Summer (Semi) Cool Spot #4 - Slick Rock Falls, North Carolina

This hub is my fourth installment in a series of hubs dealing with North Carolina waterfalls I have explored. Thus far, this has been the least impressive of the ones I have checked out. However, it has been the easiest to reach.

Slick Rock Falls is also located in the US 276 vicinity; however, you will take FS 475 right off of 276. I believe that "FS" designates this as a Forest Service road. You will need to take the gravel road that is marked as 475B. For a gravel road, its condition was good and I had no trouble navigating it in my car. However, I would not try to drive a low-slung vehicle up the road and caution is advised. Supposedly, the road allows two lanes of travel but there are places where that would be a tight squeeze. Drive slowly and be alert for motorists approaching from the other direction. About one mile up this road, there is a pulloff and a parking area. From there, a short walk will take you to the falls.

This is another waterfall that does not have any place to swim so it falls in my semi-cool category. You do have to be ambulatory to reach it but it is a very short distance from parking to the falls and once again the area is shaded and pleasant on a hot summer day. Just below the road on the other side, we saw people camping. There were also several vans owned by summer camps in the parking area. We saw no one and I later found out that if you take the trail that does not go to the falls, you will reach Looking Glass Rock which is a popular rock climbing area. It is my guess that this is where the campers were.

Anyway, I can mark this one off my list and move on to another waterfall the next time I am in the area. Although certainly worth seeing for the surroundings and the waterfall itself, I would recommend this waterfall to anyone that can walk just because it is such an easy one to get to. Access is very quick if you have limited time to devote to trying to hike to one of the other falls. It was also less crowded than Looking Glass Falls or Sliding Rock. However, I would recommend viewing it after a heavy rain or periods of heavy rain for optimal waterfall conditions!