North Harper Creek Falls and Chestnut Cove Branch Falls, Linville, NC

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
2/4/2024	2.8 miles	1 hour 40 minutes	358'	2.0 mph	64.4 miles

Parking: 

• North Harper Creek Falls Trail, Pineola Road

Map:

• Gaia GPS app

Directions:

• Follow directions as per North Carolina Waterfalls by Kevin Adams

Carolina Mountain Club Challenges:

• 100 Waterfall Challenge, North Harper Creek Falls   

This hike has around a 30-minute drive on a rutted but drivable gravel road. If you are working on the CMC's waterfall list, you'll want to do Hunt Fish Falls in the same outing, because they are both on the same road. Parking was on the side of the gravel road. There was room for maybe 5 or 6 cars. There were a handful of other cars there, but we only ended up seeing one backpacker.

We got a late start and didn't study the directions much. The trail starts off relatively easy. We reached a Y split in the trail and looking at gaia, the waterfall was between the prongs of the Y, so we weren't sure which prong to take. Glen was reading the directions which mentioned water crossings, but we were confused as we hadn't encountered any. We decided to try the right-hand trail. We took that for a short way, and then took a spur trail on the left to the water. We found ourselves at North Harper Creek, where the water was going down a large rock face, but this didn't match the photo of the waterfall in the book. We backtracked to the Y intersection, and this time we headed downhill on the left branch. I found this part of the trail challenging. Lots of leaves, and I was slipping a lot. I wouldn't want to do it when the ground was wet. We reached Chestnut Cove Branch Falls. We could have turned left and hiked down to the bottom of the falls to a nice pool, but we were running late. Instead, we turned right to look for the bottom of North Harper Creek Falls. We found the stream crossing. Glen managed to rock hop it, but my legs are not as long as his, so I ended up having to wade across it. I need to remember to put spare socks in the car! Shortly after this, we got to the base of North Harper Creek Falls. In order to get a good photo spot, we had to rock hop again. Here Glen got his feet wet too. Krumm got to play for a few minutes, away from the large pool where it was safer. Then we rushed back the same way.

A chimney and old foundation just off the trail

Water rushing down a rock face, but this isn't the actual waterfall.

I was not as successful as Glen on this crossing

A campsite at the base of North Harper Creek Falls

Trying to awkwardly rock hop on my hands and knees, of course my tea thermos went flying!
Oh no! I tried to get Krummholz to rescue it, but he thought I wanted him to get a stick!
Between me hanging onto a rock and Glen's trekking pole, we managed to fish it out without having to go wading some more.

Shivering, but happy