Accessibility – Hard
Height – See table
Distance – 5.8 miles (out and back)
Beauty – Varies
Photo rating – Varies
Solitude – 8
GPS Info: LAT See table LONG See table
Last Updated – 12-23-2025
Home Alphabetical Listing Numerical Listing Location Listing NC215N
Where to start: Most of the mileage is walking back and forth on FR97, which is gated most of the year. It is only open from 9/15 to 1/1, making for a short window to hike in the area. The hike up Berry Branch isn’t the worst thing you’re going to do, and there is a road most of the way on river right, except that it turns away from the creek before you reach any of the waterfalls. Like Little Beartrap, which is the next drainage over, the waterfall names are simply the ones I assigned to differentiate them.
Where to park: If the gate is closed, park at 35.37331, -82.93828, which is where FR97 meets NC215. If the gate is open, park at 35.35686, -82.94553, which is the Haywood Gap Trail Trailhead.
The hike: Start by walking the road 1.8 miles to reach the Haywood Gap Trail Trailhead which is at 35.35686, -82.94553 at the outside of a switchback. Follow the Haywood Gap Trail into the woods. The first creek you cross is Little Beartrap Creek, and the next one is Berry Branch. We picked up an old road on river right and followed it up the drainage. The road was in decent shape, and easy enough to follow as it parallels the creek. No more that 0.4 miles from when you started on the old road, it will switchback to the left away from the creek. Keep following Berry Branch at this point.
| Number | Name | Height | GPS |
| 1071 | Woodpile Falls | 20 feet | 35.35269, -82.95146 |
| 1072 | Mossy Rock Falls | 22 feet | 35.35279, -82.95185 |
| 1073 | River Left Falls | 45 feet | 35.35283, -82.95212 |
| 1074 | Boulder Jumble Falls | 25 feet | 35.35284, -82.95051 |
| 1075 | Unhappy Ending Falls | 8 feet | 35.35579, -82.94624 |
We shifted sides a few times on the way up the creek, bypassing the lowest waterfall, saving it for the way back, since it didn’t look like much, a sentiment that changed once we were above it. Some planning went into the hike, in terms of where the drops were, so we had a basic idea of how far we needed to go, even though there was another spot much further upstream.
The first time we stopped to check out one of the drops was no more than 0.1 miles above the one we skipped. It required a steep descent on river right, and other than some deadfall piled up at the base, the setting was great. The drop was at the 4150 elevation, and based on the pile of stuff, I called it Woodpile Falls, which sounds better than Waterfall on Berry Branch at the 4150 Elevation.
We had to climb up the bank on river right to get above this one, but very quickly we had to cross the creek to make our approach to the next drop, which was very close. There wasn’t a ton of room at the base, but it was a pretty setting with moss everywhere. The drop was 20-25 feet high, but very hard to photograph due to the terrain.
We had one more spot to check out, and it required climbing up and around Mossy Rock Falls on river right, staying close to the creek since the next drop wasn’t very far away, and there was no reason to scale the mountainside only to come back down. We came to our next drop from the river right side. The waterfall was more than 40 feet high, with several different drops, the more interesting of which were higher up. From the base, the upper drop looks like it’s a mile away. Most of the water ran down the left side of the rock, inspiring the name, River Left Falls. I plan to revisit this one with the intent of climbing up to the middle of the falls.
We climbed up toward the top of River Left Falls, looking for a way to reach the middle of the falls, but there wasn’t a good way. Getting up and away from the creek was the plan for the way back, avoiding the thickest of the rhodos. We stayed higher up on the slope until we were close to the waterfall we bypassed. The drop had two distinct halves, and when we initially saw it, we only saw the sloped lower part, but as we went upstream, we could see the upper half. That was the part I went to photograph, and what earned it the name, Boulder Jumble Falls.
The hike out was on the old road we had found on the way in, but once we got back to the Haywood Gap Trail, we decided to visit Berry Branch Falls, and the lowest drop on Little Beartrap Creek, which are below the trail. We went down the bank near Berry Branch and climbed up toward the two drops above where the creeks merge. The lighting was great.
We climbed back to the Haywood Gap Trail and hiked it 0.1 miles to FR97 for the walk back to the cars. FR97 goes through a long switchback to the right, and when it comes back to the next one to the left, a muddy road leaves from the outside of the turn. We followed this for about 0.2 miles to check out a waterfall a friend had mentioned, which was below where the two creeks merged. We found it, and it wasn’t worth the effort. Getting to it required almost no effort! Unhappy Ending Falls was a meager thing, but it didn’t take away from the great day on Berry Branch.
