After visiting Graveyard Fields on the Blue Ridge Parkway, I usually head south to the Devils Courthouse, enjoy the view here, and head south on NC 215. This leads about 20 miles, mostly all down hill back to US 64 just outside of Brevard, NC. This passes at least 3 wonderful waterfall access points leading to Dill & Upper Dill Falls, Courthouse Falls, and the wonderful waterfalls at Living Waters, which has one of the best double waterfall scenes around. One of my goals taking this route is simply to get back to Asheville, via Brevard , to head home to the east.
I tried something different this time. Instead of heading south on NC 215, I decided to go north. Looking at the GPS, NC 215 to Asheville via Canton, was a similar mileage as going south to and through Brevard. So I decided to heads towards Canton, or Papertown.
Just like going south, 215 begins straight down. After 4 miles of this downhill , passing a nice stream several times, I came to a sharp bend to the right and on my left, just off the road was a very scenic, multiple dropping waterfall. I had no idea which one this was, but finding something like this is exactly why I took a different route home. I stopped immediately, pulling off to the left once over the bridge. This thing was pretty.
I later found this to be called the Waterfall on The West Fork Of The Pigeon River. This small, upper section of the Pigeon, flows fast and free up here, creating pothole after pothole. The rocks, just over the bridge can be managed, if careful, to get a closer view. There is a great view from the bridge itself, but I would advise against that as oncoming traffic might come into this bridge around the curve too quickly to see someone. The bridge itself is somewhat of a marvel, being double arched and built right on the waterfall itself as the water continues flowing down in the other side.
On the other side looking back upstream, the cascades here continue further up than can be seen from the bridge. I focused on the upper most defined one I could see in full and made some photos. The cascades in the middle, while small , are creating beautiful potholes.
I like how the water has created bowls in the rock that cascade down with beautiful effect. Are you on Instagram?
Thank you very much for checking out my site Tim. I am a big fan of these bowls or “potholes” myself. I am on Instagram under the same name “Waterfallshiker”
Looks and sounds awesome! I’ve been hiking to many of the waterfalls in SC for a couple of years now…your blog will help me decide which ones in NC I want to see also!
Thank You! I still have any to go in NC, but SC has an amazing # of really nice waterfalls! Tennessee is amazing too!