With so much interest in The Hunger Games movie, I thought it was time to head out to DuPont State Forest for a dawn hike to Triple Falls, one of the scenes in the film. Triple Falls is a tiered cascade on the Little River that drops 120 dramatic feet and was also featured in the Last of the Mohicans movie. A photo of Triple Falls was used by the Friends of the Falls conservation group to convince the North Carolina Governor and the Council of State to protect the waterfalls of the Little River from private residential development. After considerable debate, thus were the waterfalls added to DuPont State Forest. This hike occurred on Friday, April 20, 2012 from 6:45am to 9:00am. My plan was to take the Triple Falls Trail for some early morning photos of the waterfall. I enjoyed myself so much that I continued to the other falls in the area.

The map above only contains the Triple Falls Trail. When I set out on this day, I wasn’t really intending on taking The Waterfalls Hike. I merely wanted some early morning photos of Triple Falls. Well, the sky didn’t cooperate particularly well, and it is a 45 minute drive from my home after all, so I decided to continue on to High Falls and Hooker Falls. By then I had shutdown my GPS trail tracing app. Someday soon I will go back and track the entire hike for you.

The area around the Hooker Falls parking gets very busy on weekend afternoons, as you can imagine with the popularity of these beautiful waterfalls and the easy access. So I would recommend visiting the falls on a weekday in the morning. I didn’t see anyone else on this Friday at 7:00am.

From the parking area on the west side of Staton Road you must cross to the east side. Be careful here because traffic passes at 45 mph. The road crosses Little River and offers a delightful scene in both directions before you even hit the trail. You’ll have to hop over the guard rail to get to the steps down to the trail. From there, the trail is an old gravel road that follows Little River. There are occasional cutouts through the rhododendron thickets to the rocks on the river bank. It’s less than half a mile to the upper overlook.

About half way there the trail makes a bend to the right and begins a pretty steep, but short climb of about 160 feet. If you aren’t in very good shape, you may huff and puff a bit, but really it’s not too bad. Know that the view at the top is absolutely worth the exertion. There are two viewing areas here. The first is on the trail itself at a split rail fence, and the 2nd is just a little higher at the Triple Falls Shelter, a covered picnicking facility.

From either vantage point you can see all three tiers of the waterfall, hence the name Triple Falls. The river is surrounded on both sides by thick forest comprised of mostly hardwoods with some hemlock and the ubiquitous rhododendron. Remember this spot when you’re searching for color during peak leaf peeping season in the fall. This is a big waterfall. The roar of the falls drowns out most other sound. No matter the season there is always a lot of water flowing here so you will be given a show.

Just another hundred feet beyond the overlook, the trail forks to the left and goes down a series of wooden plank stairs, more than 100 total. At the bottom is a flat granite slab at the precipice of the lower tier, and just below the upper two tiers of the falls. Don’t miss this spot! From here you can see the Little River continuing its trek through the forest below the falls. Looking back toward the falls, there is always a mist floating on the breeze from the rush of the whitewater. You can walk right to the water’s edge at the base of the falls, but don’t be tempted to get any closer. Unfortunately, people have lost their lives here. One misstep can be fatal. The wet granite is very slippery.

As the morning light began to appear over the trees on the east side of the falls, I scurried back up the steps to the overlook to give my camera an opportunity to capture the scene. That’s the photo you see at the top of the post. Click it for a larger image. Then when the light reached southward, down river, I headed back down the steps again to take this shot of the river. As you can see, it was still pretty dark in the canyon the falls and river carve through the granite, while the sky was beginning to do it’s good morning, look at me dance. It’s why I went.

About this time I’m thinking to myself, this is fun. I have the place all to myself. I have nowhere I have to be. I am in an absolutely beautiful mountain landscape. Why not go check out the other waterfalls that are also nearby? So I did. At the top of the stairs, if you go left, there is another trail junction just a hundred feet up the hill. These trails go to High Falls, and make a loop back to Triple Falls.

You can either take the left fork to the base of High Falls or the right fork to the overlook. Either way, it’s 0.6 mile to get there. Very doable. If you take the upper trail there is a little bit of mild, gradual climbing to get to the overlook, but if you take the lower trail the only climb is from the base of the falls up to the overlook. If you choose to do that it is pretty steep. After all, High Falls is 150 feet of awesome power. As stated before: be very careful near the waterfall. The wet rocks are extremely dangerous.

At the top of High Falls is a scenic covered bridge over Little River that was built in the late 1990s to accommodate the high-dollar real estate development that was planned for this area. Thanks to the foresight of the Friends of the Falls this picturesque region was saved for the enjoyment of future generations. And DuPont State Forest gets a nice covered bridge too.

From the overlook of High Falls, it’s just a half mile stroll to the covered bridge. On the other side of the bridge is an entire other set of trails, including one to Bridal Veil Falls, also a scene in The Hunger Games. By now, the sky was beginning to cloud up, so photos of High Falls and the covered bridge have a grey, gloomy background.

