Today's adventure revealed 2 new waterfalls previously unseen by all but a very few. I'm assuming some local fishermen and hunters have seen them. Bernie has had this area in his radar for some time, but more road details were needed to begin exploring the area. Well, all that came together when Bernie found out that Patrick Horan - who I had the pleasure of meeting earlier this year - had rescued a big chunk of land in that same area. We made arrangements to meet Patrick at his property and began the exploration on Bearwallow Creek.

The creek is on public property, so here's how to get there. Looking at the map (click on original below to see full size), you'll see this is in the Caney Fork and Rough Butt area - http://www.ncwaterfalls.com/rough_butt1.htm - Proceed all the way down Caney Fork Rd until it turns to gravel. Continue up the gravel a short distance to point 001 on the map which is a gravel road that looks like somebody's driveway. It's actually FR4666 (not marked) and you will need a 4x4 vehicle. The first mile or so is very steep and in rough shape. Continue for about 3 miles and pass some private gates and drives on the left. Continue past that towards point 002, but look for any wide place you feel safe pulling over. We parked on the right just before a pull off around a tree on the left. The road got kind of muddy past that. We actually kept going past point 002 to where the road forked, took the right fork which crosses Bearwallow Creek and took the creek down to the falls. There's no trail, by the way, and some of it is difficult. Instead, you might consider heading down the ridge at point 002 all the way to where Bearwallow Creek meets Piney Mountain Creek and taking the creek up to the road. We didn't go all the way down to Piney Mountain Creek and there's more down there to see.