Panthertown Valley National Park

Don't Cross The River If You Can't Swim The Tide

No one ever plans out a backpacking trip with anything less than the best of intentions. Personally I go into every trip studying trail and topographical maps, plotting the best possible route that maximizes my equation of equalizing effort input versus scenic reward and payoff. It was with this careful balance in mind that I plotted a trip for my wife and I along with another couple to Panthertown Valley. My initial research lead me to numerous reviews of the area each sharing the common theme that a map is a requirement because of unblazed trails and the absence of any substantial markings.

I plotted a loop hike that would consist of zero backtracking and allow us to check out 6 waterfalls and bag 2 peaks both over 4000'. I studied this map until the path was burned into my brain and by the time our departure weekend finally arrived I was confident in my route and my ability to lead our group through this wilderness adventure.

Google Maps told me that the forest was 3 hours from Charlotte so we were on the road by quarter after 6 in the morning. It rained the entire drive up, which certainly dampened (bad pun) our spirits but as we broke through the clouds just outside of Cashiers, NC we were greeted by blue skies and incredible views. The drive up Cold Mountain Rd is amazing consisting of massive houses that back up to a pristine mountain lake. I made a note to myself that this would be a great place to go for a romantic weekend with the wife at a future date. Finding Pathertown Valley is unique... because you just keep on driving around this twisting car sick inducing road until it dead ends at the park and the nonexistent parking lot (there is an open area where you leave your car).

We departed our car and after throwing our packs on our backs we jumped the gate (there are two trails at the gate, one to the north west and one to the west, we took the western route) and headed off towards the power towers (Duke Energy has power towers that cut through Panthertown Valley). Our original plan was to follow this trail down to see two seperate unnamed waterfalls before we headed north to meet up with the other trail and checking out the often photographed School House Falls.

I had read before we came out that the trails were not well marked, and we found this out very quickly as we descended towards the river and while following the trail found ourselves back under other power lines... we had done a loop. After going back to the map we finished our loop which brought us directly back to the parking lot, a mile after we had departed. This time we decided to head straight for School House Falls by taking that North Western trailhead.

The hike to School House Falls was beautiful. There is a lot of water that runs through Panthertown Valley and the short hike to this fall stretches over a very moderately downward trail that meets with a more intense downhill trail after three switchbacks. We scouted for several minutes searching for the best place to cross the river to reach the beach location and although two people in our group ended up with wet feet, Mary and I found ourselves very dry due to Gore-Tex footwear.

School House Falls is worth the three hour drive alone. This is a beautiful, wide, and loud fall that really captures everything that the waterfall witness hopes to view. There is a nice pool area below the fall and I am sure this is an ideal swimming location during the summer months. We took a ton of pictures at the fall and ran into a large group of day hikers also made up of Yankee and Red Sux fans.

From here we headed towards the north eastern area of the park so that we could check out three additional waterfalls capping off with the Warden Falls. Our trek took us up a mountain ridge, passing once again underneath those Duke Energy power lines. There were some nice side trails that lead down to the river but each spot was too deep to cross, completely shattering my initial plans for our trip. We continued to the second fall and had lunch in front of a waterfall on a large rock in the middle of the river.

We searched the area for a place to cross the river but it was either too deep because of the rain or there just was no convenient crossing location and we were stranded on the eastern side of the river. We decided it was best to backtrack and erase our 1.5 mile climb north.

At this point our initial route needed to be completely scrapped. We still wanted to check out Little Green Mountain and have that be our day 2 accomplishment so we started to hike towards the base. Around 4pm we came to a nice clearing where we set up camp and enjoying some dehydrated food, a nice roaring fire, and calling it a night...

A quick note on sleeping bags here... 20 degree bags don't always work all the way down to 20 degrees. Heck, sometimes they don't work down to 36 degrees which is what we were in. We all froze that night and if it wasn't for the Nyquil induced forced sleep coma I was in, it would rank easily as one of the more miserable experiences I have had.

The next morning we were awake at sunrise, around 730AM and while struggling to regain some sense of feeling in our fingers we quickly broke camp and started to hike towards Little Green Mountain and it's famous granite dome.

Little Green Mountain is a weird location. From a technical hiking point of view, it is significantly easier to hike it from the west as we did versus leaving School House Falls and summiting from the east. It is a marvel of geological evolution in that it is a massive granite capped 4000' peak. The view is spectacular and has incredible diversity of plant life that changes throughout the trek. I really cannot say enough about the view from the top of this mountain but we did walk up on a group of packers who had a campsite at the summit. I highly recommend grabbing this site for any future visitors but make sure that you bring your water with you because it is a long walk down to get something to drink if you run out.

After descending from Little Green Mountain we were back at School House Falls and about 20 minutes away from the car. We found our car undisturbed and without any broken windows... always a great end to an incredible trip.

Overall I would say that Panthertown Valley is one of the more beautiful locations that I have backpacked in North Carolina. It doesn't compare with high country Colorado but there is something so unique and special about hiking through the valley that it seems like a hidden secret wildness jewel. While it is physically and difficulty wise one of the easier western North Carolina locations to hike, it is extremely rewarding visually and certainly a place that we would return to again and again. It is bear and coyote country but we didn't see any animals although their presence is felt and smelled throughout. I highly recommend Panthertown Valley and can't wait to get back.

Difficulty: 4/10
Beauty: 8/10
Location Convenience: 4/10
Return Factor: 9/10

Physical Address of Parking Lot/Trail Head: I don't have an exact address of the trailhead but if you put these GPS coordinates into Google Maps it will take you right there... 35.16898, -83.04012

Link to Trail Map:
There are two maps, the first is the proposed trail map which I would not recommend because I do not know how accurate it is. It is located here: http://www.cs.unca.edu/nfsnc/nepa/highlands/panthertown_map.pdf
The second map is extremely accurate and available for $6 at http://www.slickrockexpeditions.com/map_request.htm It is a requirement to have this map to really enjoy everything possible in this park.

Happy Trails!

Jeremy