The other side of the loop to High Falls takes you back by Triple Falls for another peek at this astounding gift of nature as you return to the parking area. On the south end of the parking lot is the trail to Hooker Falls. It’s just a quarter mile on a handicapped accessible trail. Hooker Falls drops off an 11′ ledge directly into Cascade Lake, a commercial camping and water sports recreation area just outside the boundary of the state forest. Perhaps not as spectacular as Triple and High Falls, Hooker is the widest of the three.

Best Hike No visit to DuPont State Forest in southwestern North Carolina is complete without taking The Waterfalls Hike. You can make it as short or as long as you like. If you just visit Triple Falls, that would be a wonderful sight in itself. But you owe it to yourself sometime to make the full circuit and check out High Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Hooker Falls as well. The movie-makers thought enough of the scenic beauty to bring their crews here to film. I consider it one of North Carolina’s best hikes.

Update This is such a great hike, I will try to give seasonal updates. On Tuesday July 3, 2012 I made another visit to Triple and Hooker Falls. The highlight of the day had to be the great blue heron that swooped in right as I was setting up the tripod for pictures of the lower cascade at Triple Falls. Talk about your lucky timing.

Since there hasn’t been much rain for a month, Little River was running pretty puny, enabling close access to the lower cascade. It isn’t recommended when the water is rushing, but it’s pretty safe during the low flow seasons. Regardless, it’s a remarkable place surrounded by a forested granite gorge and the ubiquitous sound of the surging river.

As I approached Hooker Falls, I was just in time to see a father and son canoeing in the plunge pool beneath the falls. By the time I had the camera ready they were nearly around the bend, but I did manage to capture the gratification of this familial bonding. I hope you enjoy the new photos as much as I savored being there.

This post was created by Jeff Clark. Please feel free to use the sharing icons below, or add your thoughts to the comments. Pack it in, pack it out. Preserve the past. Respect other hikers. Let nature prevail. Leave no trace.

Transylvania County, NC is known as the “Land of Waterfalls,” and for good reason. There are more than 250 waterfalls in the county, with many of the most spectacular falls in the heart of DuPont State Forest. Included among those are Bridal Veil and Grassy Creek Falls, both classic slide waterfalls that carve their way over large granite slabs. DuPont also has several pristine lakes such as Lake Julia and Lake Imaging. All of the features of DuPont State Forest are connected by a mature trail system that is well maintained and fun to explore. This hike occurred on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 from 10:45am to 3:00pm. The plan was to take Buck Forest Road to Conservation Road, then on to Bridal Veil Falls Road and a view of the falls. On the way back we would go further out Buck Forest Road to Grassy Creek Falls. While there, we discovered a trail that wasn’t on the map and said, “what the heck.”

View Bridal Veil Falls, Grassy Creek Falls, Lake Imaging, DuPont State Forest in a larger map

The central area of DuPont State Forest is all about water. There are several lakes to enjoy, and the Little River drops nearly 1400 feet over a series of spectacular waterfalls. Fortunately for outdoor enthusiasts like us there are plenty of roads and trails to get around from one water feature to another.

Buck Forest Road has a large parking area for access to this central area of the forest. At one time this was going to be a high-dollar real estate development, but the State of NC saw the natural beauty and stepped in to protect the land for the ages. As you start hiking on Buck Forest Rd. you come to a covered bridge over Little River that is a remnant of the aborted development. To the left is the precipice of 150′ High Falls. You can’t see it, but you sure can hear it. Just past the bridge we took Conservation Road to the right. We would be back later to continue on Buck Forest, but for now we headed toward Bridal Veil Falls.

All of these forest roads are smooth; partly gravel, partly dirt. There are gates that prevent vehicles from using the roads, but keep an eye and ear out for bicycles as the roads are equally popular for hikers and bikers alike. Conservation Rd. starts through a mixed forest of deciduous and evergreen trees as it skirts the boundary of the remaining private property within the forest. Even when the leaves are off in winter you can barely make out what was formerly the buildings of DuPont Corp. when they still operated here. They are/were well hidden.

We passed trailheads along the way to Pitch Pine, Joanna Rd., and Lake Dense. It’s a relatively flat stroll of 3/4 mile to the Lake Julia Spillway, a creek/river that is overflow from the reservoir that is next on the left. Another .3 mile past the reservoir we turned right on Bridal Veil Falls Rd. In addition to hiking and biking, the DuPont trail system is quite popular with equestrians. There is a very nice horse stable on Bridal Veil Falls Rd. that is available to the public in all seasons but winter. Folks will come to the state forest to camp and stable their steeds as well.

After about 1/4 mile Bridal Veil Falls Rd. deadends at a small picnic area, but continues as a pine straw covered trail through the forest. We could hear the prominent sound of water — a sign the falls was not much further. There’s an observation deck along the trail with a nice view of the lower section of Bridal Veil Falls through the forest. We could tell already that she was roaring from all the recent rain. My friend commented that he has never seen the falls so wide.

