Waterfalls on the Way Home

Saturday morning, we were heading back to NC. But of course we had to get some more waterfalls on the way. After checking out of the hotel, we headed towards Erwin and headed into Cherokee National Forest on Clarks Creek Road. In about 3 miles, we reached the trailhead for Sill Branch Falls. After getting our stuff together, we started hiking. We had to dress in layers as it was very cold this morning, unseasonably so for Tennessee in April. We didn't have any warm clothes so we wore rain jackets to help stay warm. The hike was only about half a mile to this very scenic 50-foot waterfall.

After a few pictures, we headed back and drove a short ways further on Clarks Creek Road to the trailhead for Longarm Branch Trail.

It’s over 2 miles to Longarm Branch Cascades and we weren’t going to go that far. Instead, we followed the trail for about a half-mile to a crossing.

Right after rock-hopping across, we turned left to follow a path heading upstream along Devil Fork Creek.

Shortly, we reached the 25-foot Pine Ridge Falls.

It's a very scenic waterfall and very easy to reach, especially from the trailhead for Sill Branch Falls. After some pictures, we made our way back to the car. We then headed to the Rock Creek Recreation Area. This is also a pay area, though most of the roads were gated. After paying we hiked in on the roads to the campground and then followed the Rock Creek Trail as it followed its namesake upstream, eventually entering the Unaka Mountains Wilderness. The trail was pretty easy to follow, but it was very cold. As we hit around 3000 feet in elevation or so, we started to see snow on the ground. Soon we came to Lower Rock Creek Falls, a 30-foot slide.

We climbed down to the base for some pictures, then headed back up to the trail. At one point, there was a nice view of the waterfall from the side from up on the trail.

Above that was a much smaller cascade with icicles all around.

We could really tell how cold it was getting - snow was now covering the ground Then soon we made it to the Rock Creek Falls, a two-tiered 50-foot waterfall. It was really scenic, but hard to get a picture.

The upper part was illuminated by direct sunlight, while the lower part was in the shadows. It was very cold and windy so I didn’t try for too long.

We then headed back and made our way back into NC. I counted up our waterfalls for the week and got to 49. That just won’t do. After getting through Boone, we hopped on the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove a couple miles to E. B. Jeffress Park.

Here, we made the short hike to Cascade Falls, a very tall cascading waterfall. The overlook is near the top and it’s difficult to judge just how far down it does.

After some pictures, we made our way back and drove home after an epic week of Tennessee waterfalls.