McGalliard Falls Park — Attraction in Valdese

This is probably a fun place if you live locally but it wasn't particularly great and felt a bit disappointing after a 90 minute drive.

The creek isn't well kept in the sense that there was a lot of trash below the falls (like a lot), and also quite a bit of bank erosion.

The pool beneath the waterfall was a good size for our party of 4 when we were the only ones there, but after other people started arriving it began to feel cramped.

The water was cool and refreshing and fairly clear. There were a lot of rocks around the periphery of the swimming hole with a few large ones submerged in the center so jumping in is risky and driving is obviously out of the question.

With so many better waterfalls and swimming holes not too far from McGalliard I would just stick to those (South Mountain SP for example is excellent).

(FWIW I'm not sure whether swimming is actually allowed below the falls because there were numerous signs above the falls that said "Danger, no swimming, keep of rocks," but no signs below the falls so we just assumed swimming...

Awesome place to take your family. There is a large area at the top of the falls for little kids to swim in with mini "rock slides" I saw little kids as small as 1 yr old in this area (with parents). Walk past there and down a steep embankment and you come to the bottom of the falls where there is a swimming hole. People were there with picnic lunches sitting in surrounding rocks just enjoying themselves. You can tell it's a pretty popular spot but wasn't over crowded. The water was freezing, but exhilarating! I hate cold water and I swam in it. The whole thing is probably about 4 feet deep or so. I was able to walk all the way over to the falls no problem. There are mimosa trees that canopy over the swimming area and plenty of shady spot around the edge, the water had a lot of full sun. It was really nice! I wish I lived closer and I would be there all the time! There is NO hiking to this waterfall. You walk down from the parking lot into the park and it's...

We love to go here as a family . It is so beautiful from all angles. We usually walk down to the water and water wheel and take a look at the beauty from the bottom and then we will walk back up around to the covered dining area and go past it to the other trail and we will walk all the way down through the woods and the kids love it and it's not to long of a walk and is amazing every time we go ! The kids can play in the sand up top or the family can sit down for a lunch together. You could have beautiful pictures taken near the water or beautiful house they have on the property or even the overlook up top overlooking all of the lower part .either way it would look so good . And there are walking paths around the woods and water to take your dog on a walk or to push the kids in the stroller and have plenty of tree shade. There are so many...