The trail to Catawba Falls will be closed for five days for preparatory work that is to eventually lead to access to the upper falls at the popular Pisgah National Forest site.
The National Forest Service says in a news release that the trail will be closed from March 29 through April 2 while engineering work is being performed along sections of the trail. The work is described as drilling holes as part of “geotechnical investigations … used to determine the stability of the underlying rock in order to design retaining structures to stabilize the trail.”
(Update: Work crews reopened the trail April 1 but will close it again for the day of Monday, April 5, “due to unforseen circumstances.”)
“This work is one of the initial steps as the Grandfather Ranger District works to improve public access from lower Catawba Falls to Upper Catawba Falls,” the release says. “Engineers are working to design structures that will allow the public to safely travel along the steep slopes to the upper falls.”
The current Catawba Falls day use area has a moderately easy two-mile trail to the base of the 100-foot lower falls (below). The trail to the upper falls is described as “extremely steep, slippery and dangerous” and is not safe for most hikers. Several people have died attempting it.
- See our guide to the Catawba Falls day use area.
This project is part of the larger Old Fort Trails Project, which will bring a wide range of trail improvements and additions to this area of the Pisgah National Forest. The project is to result in approximately 42 miles of new sustainably constructed trails for hiking, mountain biking and equestrian users and two new trialhead parking areas in the Catawba Falls, Mill Creek, Jarrett Creek and Curtis Creek areas, according to the G5 Trail Collective, a nonprofit that supports trail development and maintenance in the Grandfather Ranger District of Pisgah National Forest.
There are no public dates for completion of the upper falls trail project. Development of the day use area dates to 2015.
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