HikingWNC

The hike covers seven waterfalls, three on Holcomb Creek, two on a tributary of Holcomb Creek, and two more on another tributary. The hike wasn’t overly difficult in terms of distance or elevation, but there was no trail to speak of, only pieces of old roads that came and went, and often they were more overgrown than the woods above and below them. Since there is no trail and some sections are very steep, I would rate it as difficult. The fact it was bitter cold added to the misery index.

There isn’t much I can offer as far as tackling this hike other than the woods are often open enough to make your way, but in places, we did a lot of cutting to make a path. The three waterfalls on Holcomb Creek are very close together. White Diamond Falls has two drops, Hope Diamond is just above it, and Red Diamond is the uppermost of the group. Hope is by far the highlight of this grouping, with a large overhanging cliff above the falls. My visit was on a cold day, with a high of about 30°F, which added to the challenge, especially since I did not want to get into the creek. In a few places, the creek would have made for a much easier route than the clogged banks.

Our trek began on Hale Ridge Road, on a cold Black Friday morning in November, with a starting temperature of 21 degrees, heading for a high of 30! Hale Ridge Road connects to Overflow Creek Road, and on my drive, the puddles on the road were iced over, but I had a good time plowing through them. We parked at a wide area on the left side of the road heading in at 34.98333 -83.28255, and after grumbling about the cold, something I did a lot, we walked the road a very short distance and entered the woods on the same side as where we parked to pick up an old roadbed that is barely recognizable at first.

The road is going to curve around, vanish in places, and be impassable in others. We left the road after 0.5-0.6 of a mile and made our way down to a crossing of Holcomb Creek. Some old ribbons mark the route, but they are widely spaced. We had to cross Holcomb Creek, and once across, a somewhat obvious path goes straight up. This section is rocky and steep, and it leads to White Diamond Falls. We were on river-right at this point, and we remained on river-right when we moved above White Diamond to get to Hope Diamond Falls.

There is an upper section of White Diamond Falls that you can’t see from the base, which is worth a look on the way. Hope Diamond was the highlight, as far as I was concerned. After Hope Diamond, I pondered bagging it and hiking back to the Jeep to enjoy the heated seats, but I mushed on, cuz it’s what I do. Everyone knew I wasn’t leaving. We crossed at the base of Hope Diamond and made our way to Red Diamond on river left for the most part, only crossing back to river right very close to the falls. The GPS locations for the falls are in the table below.

Getting from Red Diamond to Hidden Gem Falls followed Holcomb Creek for a bit, but there aren’t any landmarks I can give other than where the two falls are located to explain the way. We mostly stayed on the same elevation when we made our way from one creek to the next, but we were following the easiest path, which still required some clearing in places. We crossed the tributary below Hidden Gem Falls and climbed the steep incline on river right to reach Peridot Falls. I had never been before, and I ended up in front for this part, and it was simply a matter of finding the most open spot to get up the slope. It got very thick when we got closer to Peridot Falls, and you can’t really see the falls until you’re almost at the base.

The stretch from Peridot to Emerald Falls was the hardest part. The climb up from Peridot on river right wasn’t too bad, and the woods were open enough to find a route that went up and bent to the left. I had no idea where I was going, but getting to the top of the ridge and following it around to the right wasn’t too hard. Getting to the base of Emerald Falls was the hard part. The ridge spine is very narrow, and if you venture too far to either side, you will cliff out. It was something of a circuitous route to get around the falls to reach the base, and even the easiest way was very steep. Emerald Falls was the tallest of the bunch, and it was covered in icicles, which added to the setting. We got to it on river left, and left on river right, heading away from the creek along the cliff line before making our way back down when the woods opened up.

There were parts of an old trail between Emerald and Jewel Falls, but most of the time, it was a bushwhack. Jewel was similar to Emerald Falls, tall with black rock and ice, but it fell a little differently, and I didn’t think it looked as good. The trek back to the cars was something we went at differently. There was an old road somewhere I was supposed to follow to a creek crossing and an old campsite, but the woods were open enough that when we split up, I went straight toward my truck, using my GPS. The woods were very open, and other than two small inclines, it wasn’t hard at all. The creek crossing was less than ankle deep, but the water was low, not that it mattered since the crossing was less than five minutes from my truck.

The total miles were around two, but it took about eight and a half hours. We spent a lot of time at each waterfall since getting to them was quite a bit of work. A