752 – Eden Falls

Accessibility – Hard & Bushwhack

Height: Approx 35-40′

Distance – 7.8 miles RT

Beauty – 8

Photo rating – 6

Solitude – 9

GPS Info: LAT 35.02984 LONG -82.77171

Last Visit – 01-09-2022

Last updated – 02-27-2022

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Eden Falls is a large waterfall on Reedy Cove Creek at about the 2150 foot elevation, near Rocky Bottom SC. Accessing the falls is 90% walking an undulating logging road, and 10% the most awful bushwhack you ever want to do. It is thick and steep. While you’re down here, you’ll want to stop at Vespa Falls, which is slightly downstream of Eden Falls. You will also pass Palmetto Trail Falls and the old grade to Mountain Cat Falls. If you do all four, it’ll be a rewarding day.

Trailhead GPS: 35.02966 -82-79804

Trailhead Drive: From the intersection of SC11 and US178 head North on US178 for 5.5 miles. You will see a gravel road heading up the grade on the right. There is a pullout just past this road on the left side of the road. I park here and walk the short distance down US178. Coming from NC, the pullout is 10.7miles South on US178 from Rosman High School.

The hike: start up the gravel road walking past the gate. The road is going to be obvious the whole time, so you’re going to follow it as it snakes in and out of each drainage. You will pass over small creeks at 0.1, 0.5, and 1.3 miles from the TH. After the creek at 1.3 miles, the road will climb steeply for the next half mile before topping out. It will swing through a sharp righthand switchback and at 2.0 miles from the TH, you will come to the point where you leave the trail for Mountain Cat Falls. At 3.4 miles into the hike, you will pass Palmetto Trail Falls, and not too much later, it’s time to get dirty.

So where do you leave the road? On the way in, I plunged into the thicket at 35.02933 -82.77491. It was pretty darn thick. This is about 0.1 of a mile past Palmetter Trail falls. I came out at 35.03081 -82.77504, which was another 0.1 of a mile further past Palmetto Trail Falls. It was pretty darn thick here too but I did find an eroded road that made like a touch easier. Still got scraped up and dirty. Regardless of your route in, make sure you have the GPS location for this waterfall so you can keep yourself oriented. It’s hard to be more precise since this is going to be about finding the easiest route to the creek.

If you come in the way I did, you will come to Vespa Falls first, a small slide downstream of the main attraction. It’s worth a stop. Eden Falls is not too much further upstream. If you have a decent mapping program/tracker you can see where Poplar Hollow Road is and use that to find the best route out.