Accessibility – Hard (10)
Height: 30′ (slides and drops)
Distance – 2.5 miles (out and back)
Beauty – 8
Photo rating – 8
Solitude – 9
GPS Info: LAT 35.59377 LONG -83.26735
Last Visited – 04/09/2026
Last updated –04/10/2026
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Note: As I think about the hikes I’ve done, the Raven Fork Gorge moved toward the top of the most challenging, and while not as difficult as the lower section of the Thompson River, it’s no joke. I wouldn’t know how to tell someone how to complete this hike. It’s a creekwalk, bushwhack, boulder scramble of the highest order.
I’m not including any of the waterfalls in the Raven Fork Gorge to encourage visitation, but for the sake of documentation. The big issue the difficulty. It’s steep in every direction, the water is deep and swift, the rocks are slick, and in many places the Gorge walls are too steep to climb. A railroad grade parallels the East side of the gorge, and from it, you can see Raven Fork way down at the bottom. In the summer, the hillside will be completely overgrown. It was getting there in Mid-April.
Where to park: There is a logging grade on the east side of the Raven Fork Gorge. I parked at a large turnaround about 0.1 miles from Fountain Branch. Getting to that point in a 4×4 Jeep Gladiator with a 4-inch lift wasn’t a problem.
The hike: From where the road ends at the turnaround, continue on the railroad grade upstream as far as you want, depending on what you want to see, and find a place to drop off the side of the grade to reach Raven Fork. Our plan was to start at Raven Falls, and we were thigh deep in Raven Fork not long after we started downstream. The hillside is covered in mossy rocks that move, boulders with deep gaps between them, small cliffs, bigger cliffs, blowdown, wood nettle, and seeps.
