About Dry Falls
Dry Falls (like the nearby Bridal Veil Falls) was another roadside waterfall near the town of Highlands, North Carolina.
However, instead of driving behind the waterfall, this one lets you go behind it the old fashioned way – by walking!
A short and well-developed walking path from the limited parking lot led down some stairs towards the backside of the Dry Falls.
The wide path continued a little beyond the falls on the other side of its creek before reaching a dead-end.
So given the infrastructure invested in this waterfall (apparently it recently re-opened just a month prior to our arrival in October 2012), it wasn’t surprising to see this place full of people.
This 65ft waterfall exhibited pretty forceful flow during our visit so getting behind something like this certainly caused us to get a little wet from its mist.
That said, it also allowed us to appreciate its power at close range.
We came here in the middle of an Autumn afternoon so we were treated to gorgeous Autumn colors around the waterfall.
However, when viewed from its front, the sun was right against us.
So that might be a consideration if you’re concerned about coming here to take photographs.
To give you an idea of how easy this excursion was, we spent about a half-hour here encompassing the walking and all the picture-taking.
Maybe it felt like it took just as long waiting for a parking space!
Authorities
Dry Falls resides in the Nantahala National Forest near Highlands in Macon County, North Carolina. It is administered by the USDA Forest Service. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website or Facebook page.
Highlands was the nearest town to Dry Falls so we’ll describe the driving directions from there.
So from the Hwy 64/106 junction (where Main St turns into Franklin Rd) in the town of Highlands, we continued northwest (towards the town of Franklin) on Hwy 64 for about 3.2 miles.
The signed parking lot was on the left.
This waterfall was only 0.8 miles west of Bridal Veil Falls.
We do have to warn you that it can get quite busy here so there’s a chance the car park can get full.
During our visit, we had to wait a few minutes before someone finally pulled out so we could park.
I don’t think there’s any other options for parking outside of this lot.
Finally, for some context, Highlands was about 38 miles (roughly an hour drive) west of Brevard on Hwy 64. Brevard was 35 miles (under an hour drive) south of Asheville, 47 miles (90 minutes drive) northwest of Greenville, South Carolina, and 126 miles (2.5 hours drive) west of Charlotte.
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Right to left sweep following the stream before ending at the falls
L-shaped sweep starting downstream before panning up to the profile of the top of the falls
Left to right sweep from directly behind the falls showing the trail on both sides
L-shaped sweep from the far side of the trail that went behind the falls itself
Fixated on the falls from the lookout at the car park
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