Wolf Creek Falls

Today I went to Wolf Creek Falls in Tuckasegee, North Carolina. Since the forecast called for nice weather this weekend and into Monday, I decided to come to Asheville for a couple of days to start exploring a new batch of swimming holes after running out of new places to check out near Boone, and since I probably won’t be doing a California swimming hole marathon this year. Wolf Creek Falls was at the top of my list of things to check out in the area west of Asheville. Wolf Creek Falls is the official name according to the third edition of Kevin Adams’ North Carolina Waterfalls book, although most people refer to it by a different name. I’m going to be difficult and not use the common name (even though I like that name better) because Wolf Creek Falls won’t come up on Google Maps when you search for it (heh heh). I first heard of this swimming hole from Kevin Adams’ book in 2016 and marked it with a purple pin in Google Earth (my mapping scheme is yellow pins for places I might check out if in the area but wouldn’t make a special trip for; purple pins are places that pique my interest enough to make a special trip; and blue pins are “I WANT TO GO TO THERE”). As much as I hate swimming holes blowing up because of social media, a few recent photos and videos of Wolf Creek Falls prompted me to elevate it to blue pin status, so it was my main motivation for planning this trip. I was kind of anxious about it because the swimming hole features two jumps, one on each side of the waterfall chasm, and the one I had my eye on looked kind of sketchy because you have to use a rope to climb up a rock face to get to the ledge. If I managed to do that and decided I didn’t want to jump once up there, well, too bad. It looked about 20 feet high in pictures, which I’ve done before, but it also looked like the ledge might not have a stable platform from which to jump, which can be a deal breaker for me at that height. The other jump was 40-50 feet high, so I wasn’t even considering doing that one. There was only one way to find out if I would do the lower jump, though.

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

In summary, Wolf Creek Falls is a top-shelf swimming hole and my new favorite for North Carolina. It’s unfortunately a well-known party spot that attracts visitors from all over (including me, admittedly), but I guess that’s to be expected. It’s one of those places you just want to tell your friends about. I mean, you’ve got a large, deep pool of blue water, comfortable water temperature, towering cliffs, striking geology, good jumps, and a big waterfall. Plus there’s a nice little bonus pool at the top of the falls for a warm-up/cool-down swim. Sounds like a winner to me.