Mingo Falls

I was running early for work today, so I decided to head over to Mingo Falls since it has been raining over the past few days and flows would be good. I was right, they were. Mingo can be a little difficult to find. It is off of Big Cove Rd. on the Cherokee reservation. It's past the KOA campground on the right near the Mingo Campground. The trail head is in a small parking lot across the river with stairs leading out of the lot.

Ah, the stairs. This is a short trail, only 2/10ths of a mile to the falls. In that short distance, there are 158 stairs. The good thing is that the trail is short, so even if you had to stop every few minutes, you'd still make it in under 20 minutes. After coming to the top of the stairs, the trail ambles along a little longer until you come to a footbridge that crosses the creek at the base of the falls. Mingo Falls is about 180 ft cascade, not a high volume fall, but impressive from the height. Water flow was good, so the falls looked full, they would definitely be affected during low water.

I snapped some photos and headed back down the trail. I wish there was more I could lend to this post, but the trail was pretty short. I was able to do the whole thing, including time spent at the falls, in under 15 minutes. So, I'll leave you with the photos.