It's back after a several year hiatus. Access to Catawba Falls was closed while construction of a massive staircase and access roads were ongoing. The public was invited back at the end of May. Social media posts have been largely negative on the "improvements". I don't see that the USFS had much of a choice. It has been reported that over $1.5 million was being spent annually on rescues at the falls. Numerous deaths have occurred here. I think is vies with Elk River Falls as the most deadly in NC.
The property was acquired in 2005. A parking area and trail to the lower falls was constructed in 2010. A couple footbridges were installed in 2016 and now the grand staircase has opened this year. Visitation has skyrocketed. The first trail only went to the lower falls. There was a scramble route to the upper falls. This made rescues quite difficult. Now there is a dizzying 580 step series of stairs and roads to both upper and lower falls. The roads were built to facilitate rescues. The trail to lower falls is rescue vehicle accessible while a new road needed to be constructed to the upper falls.
It is an easy uphill hike of about 1 mile to the lower falls plunge pool. The stair structure is placed in such a way that you can photograph the waterfall without seeing the structure. You can get great views of the many drops and cascades of lower falls as you climb the stairs.
It was a hot day, so the climb was a slow one. Between lower and upper falls, the stairs seemingly never end. The amount of work that went into this structure is hard to fathom. The original contract bid was about $1.65 million. I don't know if that was just the stair structure or entailed the trail and roadwork as well. I suspect that it was separate. The stairs are not complete at the upper falls yet. There was a crew putting the final touches on while we were there. A fair number of people were hanging out at the upper falls today. It was a little awkward to get around with the work not being completed but the sheer beauty of upper falls is worth it.
We followed the upper falls access road back to the parking lot. It rose up to a ridgetop and then made a gradual descent. I found this to be a very pleasant walk down.
We arrived at the parking lot about 8:30 and it was about 70% full. By 11am on our way out, the parking area had closed and traffic was turned away. About a mile from the trailhead was a private hay field converted into a parking lot. Dozens of drivers paid $5 to park there and add about 2 miles of roadwalk to their hikes.
I tried to get a shot of the lower falls and the the bottom portion of the stair structure. In the top right you can see how the wood stairs turn into a metal tower.
Old power house near the parking area
The gravel trail to the lower falls
