Whitewater Falls, Natahalla National Forrest, NC - Photo Essay

Whitewater Falls is part of the Blue Ridge Escarpment, a sharp 411 foot drop in elevation between the mountains and the Piedmont.  Upper Whitewater Falls in NC is the highest waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains.  Lower Whitewater Falls in SC drops another 400 feet.  It is difficult to access the rugged terrain here and much of the area receives few visitors so it has remained wild and undeveloped.  From the park in NC you can see awesome views of Upper Whitewater Falls and Lake Jocasee.  We could view top of the falls easily.  DH visited the lower part by descending 154 wooden steps.  I would never had made it back up.  You can see by the look on his face, in the photo below,  when he returned just how strenuous this was.  If he was more energetic he could have continued down the half-mile spur trail that drops 600 feet in elevation to Whitewater River and Foothills Trail.  Since we were not energetic, nor physically able to do this, we had to settle for the only two views from the overlooks.  There have been some people taking these hikes who became a little too energetic and tragically fell to their deaths or suffered serious injuries by wandering off the designated paths.

We stuck to the signs and just enjoyed the beauty readily available to us without risking life or limb.  I was going to try to take the steps, but after going down two levels I met a couple, about our age, on their return trip to the top.  Just the look on their face told me I would never make it back up.  I can only take one stair step at a time first of all and with my bad knees I suppose it would have taken forever to get down there and I don't even want to think about the return trip.

Here are the photos we captured on the first visit.  It was raining lightly and the lighting wasn't very good so I just took a few photos.  We didn't even try to go to the falls, we probably wouldn't have seen much due to the mist and clouds.

The stairs leading to the lower level.

A view of the mist rising from the valley below.  Not a good day for photos.

We weren't able to see much, so we went home and came back the next day.

The first ten photos in the scroll are from the first day.  The rest are the next day when we went back, we had a much better view as you can see.

I zoomed in for a few shots just to get a better look.

I also tried to get some different view points.

DH on his way down the 154 wooden steps to get to the lower overlook.

DH after he went down and climbed back up 154 wooden steps to get to the lower overlook.

Some other beautiful views from the area.

The white tree you see above on the left amazed me.  This photo doesn't really do it justice but it was white and hard to tell if it was a dead tree or, if there is such a thing, an albino tree.  I just found it very interesting and when I look at this photo full screen I am still amazed and bewildered.

You can view the whole album here.

You can view the videos #1,  #2,   #3.