Chauga Narrows is a tiered waterfall near Mountain Rest, South Carolina. In terms of effort and payoff, this is a great bargain. Simply park at or around the map point below. There is gravel pull-off parking on both sides of the street just around the bridge.
Follow the old roadbed downstream on the right side of the creek. Eventually, the pathway narrows and becomes single-track. You’ll know you’re almost to the falls when you pass a campsite and start climbing up and down tree roots on the steep bank.
I highly recommend that you visit this waterfall in the summer when you don’t mind getting wet. I could have gotten much better pictures if I had been willing to step into the creek, but this was a couple of hours before it started snowing and I didn’t want to spend the day sloshing around in cold, wet socks and shoes.
The trail to the falls is somewhere between ⅓ and ½ mile. There’s a little scrambling involved in getting down into the creek bed. Obviously slippery rocks are an issue all along the way. Trekking poles come in very handy.
I’m not sure this is a good place for pets since there is some fairly vertical scrambling involved (but it’s not very technical). Small children might also be problematic since the currents feeding the sluice could kill anyone unfortunate enough to get swept in.
I learned about this waterfall from the book, Waterfall Hikes of Upstate South Carolina.
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