10-16-04 - I recently heard about Alarka Falls from a couple of different sources - my waterfall bud, Dana, was one of these. She picked out a day to try to find the falls and I met her and her husband Kenny in Bryson City. From there we got on Hwy 74 west and got off on exit 64 for Alarka Rd. This road took us through the small rural community of Alarka and turned from pavement to gravel after a few miles. At just under 10 miles, a gated forest road was to our right and the road ended at the parking area for the falls just after crossing Alarka Creek. A drive turns to the left from here, but this is private. Two trails head up creek to the right over some Jeep mounds, but they join after a few hundred feet so you can take either one. The 2 maps I looked at are wrong. They show Alarka Rd continuing up past Alarka Creek. I assume that's the gated road on the right that we passed.

It took us about 15 minutes to get to the above view of the falls. The trail wasn't too bad, but there are some rocks and logs to climb over close to the falls. It gets a little steep in this area also. If you count the whole area shown above, the falls is 150-200' high, but the lower cascades are littered with logs and forest debris. It was definitely worth the trip over. It's a nice falls, but there isn't really a good place to just hang out and enjoy the scenery. Here are a couple more shots -

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