North Harper Creek Falls

This is a beautiful waterfall with two distinct characters: a long, shallow slide followed by a shorter, steeper plunge into a deep pool at the bottom. You can't see the top part from the base at all. But that doesn't matter - it's a beautiful falls and there is plenty of area to hang out and enjoy the view at the base. A limited view of the top portion can be seen from along the North Harper Creek trail, but be careful especially if the rock is wet.

Directions

Driving

From the Wilson Creek Visitor Center at 7805 Brown Mountain Beach Rd., go 3.1 miles North to NC route 90 (one of the last unpaved state roads) and turn left. Go 1 mile and turn left on F.R. 464. The trailhead is just over 4 miles up this road on the left and is well signed (sorry I don't have the exact mileage just yet). Park here. It's past the trailhead for Bard Falls (#266A), also on the left.

Trail

Take the North Harper Creek Falls trail (#239) downhill behind the sign, which follows an old logging road. It's mostly easy, but one spot has an old stick-built bridge which looks kind of sketchy - take care there. The trail leaves the road and becomes more of a footpath, climbing and then descending. You'll reach an intersection (I'll call this "A") with the North Harper Creek Trail (#266), which goes straight and left.

To get to the bottom of the waterfall (the best view), go left. This is a steep downhill for a short distance to the creek; then the main trail turns left here. An unmarked side path goes right; take that (it's very obvious). It crosses the creek after a very short distance - this should be rock-hoppable but it might be a wade if the water is up. After crossing, go right (upstream) to the base of the falls after about 100 feet.

You can reach the exposed rock area near the top of the falls by going straight at intersection "A" above instead of left. It's flat at the outset, but be careful up there, especially if it's wet.