Upper Little Lost Cove Falls
Avery County, North Carolina
Your visit at a glance
- Waterfall height
- Not recorded
- Location
- Avery County, North Carolina
- Access status
- Partial: walk on a road closed to vehicles, then an unsigned steep path; older route description
- The walk
- Under about 1.5 miles one way
- Ground & access
- Old forest road, then a steep rough path with some off-trail scrambling. The side path is not signed and may be hard to find.
Walk down Lost Cove Road (FR 464A), which is closed to vehicles, about 0.8 miles to an old camp site. Stay left around the earth mounds and follow the old road about half a mile more. After you hear the creek on the right, look for a wider area with moss and loose stone where the road bears left; the side path down to the falls is a short distance after that. The path is steep, with rhododendron to hold. It drops almost straight to the base of the upper falls. Return the same way.
Plan your visit
FR 464 at Lost Cove Road (FR 464A), walk FR 464A past the old camp site, then a steep side path down to the upper falls
Rich Stevenson gives about 1.5 miles from FR 464 to the lower falls; the upper falls is reached first on the same path. Most of this is old road.
Old forest road, then a steep rough path with some off-trail scrambling. The side path is not signed and may be hard to find.
Where to start
Along FR 464 near the junction with Lost Cove Road (FR 464A), about 4 miles from Long Ridge Baptist Church off Old Jonas Ridge Road (SR 1518), which leaves the Blue Ridge Parkway at milepost 311.1. Exact parking spot is not described.
Timing & water
The Forest Service lists Lost Cove Road (FSRD 464A) as closed to motorized vehicles but open on foot, bike and horseback. The route description dates from 2010; flagging tape it mentions may be gone.
Before you go
Wilson Creek area, Grandfather Ranger District, Pisgah National Forest. No fee is stated by the sources.
Visitor informationVisit sources
More waterfalls nearby
Within 40 straight-line miles. Road and trail distances will differ.
- Little Lost Cove FallsPartial: forest road walk, then a steep rough path with off-trail scramblingAvery County, NC0.1 miE
- North Harper Creek FallsNational forest trails; one creek crossingAvery County, NC1.3 miSW
- Chestnut Cove Branch FallsNational forest trails; wading for the viewAvery County, NC1.4 miS
- Huntfish FallsSigned national forest trail; steep return; current storm-recovery status not confirmedAvery County, NC1.6 miE
- Huntfish Sidekick FallsForest Service trail; side view and base of Sidekick Falls at the trail endAvery County, NC1.6 miE
- Upper Gragg Prong FallsNational forest trail with a wade across Gragg ProngAvery County, NC1.9 miE
- Middle Gragg Prong FallsNational forest trail; three creek crossings16 ft (5 m) · Avery County, NC1.9 miE
- Bard FallsPublished national forest trail route; creek wadeAvery County, NC2.0 miSE
- Gragg Prong FallsNational forest trail with wet creek crossings33 ft (10 m) · Avery County, NC2.1 miE