The Toxaway Gorge is nearly untraversable above Wintergreen
Falls,
where it drops over 200 feet in less than a quarter mile, while
curving sharply through a rock-walled gorge. (The view is
looking down Wintergreen Falls. Photo by Bill Thomas,
reproduced from the Trailguide by permission.)
Ironically, real estate development could be responsible for the lack of familiarity with the Toxaway basin. There is a continuous stream of housing developments, apartments, and commercial establishments along U.S. 64, which crosses the Toxaway River right over the top of Toxaway Falls. It's just a stone's throw west of the Eastern Continental Divide (this is one of those area curios, where water running to the west winds up flowing east to the Atlantic Ocean, while water running to the east winds up flowing north to try to find the Gulf of Mexico, which is southwest).
The bridge over the river occurs in a hairpin curve, and there is no place to park, but if you look quick you're likely to catch a glimpse of houses built to overlook the waterfall. Who could blame them? It's surely the kind of view I'd like to see over my morning coffee and newspaper. Because of all the private property along the road, there is no hiking access to the river.
Toxaway Falls is a fairly majestic spill dropping a good 150-feet across a completely exposed granite face. The river was flooded early in the twentieth century when the dam holding back Lake Toxaway broke, and the vegetation that was washed away from the rocky waterfall has never returned. Once the river streams past the private houses, it enters the area that will comprise the park.
As you drive west along 64 you'll see plenty of development, all the way to Highlands and beyond.
Not far behind the strip of residential and commercial
development lining U.S. 64 is Bearwallow Creek.
One of the most beautiful of all the waterfalls in Transylvania County, Bearwallow
Falls, also known as Kathy Falls, (viewed here from the top
and the bottom) can be found back in this
area. Bearwallow Falls is located at the northwestern corner of
the proposed park.
The Bearwallow-Toxaway drainage basin contains a number of other waterfalls. Recent excursions into the Toxaway gorge have revealed it to be as picturesque as any of the streams in Transylvania County.