Once burned, twice shy, as the saying goes. Last fall, we had family visiting who wanted to hike to a waterfall. There are certainly plenty to choose from around here, but we needed an easy hike, and something on the way towards apple-picking in Hendersonville, so naturally DuPont State Forest came to mind. Despite our best intentions, though, we didn’t get out of the house until nearly 11 and had planned a hike to Hooker/Triple/High Falls – only one of the most popular spots in the area! Unsurprisingly, we got to the Hooker Falls parking lot and found it jam packed with cars circling hopelessly looking for a parking space. The parking lot up the road looked to be full as well, so we headed for the High Falls parking area, in case we might have better luck there. That was a hard NO, as we ended up stuck in a single-lane line of cars that crept around the road as people waited for others to pull out of the full lot so that they could swoop in and take their spot. We gave up on waterfalls that day.
Having learned that hard lesson, when I had friends visiting this spring who wanted to hike to waterfalls and who also were a bit draggy getting ready to leave in the morning, we opted for a couple of falls on the quieter side of DuPont — Wintergreen and Upper Grassy Falls.
Access to both these falls is from the Guion Farm parking area in the northeastern area of the Forest. The parking area is large and seems to be popular with horseback riders, as we saw a number of horse trailers parked there. Despite our late arrival though, there were plenty of parking spots open for us.
The trail to the falls is a pleasant one. From the parking area, we walked south through a grassy field along to the treeline where we picked up an old road. We followed this roadbed through the trees at a gentle downward slope, enjoying the a bit of sweetshrub in bloom. We were looking for Tarkiln Branch Road, but apparently missed that. Still, after about a mile whatever trail we were on came to the intersection with Wintergreen Falls trail on the left. From the intersection, the falls are on Grassy Creek, an easy half mile away.
The falls drop about 20 feet into a shallow pool surrounded by rhododendron and mountain laurel. The best view of the falls does require a bit of a rock-scramble but once there, there’s plenty of room to sit and enjoy.
After enjoying the view of the falls for a bit, we backtracked up Wintergreen Falls trail to an intersection with an unmarked trail on our right. This trail quickly led uphill and over a slanted rock then continued pretty steeply through the rhododendron. I’m not sure this is a trail that is maintained at all by the forest service. At least, I don’t remember seeing any blazes or other markings on the trail. It’s narrow, sometimes rutted, and pretty steep in places. There was at least one gully to navigate across and several downed trees, but within a quarter of a mile, the trail takes you to Upper Grassy Falls. This waterfall is not to be confused with the OTHER Grassy Falls that’s closer to High Falls. That one is called Grassy Creek Falls on most of the maps I’ve seen and is more of a long slide or cascade than what I think of as a traditional waterfall. Upper Grassy Falls, on the other hand, has two fifteen foot drops separated by a short slide and ending in a pretty little sandy bottomed pool.
Upper Grassy checked off the list, we retraced our steps back to the Wintergreen Falls trail, and this time spotted where Tarkiln Branch Road branched off to the right so we followed that more “official” route back to the parking lot. Tarkiln Branch Road had the best of the wildflowers – we spotted flame azalea, pink lady slippers and spotted cat’s ear in bloom.
All told, we hiked a little more than 3 miles. I unfortunately forgot to put in fresh batteries for our GPS, so I have no GPS track for this one. If you’re looking for a quieter waterfall hike, or like our family tend to get out too late to grab a parking spot at the hugely popular Hooker/Triple/High Falls, either of these two lovely waterfalls should fit the bill.
Woodlands and Waters 