7-30-05 - If you like to check out new areas, this may be a good one to add to your list. Harry and I were looking at the Pisgah Ranger District trail map back in April and decided on an exploratory mission one afternoon. The area is actually in the Nantahala National Forest, but is very near the Pisgah. Parking for the trail head is the Bearpen Gap overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway between mile posts 427 and 428. If you are heading south on the BRP, it will be on the left. The unmarked trail is at the north end of the lot and is a spur trail for the Mountains to Sea Trail. I don't have any mileages, so I hope you have a good sense of direction and a map. The spur trail from the parking area intersects with the white blazed Mountain to Sea Trail at a marked carsonite brown stake. Head to the right here. On our April trip, we took the MST to a side trail - and those were the directions I had here - but when we went back in July, that trail was completely overgrown. So now, continue down the MST until it comes out on a gravel/dirt road. The MST goes to the right - take the road to the left and in maybe 1/4 mile, this 20' falls will be on the left.
We could see that there were more cascades up the creek, so we headed up the left side on our April trip. There's no trail, but the bushwhacking wasn't too bad. After passing a smaller cascade, we came upon this nicer cascade. I'm guessing the top section is about 20' high.
We didn't continue up any higher than this, but you would have crossed the same creek farther up and you came down the trail. On the return trip in July, we did some more exploring down the old road, but didn't find any more falls. There's still more to check out following the MST the other way.