Accessibility – Hard+
Height: Approx 12-15′
Distance – 5.5 (shuttle hike)
Beauty – 3
Photo rating – 5
Solitude – 10
GPS Info: LAT 35.04188 LONG -83.03558
Last updated – 06-15-2017
Home Alphabetical Listing Numerical Listing Location Listing Whitewater River
The hike, as it was back in 2017: Relief Falls is on an unnamed tributary of the Whitewater River, which feeds into the Whitewater River on river left, at roughly the midpoint between Wheelchair Accessible Falls and Big Ledge Falls. The waterfall is pretty close to the river, but I don’t know how far, since we didn’t follow the creek down to it. We reached the falls by accident on my first trip down the Whitewater River, following a trail that suddenly petered out high on a ridge. It was a long day and an awful time. Knowing what I know now, it ain’t all that. Back then: After an exhausting side-hill bushwhack through thorns and god knows what else, we ended up in this creek bed.
Funny story. The person with the directions who was guiding us on this off-trail adventure thought we had reached Waddle Branch, but this was not the case. As it turns out, the person entrusted with the directions interpreted them as written, describing the hike along the river as starting at the bridge on NC281, hiking upstream. One problem, we were ending at the bridge and hiking downstream! This was my first off-trail hike, and at one point, the discussion started that we might end up spending the night in the woods. It didn’t come to that, mostly because when the group split up, I didn’t go with the person who had been reading the directions backward.
Anyway, we stumbled into the meager drainage and followed it downstream, thinking it best to get off the ridge and into the river. We followed the tributary to the top of this waterfall, and after descending down to the base, I stood under it for about a minute to wash the forest off myself. After the insanity on the ridge, it felt so good to wash off under this little waterfall. I called it Relief Falls because I was so relieved to be off that ridge. It doesn’t have an official name.
Fast-forward to 2020: On a return hike to the lower part of the river on a cold January day, I happened to reach Relief Falls again, this time coming at it from below, and it looked nothing like the dribbling shower of three years earlier. The Whitewater River was raging, and Relief Falls was also looking good, as you can see in the second picture.
