Little Creek Falls
4-4-10 - Important update - Jordan Mitchell of northcarolinawaterfalls.info emailed me saying his family went to visit the falls and when they pulled up to the trout farm (parking area), they were greeted with a 'CLOSED' and 3 'No Trespassing' signs. They were about to turn around when someone motioned they up and said it was OK to park there to hike to the falls. I'm not sure what you'll find, so I guess have a plan B ready just in case. Jordan also said a lot of old hemlocks were now dead and coming down and there was a lot of debris to climb over in places.
This is the waterfall on the front of Mark Morrison's old guide book. If you have the book you can see that there was less water on the one day I visited in October 2004, the log is still there, and a couple of others have been added. It's a nice falls - maybe 50-60' high - and a nice hike. Directions are as follow - from the intersection of 441 north and 19 south in Cherokee, take Hwy 19 south towards Bryson City. I forgot to set my odometer - duh - but drive about 6 miles and take a right on Cooper Creek Rd. You'll pass some other roads to the right where the street signs are on the right, but the one for Cooper Creek Rd is on the left. Drive almost 3.5 miles on the road to the Cooper Creek Trout Farm and park in the cleared out area on the right just before the house. This is private property, but I asked at the house and it's OK for folks to park there and proceed.
Hike up the road past the house and bear to the right. A red barn will be on your left also. After maybe 10 minutes into the hike, you'll come to a gate and the beginning of the Cooper Creek Trail in the Smokies. The trail is still an old road bed and soon you'll pass private property on the right and an area where the road stays wet. Look for a small trail to the left that gets around this area. At about 3/4 miles from the parking area, a small creek crosses the trail and flows into Cooper Creek. Take the log bridge on the left to ford the creek. I snapped off this shot at this area.
The trail splits just after this ford. Take the trail to the left. After about a 1/4 mile ascent, cross a foot bridge over Little Creek. From here, the trail gets steeper and switchbacks up the mountain for another 1/2 mile to the waterfall. Another longer foot bridge crosses the creek right in front of the falls. Total trail length is about 1.5 miles and I'd give it a moderate in difficulty. Here's another shot with Harry snoozin'.
