Drive through Nantahala Gorge

Sunday, we went into town for a great breakfast at Everett Street Diner.  After breakfast, we headed west on US-74 through the Nantahala Gorge.  Our first stop was at the Nantahala Outdoor Center.  We walked across the street and down to Nantahala Falls.

The river release hadn't started and the flow was very low.  It's fun to paddle over when the water is higher but not much of a waterfall.  Then we went back up to the bridge and went down past the railroad tracks.  I think the road is closed and we couldn't make it to Townhouse Falls.

We could get a view of Wesser Falls from just past the bridge.  In the low water, this one looked nicer.

Then we took off and continued up through Nantahala Gorge.  We turned on FR-422/Winding Stairs Road, crossing the twin bridges over the river and then steep, bumpy climb up the road.  It was about 3 miles to a viewpoint of Queens Falls.

The view from the road in summer isn't great and I think all the land is private property.

So we headed back down the mountain and parked at a small area on the other side of the road.  A short trail led up across the railroad tracks and crossed Bartram Trail to Findley Falls.

This small waterfall on Ledbetter Creek is easy to reach, especially with a baby.  All the other waterfalls are much, much harder.

We let Harper crawl around a bit and then headed back.  We continued to Wayah Road and headed up and stopped at a nice drop on Nantahala River.

A fisherman was in the river but it would have been difficult to get down, so we continued to a parking area just a couple hundred feet up the road at the Cascades of Nantahala.

A short paved pathway provided nice views of the cascades.

We then continued to Old River Road and parked at the bridge over Whiteoak Creek.  Heading back across the bridge, Jagged Rock Falls was right across where Old River Road split from Wayah Road.

In low water and summer foliage, it wasn't too impressive but did have a lot of wildflowers blooming around it.

There was some thistle blooming along the river.

We then made the short hike to Whiteoak Falls.

I first climbed up to the pool at the base and rock-hopped out for a picture.  But I liked the view from further downstream better.

Then we headed back and drove just a short ways further up Old River Road to another parking area that was right at the top of Nantahala Cascades.

A short scramble path led down to the base.

It looked like there used to be stone steps but they had washed away.

We got some pictures and then climbed back up.

There were some wildflower blooming along the road here.

Driving back, we made one more stop to see a heron at the top of Whiteoak Falls.

Then we headed back to NOC to get lunch at River's End.  After lunch, we took Needmore Road into Needmore Game Land and turned on Big Dog Road, pulling over in a quarter-mile at the top of Rattlesnake Falls.

I didn't see a reasonable path down to the base and it really didn't seem worth it anyway.

There was some butterfly bush blooming along the road.

Driving back, we stopped at the Needmore Road Suspension Bridge.

There were nice views of Little Tennessee River and the wobbly bridge led to a gravel road on the other side.

Then we headed back to Bryson City and enjoyed the nice hot tub at our cabin.