{"id":4,"date":"2007-04-23T16:49:39","date_gmt":"2007-04-23T16:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/?p=4"},"modified":"2007-07-03T11:02:27","modified_gmt":"2007-07-03T16:02:27","slug":"margarette-falls-dry-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/?p=4","title":{"rendered":"Margarette Falls \/ Dry Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trailhead for this hike is in the vicinity of Greystone, TN.\u00a0 It’s not the easiest place to find but there is a big parking lot once you arrive.\u00a0 A gravel road leads about a half mile through a private land easement into Cherokee National Forest where trails split off in all directions.\u00a0Several of these trails go up to the AT near Camp Creek Bald. \u00a0For Margarette Falls, basically follow the main stream of water, although the trail itself is blue-blazed and mostly easy to follow.\u00a0 There are at least 4 stream fordings along the way and numerous small waterfalls.\u00a0 There are also a couple decent pools for swimming if you’re so inclined.\u00a0 About .6 miles up from the trail junctions the canyon will narrow and there is an enormous rock spire on the south bank called Cathedral Rock.\u00a0 \"Cathedral<\/a><\/p>\n

Just upstream from Cathedral Rock is Margarette Falls which is about a 50 foot drop, most of it in a single cascade.
\n\"Margarette<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s a very nice deep hole at the base of the falls.\u00a0 On our hike this water was far too cold for swimming, unless maybe you’re a dog.\"Margarette<\/a><\/p>\n

The trail ends at Margarette Falls but our hike did not.\u00a0 To continue upstream of Margarette the easiest path is to scramble up the hillside on the north bank of the creek, cross the rock outcropping, and come back down the hill to the creek upstream of the falls.\u00a0 (Usual Warning: The top of the falls is slick and very dangerous, you should give it a wide berth if you are hiking further upstream.)\u00a0 Once above the falls, it’s easiest to ford back across to the south bank and bushwhack your way along the banks.\u00a0 Why would you do this?\u00a0 About a tenth of a mile upstream the two branches of Dry Creek come together.\u00a0 Here you’ll find the 8 foot Glen Falls which is pretty but not spectacular.
\n\"Glen<\/a><\/p>\n

Glen Falls is nice but not really a reason by itself to deal with circumventing Margarette Falls.\u00a0 The reason for that is another 0.1 miles up the stream.\u00a0 If you’re standing at Glen Falls, that would be the branch on the left (i.e. the one that isn’t a waterfall). There is no way up but by canyoneering – walking, climbing, and swimming directly up the stream.\u00a0 On our trip there were several pools that were 4 to 6 feet deep.\u00a0 The rock walls of the canyon lend themselves nicely to traversing if you have even the most basic rock climbing or bouldering skills (or want to start).\u00a0 In warmer weather, it wouldn’t be an issue to just swim the pools.\u00a0 Not far upstream by distance (but a decent amount of effort) is the 45 foot high Bailey Falls which has at least three drops before pouring into the narrow canyon shown here.\u00a0 Note that this would be a very bad place to be if a flash flood were possible.\u00a0
\n\"Bailey<\/a><\/p>\n

If you happen to do this hike with a dog make sure he can swim.\u00a0 I ended up lifting Trout up over several of the steeper ledges anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The trailhead for this hike is in the vicinity of Greystone, TN.\u00a0 It’s not the easiest place to find but there is a big parking lot once you arrive.\u00a0 A gravel road leads about a half mile through a private land easement into Cherokee National Forest where trails split off in all directions.\u00a0Several of these … Continue reading Margarette Falls \/ Dry Creek<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cherokee-nf","category-hiking","category-orienteering","category-waterfalls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mrfs.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}