, coming back closer to Bee Branch before coming to a ridge spine that wasn’t as steep as everything else. We got onto the spine at the 3412 elevation, and in 0.3 miles, we ascended to 3850, heading straight up the mountain. We reached the Big Creek Trail at 35.42132, -82.72539, and made a right. In 0.4 miles, we passed the point where we left the trail, and 0.6 miles later, we reached the Parkway, having climbed 1000 feet from where we got back on the trail. In theory, you could use the point where we reached the trail as a place to head down to Amphitheater Falls.
