Linville Falls — Attraction in Spruce Pine

Beautiful. Very crowded, but very pretty. Reminded me of one of the waterfalls we visited up at Glacier National Park and loved - not the actual falls (this one was 2 medium-sized falls on the same drop in a wider area of the river), but the downriver gorge side to the right. That was actually the impressive part to me. The river narrows and the water speeds up and zigzags a bit as it cuts through the rock. Very nice. De the sunlight hitting the autumn trees in the late afternoon (around 4:30-5:30 when we were there) was especially picturesque.

The path to the falls is mostly very wide and even but there are a few places where it narrows and where there are rocks/steps to navigate. Most of it I would label as easy, and I have really bad knees. Not quite wheelchair easy, but pretty simple to navigate. I didn't even need my poles and was able to safely jog much of the descent down to the falls (attempt at your own risk, as there are some loose rocks to take into account). However, it is fairly steep at the beginning/end near the parking lot. So even though it's wide and smooth, a lot of people got winded a bit making the last part of the ascent. The distance to the falls is marked as 0.4 miles, but it didn't even feel that far, since the path was so manageable. But keep in mind...

Really nice stop with a variety of hikes for every activity level. The green trail is an easy hike that gives you great viewpoints of the falls from the top. Hike the yellow trail for a more moderate trek. And the red trail is a more strenuous hike down to the bottom. We did the red trail, which has to branches. One branch goes to a viewpoint about halfway down with a great view of the falls. The other branch goes down to the river where you get the full view of the falls and the river. The red trail is a bit of a scramble and includes some big elevation drops. Definitely recommend hiking boots (or at least some shoes with really good traction) and lots of water. Be prepared for some mud if it’s...

I was entertaining a friend from Mexico who wanted to see the fall colors, so I decided to check the falls out after going through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Roan Mountain State Park. We both agreed that this was the best view of anything we saw on the trip. We didn’t have much time, so we were only able to make it to the upper falls overlook, Chimney View overlook, and Erwin’s View overlook. We both wished we had a lot more time, as we only had about an hour until it got dark. While it is possible to do the whole thing in an hour, I would say that there is easily half a day of hiking and viewing...