Waterfall 100 Challenge: Big Falls & High Falls On Thompson River

Waterfall 100 Challenge: Big Falls & High Falls On Thompson River
9/29/22 – 8.3 Miles

Today’s WC100 adventures were in a familiar neck of the woods (pun intended). On the eastern side of NC 281 passing through Nantahala National Forest, dozens of creeks make their way through watersheds to join the big rivers, including Whitewater, Horsepasture and Thompson Rivers.

Headed south on US 281 from its intersection with US 64 west of Lake Toxaway, Jim and I drove to Brewer Road. Referencing information from Kevin Adams’ book North Carolina Waterfalls (3rd Ed.), we parked on the side of Brewer Road and looked for our trailhead at an old gated logging road. I used my GAIA app to record our hike. [The GAIA topo map has this trail marked; the National Geographic map does not.]

At least 8 waterfalls are accessible from the route we hiked. Our must-see goals were Big Falls at the far end and High Falls on a side forest road near the beginning. In between we passed spur trails to Reid Branch Falls, Simon Falls, Rich Falls, Standing Rock Falls, and Unmentionable Falls.

On an out-and-back hike, it’s tempting to follow every side trail to waterfalls on the way to the far end of the route, but here is some advice: go all the way to the furthest point of interest first and then work your way back looking for the side trails. It is much easier to manage your time and you won’t be caught at twilight still miles from your car.

The old forest road was littered with occasional blowdowns, to be expected, otherwise easy to follow. About a mile along the gradual descent we reached the right turn to High Falls – we’ll come back to that. We stayed left and continued downhill, soon reaching a crossing of the Thompson River. We took the time to remove shoes and socks and wade across.

Gentian – the only flower I noticed all day

Through the trees we glimpsed a cascade that the GAIA app labels as Unmentionable Falls. I guess with the plethora of waterfalls nearby, the waterfall namers ran out of names. Past this cascade, Thompson River curves to the right as lesser creeks join it, increasing in size as it flows down and across the NC/SC state line and into Lake Jocassee.

The next 3 miles on trail were unremarkable save for one more unmarked fork where again we stayed left, high above the river. Along the way, reminders of logging days.

We slowed our pace, relying on the GPS to find the side trail to Big Falls. The descent started out reasonably but, as we’ve experienced with remote waterfalls, it became a slippery slope and rock scramble combo where hiking poles are useless and sturdy rhododendron branches are vital.

Getting a little tricky amongst the boulders

Trusting that this set of ropes is safe

We took turns edging out on a sloped rock to get a view of some of the cascades that make up the falls. 

Tipping the camera angle up to capture the cascades

Tipping the angle down to include the nearest chute

Whoever goes down the rope must go back up, no photos, it wasn’t pretty. I breathed a sigh of relief when we got back on the main trail. We backtracked up the logging road, agreeing that we didn’t have time to investigate the smaller waterfalls along the way to High Falls. Since there was no trail signage or blazes, we relied again on the GPS to get to the correct turn, then walked about half a mile to the drop to the river’s edge.

We certainly could hear the waterfall, but it was partially obscured around a bend. Nothing to do but wade in the water around a few big boulders…and there she was, in dappled shadow, a rooster tail spurting midway down the slide.

My feet were already wet, so I might as well wade further into the pool and stand in the water that was on its way downstream to become Big Falls. Everything is connected.

"Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop,
 a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole."
 ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson