Waterfalls of Steels Creek - Pisgah National Forest, NC
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- Опубликовано: 23 май 2016
- My first adventure inspired by Kevin Adams' 3rd addition of the North Carolina Waterfalls guide. I've been eyeing Steels Creek for a while and knew there were at least 2 waterfalls there. It sits just below NC 181 to the west and east of Linville Gorge. Since it is surrounded by really popular hiking and swimming areas, I assumed this hike would be quiet. It turned out to be desolate, I saw no other people or cars all day.
According to the new guide there's at least 11 named waterfalls in the Steels Creek basin. My goal was to hit 7 of these and save the 4 on Buck Creek for another day. I started with the newly rerouted Mountains-to-Sea Trail off FSR 496. For some reason they moved it to follow the road for a mile when the old version parallels the road and is in fine condition. Once I reached Steels Creek I first saw Teacups Falls then did a long creek walk to Beverly Hillbilly Falls. I turned around at Steels Creek Falls, which is an extremely dangerous place to explore. On the way back I did a shorter creek walk to Rip Breeches Falls, then did a pretty extreme bushwhack down to the middle of the imposing Zigzag Falls. I took the Old MST for a mini loop to pass by the top of Newt Falls and then finally see Upper Steels Creek Falls. This is a beautiful, but dangerous area to explore.
Hike distance and time - 9.1 miles in 6 hours and 20 minutes
Hike location
goo.gl/maps/KdkbF4KynHFEGyHSA
Hike report
www.hikingupward.com/PNF/Stee...
Great video
Awesome!!!!!!
The name is STEELE Creek Falls. Thanks for the video.
No it's not
Awesome! This was my kind of adventure. Awesome waterfalls and I can appreciate the challenges and dangers, good that you pointed that out several times so hopefully anyone watching will take heed. That was definitely an epic hike.
Yeah it was a tough day, some difficult, sketchy scrambles in order to see these
The rocks are exposed when the soil is washed away.
A wonderful place, the falls look as great, great, thanks for the show. Greetings from Germany
Thanks for checking out my vids, surprised to see this is reaching you in Germany lol
Great video, looks like some cool water falls
Yeah they were pretty sweet and lots of variability
give us a look , we are from the Smokey Mountains
Yeah I know I already subscribed to your channel, haven't watched yet
I explored some of Steels Creek last summer, but I started downstream of Steels Creek Falls and hiked up to Teacup Falls (didn't know it had a name until I saw your video) before turning around. I also managed to find Beverly Hillbilly Falls (I've also heard it called Screaming Righthand Turn Falls), but I came out of the woods at the top of it rather than the bottom. I would like to have explored more of the area upstream, but my main objective for the day was to take a dip in that large kettle in the middle of Steels Creek Falls. That was a super sketchy thing to do alone, but fortunately I'm still here. That was on a sunny, 80 degree Saturday in August, and I only saw one other person (a topless sunbather on the rocks beneath Beverly Hillbilly Falls). I think we were both surprised to see each other! If you keep following the MST downstream past Steels Creek Falls, it switchbacks down the hill and meets the creek, and you can creek walk about 0.3 miles upstream to the base of the lower drop (although the last section is basically boulders and small waterfalls). There is also supposed to be a large pool about 500 feet downstream of the falls, where the creek emerges from the rugged part of the gorge. I didn't have time to see that, but it's on my to-do list. I had also been eyeballing a waterfall on Google Earth, which I believe is Zigzag Falls based on the way it looks in your video. It looked like it had a pool at the bottom, but sometimes it's hard to tell pools from shadows on satellite imagery. Were you able to see from your vantage point if Zigzag Falls had a pool at the base? Do you think the base would be approachable from a different starting point (possibly via creek walking in from further downstream), or is pretty impassable all the way around?
Screaming Righthand Turn Falls is another name for it, I'm just going by Kevin Adams' book. He mentions both. Steels Creek Falls is so sketchy for being right beside the trail, I'm surprised you got down there alone. I didn't take the trail all the way to the bottom, I wish I did and I might've tried getting to the base. It looks like it would've been pretty tough though, so maybe it's a good thing I didn't do it. Next time maybe, although from the looks of it you can't see the top half of the falls from the bottom. The rock I was sitting on should block the view.
I have no idea if the pool is big below Zigzag, I was too blocked in by rhododendrons to see it clearly, and a huge rock blocked half the view below. The cliff wall at the base is tall and intimidating. The creek falls on the north, zigzags to the south, then to the north around the rock I was on, then back to the south to the base of the cliff before curving north out of sight. Kevin Adams stated you can't get a great view from the bottom, and the best view is from a rock pulpit directly below me which cuts across the creek and looked very dangerous. It was almost 20 feet below me straight down.
It might be approachable from Rip Breeches Falls, but it is about 190 ft elev gain in the creek for maybe 0.75 miles. That's pretty long. On my way to Rip Breeches I had to climb around 2 deadfall dams since the creek is small and narrow so that could be a problem upstream and who knows how tough the terrain would be. Honestly I wish I would've tried that, staying in the creek to the base. But I'm not completely sure I would have been able to climb up the falls from the base.
I'm pretty tall, so I was able to sit on the edge of the rock while holding the rope and lower one foot into the chute above the lower falls. The chute is pretty flat right at the outlet of the swimming hole between the two drops, and I could feel that there was traction with my toes (I took my shoes off before going out on the slimy rock), so I lowered myself into the chute while holding the rope, and then I swam across the pool and crab-walked backward up the rock. It's not something I would ever do alone again, but I had driven 3 hours to get there and was not expecting it to be deserted since all the other Wilson Creek swimming holes I know of are so popular. But yeah, I don't think there's any vantage point where you can see the upper and lower tiers at the same time. I will have to pick up Kevin's new book. Sounds like he covers some pretty obscure waterfalls.
Yeah if I had spent more time there I would probably take off my shoes, it's how I got to the bottom of Gragg Prong Falls easily. But still, my rope isn't long and the ones tied off on that tree are old and not long also. I might upgrade and start bringing a 40 foot rope in the future.
His new book definitely expands on the second, many more waterfalls I hadn't heard of. This hike had 7 waterfalls but there's actually 11 in this creek watershed. Where you said to leave the trail and follow Steels Creek upstream, you can follow Buck Creek west to 4 waterfalls. It looks like a cool place. I'm planning on parking at the 496-210 junction and follow MST to Steels Creek then creek walk up Buck Creek to see all 4. Probably do that in the next month or so. There's also the Raven Cliff Gorge across the highway on Upper Creek which had little info until now, Kevin has a full listing on that too. The best part of the new book is every waterfall has very accurate trailhead GPS and waterfall GPS, came in handy for Zigzag Falls. He made it available for preorders on his site but it's not in stores yet.
That's cool that he has Raven Cliff Gorge in there. Someone at Hunt Fish Falls told me about it last year, but info and photos are pretty scant. Upper Creek has always been my favorite of the creeks in the Wilson Creek watershed, so I have had my eye on Raven Cliff for a while but haven't been able to rope any of my friends into going (most of them have limits on how much craziness they are willing to endure to get to swimming holes). I've scoped it out on Google Earth, but that has a tendency to make everything look so much smaller and less intimidating than in real life. I heard something about having to scale a rock ledge while holding onto a cable that is "secured" to a small sapling.
Yes that's mentioned in the book, or alternatively a waist or chest high wade. There's also side trails to the top of the cliffs that aren't mentioned in the book because they're not part of seeing the waterfalls. This video I found actually gives a good idea of what the gorge is like, and also coincidentally includes Raven Fork, another new addition that Kevin says is the hardest, most dangerous gorge hike in his book. ruclips.net/video/g8zV8jV4ZEY/видео.html
Great bushwhacking there...like to see you try that in the winter. :-D
Well the bushwhacking part would be much easier in the winter, but the creek might be a little too cold for me. Depends on the ambient temps throughout the week, I'm fine getting in water during most winter days here.
Yeah, but the ice falls would be cool when it gets really cold, as long as you don't slip. :-D
Rattlesnakes galore!!!
Didn't see any
LOL @ Beverly Hillbilly Falls... one of the best names I've heard for a waterfall.
How was the MST in this section?
Yeah it's a pretty weird name, has nothing to do with the setting. The MST is easy for the most part, but you will get wet a few times on creek crossings. The waterfalls however aren't the easiest to reach except for Teacups.
I'll leave the bouldering and bush-whacking to you. Beautiful shots worth your efforts.
Only Beverly Hillbilly is a long off-trail excursion. The side path down to Steels Creek Falls is just steep and muddy usually. Teacups is easy and the sandy pool is really nice. You also have a road walk that goes right by Upper Steels Creek Falls.
Really liked this video ! By the way , you said this was a remote area with not many hikers in area ? You do tell some family and friends exactly where your going right ? Don't end up like Aaron Ralston in the movie 127 hours ! He didn't tell anyone and got trapped and about 5 days later cut his arm off to get free ! Im sure you seen the movie !
Thanks sorry it was so long. And no, I rarely tell anyone where I'm going because usually I don't know what I'm doing until about 30 minutes from the trail. The majority of hikes I do present little danger whatsoever, nothing close compared to real canyoneering in Utah. Bushwhacking down steep rhododendron slopes is usually the craziest thing I do. I couldn't really portray it in the video but I secured myself with a climbing rope a few times on areas that most people would just try to scramble. A body was found at the base of Steels Creek Falls about a month ago so I made sure I was very secure when sitting on those rocks. Also, "remote" for NC standards is not remote. I could hear motorcycles above on NC 181 while hiking.
Your videos are salvation right now🙏🏾 #2020crazy (tried to DM you a question on IG) Thanks for this great content!
see any trout in there?
Probably? I know downstream of the main falls is a popular fly fishing section near the forest road gate.