In fact, that enhanced water flow made it difficult for us to continue to the upper falls. To reach the upper falls you actually have to hike on the granite that makes up the bed of the lower falls. See the photo at the top of this post. Since the flow was so much wider than normal, the climb up the granite was very slippery. We noticed right away the signs that said, “Danger! Risk of injury or worse!” But what kind of Meanderthals would we be if we didn’t proceed with cautious abandon?

I’m glad that we did. The rushing water has carved pockets in the granite where pools form. These pools make for nice reflective photographs, and even a nice place to cool your feet on a hot summer day. My hiking buddy said you can walk behind the falls when the water flow is down, but that wasn’t in the cards for us on this day. The river takes a bend as it rushes from the upper falls to the lower falls and really kicks up the whitewater.

On the way back on Conservation Rd. we took a trail up on top of the Lake Julia dam. On this near windless day the water was mirror still. The winter weather this year in western NC has been unbelievably mild. I suppose it has been throughout most of the country. It was quite the contrast to what I saw on a different hike to the other side of Lake Julia.

When we reached the junction with Buck Forest Rd. we headed east to Grassy Creek Falls. The road makes a steep climb for about .2 mile, really the most climbing we had to do the whole day. Then, it goes right back down the other side as it follows Grassy Creek on the left. There are several side roads off Buck Forest that would have been the streets for the phantom housing development. I suspect the developers lost out on windfall profits from land sales, but I am very grateful the state stepped up to conserve this wild area for future generations.

At the bottom of the dip, Lake Imaging Rd. takes off to the left and just 50 feet later is the trail to Grassy Creek Falls. From there it’s a short couple hundred yards to the top of the falls. This is another of the slide variety that are so common in western NC. Right at the top of the falls is a bench-type outcrop in the granite that was a perfect spot for lunch and a chance to ponder these marvelous surroundings. I swished my hands in the rushing, refreshing water. It was cold, but nothing like it has been in January’s past.

On our way back up from Grassy Creek Falls, we noticed a trail that was not on the official DuPont State Forest map. It was properly signed, so perhaps it’s brand new. Called the Hilltop Trail, it headed north following the path of Little River to Triple Falls. We thought there may be an overlook on this side of the river from the normal Triple Falls Trail that is on the other side. This is where we said “what the heck,” and gave it a try. We found a Hilltop Loop Trail on our map and figured this Hilltop Trail would join up with that for a nice view.

Hilltop Trail lives up to its name as it follows a ridge on the east side of the river. The forest here is quite beautiful, and there is a healthy covering of ground cedar, moss and ferns to keep this area green year round. After about 20 minutes of hiking we began to hear the sounds of Triple Falls to our left and then just a glimpse through the trees. Just a little farther and there were nice views of the mountains of Pisgah National Forest in the distance to the west.

We came to a trail crossroad sign that said Lake Imaging Rd. one way and Hilltop Loop Trail another. Again, confusion. We took the trail that seemed the correct compass direction hoping to see a clear view of Triple Falls. After a mile of winding through the forest we discovered Lake Imaging. So, it wasn’t where we wanted to go, but a nice destination nonetheless. Really not much bigger than a pond, there were picnic tables around and another chance for still, mirror-like photos. The Lake Imaging Rd. parking and trailhead on Staton Rd. is also a popular place for horse trailers to unload.

We headed back up the hill from Lake Imaging the way we came. When we returned to the Hilltop Trail junction we began watching very closely for indications of a former trail that may have been the Hilltop Loop. Perhaps it had been retired? We never did find another trail, but still enjoyed ourselves as we went back past the obscured sights and sounds of Triple Falls. For a trail that was not on the map, it was surprising how many other hikers and bikers we encountered. It was kinda like 11 Types of People You Meet On a Hike.

The rest of the hike was back over previously covered territory. Back to Grassy Creek and Buck Forest Road. Back to the covered bridge. We stopped for another look into the distance over the edge of High Falls. Lastly, the final stretch from the bridge back to the Buck Forest parking area. At the end of the day we had hiked a rewarding 7.5 miles. No matter the unseasonably mild winter, DuPont State Forest is a great place for winter hiking in western North Carolina. The mountains and water features are just as spectacular as surrounding national forests, but 3000 feet lower in elevation, so you don’t get as much snow and ice.

Update This is such a scenic hike, I will try to give seasonal updates. On Tuesday July 3, 2012 I made another visit to Bridal Veil Falls. Along the way I stopped at Lake Julia and the spillway for some picture taking. If you compare the photos above with the ones below, you will see the water flow was significantly less on this trip. Something for you to consider when you prepare for a winter hike vs. a summer hike. The lower flow makes it quite a bit easier to climb the granite to the upper falls. It was even low enough for me to scoot in behind the falls.

You can only get back there when the water flow is low. It’s only about three feet high, so you have to bend way over. It’s really a pretty uncomfortable place, especially when you consider how slippery the granite is. Despite all that, for some reason I still found the need to give it a go.

This post was created by Jeff Clark. Please feel free to use the sharing icons below, or add your thoughts to the comments. Pack it in, pack it out. Preserve the past. Respect other hikers. Let nature prevail. Leave no trace.