Panther Falls — Local services in Buena Vista

The falls themselves are pretty, but when compared to other Virginia waterfalls which are much easier to access, I feel 3 stars are warranted. If you don’t have all wheel or four wheel drive, the road could be difficult at times. Lots of ruts and potholes as of today. You can access the falls from the trail or the closed fire/forest road, where there’s a larger parking area. Due to downed trees and overgrowth which needs to be cut back, I imagine summer access will be rather difficult from the lower trail. We encountered two northern water snakes, but it’s a river in central Virginia, so that’s expected. Only other person we saw was a trout fisherman. Sounds like a different story during the warmer weather. I can say I’ve been there and it was a fun adventure, but don’t think I’ll need to revisit. Highly recommend downloading a National Forest vehicle road...

After driving what seemed to be 4 hours (I'm a nervous driver anyways) I ended up where Google maps took me, to the end of panther falls. Hiked down with zero signs and found a small stream. After going back up the gravel steep super scary "road" we found a truck parked and asked if they happened to know where the falls were. They told us right down the path and to the left. Well that path was too steep for my younger kids to hike down or up. (6,7,8,9) I would not recommend this area to anyone who is an inexperienced driver on gravel and rocks up and down a huge mountain cliff with narrow "gravel roads" for 45 mins. It took us 3 hours to get there and back and still never saw the waterfall. Please avoid with young kids and nervous drivers. I tried my best, but it was to...

The early morning fog driving in was really cool! Short walk to the falls, not a hike at all. Great swimming area for stronger swimmers, there's supposed to be a cave underneath. The boulders supposedly resemble a panther, i couldn't get that pic due to early morning rain and the rock was slick. I give it 4 stars bc out of all VA's waterfalls it's not that impressive, but the scenery around it is and it's a great swimming spot. We went 2 days back to back bc the 1st day we wound up taking the wrong directions and made it to Panther Falls but not the...