Middle Prong Waterfalls

Saturday, we got breakfast and then headed towards Sunburst Campground to Forest Road 97.  It was gated after the ford, so we parked and hiked the road to the second switchback and got on FR-97H to head towards Middle Prong Wilderness.  There are several waterfalls along this gated road, but we continued to near the end and took an unnamed road that ended at Big Beartrap Branch.  From here, we followed a steep and narrow path for almost half a mile to Big Beartrap Falls.

We came out at the base of the main upper drop that was very scenic though the lighting was not cooperating.

There were some cascades just downstream of the main drop and then it cascaded down some more.

We had to backtrack and climb back down for the base of the lower cascades.  The upper portion was not visible from here.

After some pictures, we headed back to the main trail.  At FR-97H, we first went right to the end of the road at Middle Prong.  The small but scenic Laurie Falls was right at this point, but the lighting was very poor by midday.

Heading back along FR-97H, we got off the trail and headed down a steep path to the top of Middle Prong Falls.  There was a little rainbow in the spray.

We took the steep scramble path heading towards the base.  A massive tree had fallen and we had to scale up and around on a cliff to get around.  We eventually made it to the base but the lighting was really bad, a shame as this is a really nice waterfall.

We headed back to FR-97H and continued back to Little Beartrap Falls.  Climbing up from the trail, there's a near little canyon above the main drop.

Just above the old road is another scenic cascade.

We then climbed down from the road to see the downstream cascades.  The sun was shining right on Berry Branch so no possibility of a picture of that one.

We then took the unnamed road here back to FR-97.  Some bloodroot were blooming along the trail.

Once at FR-97, we followed that back to our car past the gate to finish our hike.

Heading back to Waynesville, we had dinner at Bogarts and then retired for the evening.