Accessibility – Moderate
Height – 12′
Distance – 1.2 miles (out and back)
Beauty – 4
Photo rating – 5
Solitude – 5
GPS Info: LAT 36.14967 LONG -81.80797
Last Updated – 01-15-2023
Last Visited – 08-15-2019
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https://www.sevendevils.net/nature-trails
Otter Falls is a 12 foot high waterfall near Seven Devils NC. For soemone from SC, this was like driving to the other side of the world. The waterfall is cute, and there is a trail the while way. It was rough in spots on my 2019 visit, so if your thinking this is one where you can wear Crocs, think again.
The trailhead: The Otter Falls trailhead parking is at 825 Skyland Road. It’s popular enough that there were several people hiking the trail and hanging out by the falls on my midweek August visit. The GPS location for the parking it 36.14967, -81.80903.
The hike: There is a kiosk with a map at the trailhead, take a picture because it is confusing with all of the intersections, and they the access to the falls isn’t on one trail. The hike begins on the red trail, which is a loop, so you need to take the correct route. Very close to the parking there is a junction where the loop starts. Follow the trai through the curve instead of making the hard left. At 0.25 into the hike the red trail intersects the blue loop. Take the right hand branch of the blue loop. In under 0.2. of a mile the blue loop meets the orange and yellow trail. You want the orange one. The final 0.25 of the hike is on the orange trail. It sounds really confusing, but the route is pretty obvious, but you need to watch which way you go on the loops. I posted the official website for the falls. There is some history and a link to the park map. I would screenhot it. The hike is barely 0.6 one way, but still.
HIKINGWNC 