Gragg Prong - Part 2

I woke up this morning still not entirely sure what I was going to do for the second day of my weekend swimming hole bonanza, so I decided I would go to Gragg Prong and maybe Harper Creek Falls if I finished early at Gragg Prong (in hindsight, I’m laughing at myself for thinking I would get finished early). I had visited Gragg Prong last year, but I had only hit the three main waterfalls of the trail. The trail goes high above the creek in some places, and I had caught glimpses through the leaves of whitewater and possible pools down below, but I had not had time to check them out because I also included Hunt Fish Falls on Lost Cove Creek in that hike, which ate up any time I might have had for off-trail exploring. Today I was going to forego Lost Cove Creek so that I could concentrate on finding potentially hidden waterfalls and swimming holes on Gragg Prong. After last year’s swimming hole treks, I started studying Google Earth satellite imagery for creeks I wanted to explore to get an idea of which areas I wanted to focus on and how close I could get via established trails. I had marked six points of interest (POIs) on Gragg Prong that I had not investigated last time, so my objective for today was to explore all six POIs and take pictures of them, because, as they say, "Pics or it didn't happen."

Before I get started, I want to go over some nomenclature for the main waterfalls to avoid confusion. In my previous entry on Gragg Prong, I referred to the first major swimming hole as the ‘bonus’ waterfall, and the waterfall with a tub in the middle as “Upper Gragg Prong Falls”. In researching the hike last year, all the sources I had seen referred only to Upper and Lower Gragg Prong Falls, and they ignored the bonus waterfall, or acknowledged that it existed but said it had no name. In the third edition of Kevin Adams’ North Carolina Waterfalls book, he refers to the bonus waterfall as Upper Gragg Prong Falls and the tub waterfall as Middle Gragg Prong Falls. I think that naming scheme makes more sense, so I am using it for this entry. In other words, the “bonus waterfall” or “bonus hole” in my previous entry will be Upper Gragg Prong Falls in this entry, and “Upper Gragg Prong Falls” from my last entry will be referred to as Middle Gragg Prong Falls in this entry. Confusing? Great! Let’s get started.

My points of interest appear as question marks on the map, and the known waterfalls are marked with blue pins:


( Click here for the full trip report with pictures and videos )

So yeah, I think this concludes my exploration of Gragg Prong. My curiosities for that creek are satisfied. Four of my six POIs turned out to be fairly unremarkable (albeit scenic), but two of them were legitimate swimming holes. I still maintain that the tub in Middle Gragg Prong Falls is the best swimming hole on the creek, and Upper Gragg Prong Falls is probably the second best (at least as far as aesthetics). The two hidden ones aren’t worth a trip to Gragg Prong on their own, but they are nice places to go if you are on the trail and want to cool off in relative seclusion.

Well, this concludes my weekend of back-to-back swimming hole adventures. I am about to sleep reeeal good. Until next time!