On September 6, 2020, less than a week after our epic Echo Canyon adventure, Badger took advantage of the last day of vacation to hike to Falling Water Branch Falls in Mount Mitchell State Park. The waterfall was on the Kevin Adams 500 list, and the topo map promised a steep but short “on a trail” hike. The 40-foot cascade was a quiet reward for nearly a week of difficult but rewarding hikes during our trip to Colorado.

Fast forward four years, and this becomes yet another Helene story. We can’t seem to escape them. The hurricane pummeled western North Carolina on September 27, 2024, bearing maximum 106 mph winds and nearly 25 inches of rain in three days on Mount Mitchell, which ranks as the tallest mountain in the eastern United States.

The superstorm scoured small watersheds and stripped creek banks of rhododendron hell, and also felled 75-100′ tall trees. Helene carved an estimated 2000 fresh landslide scars in North Carolina alone, where forested slopes once firmly held the soil.

A couple of Saturdays ago, Rock Sprite Kitty Myers and the Badger desired to hike, but we knew not where; we are known for making impromptu destination decisions on our hiking days, depending on the weather and whether we wanted to hike in the mountains or to waterfalls or these days to the Helene scars. I suggested a return visit for me to Falling Water Branch Falls, and since Kitty had not been there, she agreed with Badger’s quest to revisit the falls. Badger promised her a relatively easy hike by our standards.

When we arrived near the trailhead, Badger should have known that something was amiss. The terrain near the creek’s confluence with the Cane River had changed dramatically. As has become typical of streams flowing from the 6000′ high Black Mountains, this one widened the creek bed tenfold.

Badger didn’t think there would be a problem hiking the old logging roads, which marked the trail, since the route he remembered was a significant distance up and away from the newly widened creek, with only one minor crossing. I should have more closely watched a YouTube video created by my friend Chad Terry, as he had visited Falling Water Branch Falls a year or so prior.

Well, that “minor crossing” was now strewn with the remnants of Helene, which caused us to alter our path across the water. On the other side, the path traveled up the mountain, and we seemed destined to eventually trail to the falls, as Badger had recalled from his previous excursion.

3. There once was a Trail but Hurricane Helene took it away (photo by Thomas Mabry)

The real surprises came higher up: Helene’s new scars had revealed two previously undocumented 15-foot waterfalls. Two cascades were directly on Falling Water Branch; the third appeared on a nearby, unnamed tributary of the Cane River that we’ve been calling “blueless” as that creek did not appear on our topo maps. These were legitimate new features born from the storm’s reshaping of the landscape.

The second surprise came when that trail high above the creek actually became the creek bed. In essence, the logging road disappeared and we now had a creekwack on our hands. We could see the waterfall more than a quarter mile and 352 vertical feet above where we were able to descend to the scar. The missing trail immediately changed the nature of the entire hike – it went from easy to difficult then to strenuous in a flash.

Badger’s next question became whether to stay the course and climb the creek up to the falls in terrain not as had been promised. The Rock Sprite answered that question quickly, as she loves creekwacks, and proceeded to immediately begin the climb.

Badger’s fused right ankle makes creekwacking tough, especially on a vertical like this one. As they say, when there’s a will there is a way, and we both proceeded to negotiate rock slabs, boulder fields, waterfalls and various and sundry detritus that replaced the old route. Up the gut of Falling Water Branch, slower, more careful navigation was demanded. Badger eventually found a way to avoid the daunting rock face just below the main falls. Rock Sprite reluctantly followed suit.

4. Rock Sprite Kitty Myers climbs a huge boulder on the Falling Water Branch Falls creekwack (photo by Thomas Mabry)

Upon reaching the waterfall, Badger sighed in relief while Kitty briefly lamented the end of her fun in the Scar. We then documented the scene in photos and videos, with Kitty snaring an excellent image of a reflective Badger at the base of the falls. We also checked Kevin’s online list and found that Falling Water Branch Falls had disappeared from the 500 list. Our experience led us to believe that the Helene Effect had been at least one cause for removal.

The fresh discoveries buoyed our difficult but uneventful return trip as we encountered talus fields obscured by greenery, which presented a whole new challenge. The experience underscored how powerful storms can destroy and create in the same moment.

As a side note, the return trip did not have the “excitement” of Badger’s 2020 foray, where a law enforcement agent mistakenly detained me for several minutes while I stood legally on state park property. That’s another story for another time but it did give me an idea for naming the 150′ blueless falls on the adjoining creek.

1. The upper drop of 150′ Bilbo Baggins Falls ( photo by Thomas Mabry

We left grateful for the original cascade, for the three new ones, and for another chance as Adventure Seekers to witness the mountains’ ongoing transformation. We are drawn – intentionally or not – to the recent history of a geological event that amazingly occurred right in our proverbial backyard.

Photos by Thomas Mabry ©️honeybadgerimages 2026

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