Douglas Falls
North Carolina · height not recorded · Craggy Mountain Wilderness Study Area · Last verified 2026-05-15
Douglas Falls is running at 44 cfs — well above seasonal normal. July averages 5.7" of precipitation here — expect high flow.
Right now
Streamflow
43.5 cfs
NORTH FORK SWANNANOA RIVER · 1h ago
Overnight
60°F
Patchy Fog
Tuesday
73°F
Chance Showers And Thunderstorms
Today's daylight
Sunrise 6:33 AM · Sunset 8:37 PM · 14h 4m
Snapshot built 12m ago. Sources: USGS · NWS GSP.
Douglas Falls is a waterfall in North Carolina. Height has not been officially recorded. Access details and conditions have not yet been verified in person by Fallspots — the data on this page comes from OpenStreetMap and USGS GNIS.
Douglas Falls is in North Carolina. It drops along It is on a tributary of Waterfall Creek. The falls are inside Craggy Mountain Wilderness Study Area. The base sits at roughly 4,402 feet of elevation. Drive time is about 9 minutes from Barnardsville. A trail — Douglas Falls Trail — runs within 20 meters of the marked location. No public parking is recorded within 2 km, so a longer approach is likely. This is one of the more frequently visited falls in the state by our popularity model. Source records come from OpenStreetMap.
Entry is free. Dogs on leash are welcome on the access trail.
Douglas Falls are a 60-foot waterfall located in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is on a tributary of Waterfall Creek which flows into the Ivy River, and it is within the Big Ivy section of the Pisgah National Forest. The stream flows off the slope of Craggy Pinnacle, starting just below the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is surrounded by a forest of very large Eastern Hemlock trees, which are dead following attack by the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid. Visitors should be very careful when visiting this falls, as the dead Hemlocks will start to decay and fall within the next few years.
Is the water flowing right now?
Most waterfall sites don't tell you this. The waterfall itself is almost never gauged, but a USGS streamgage in the same watershed can tell you whether snowmelt has started, peaked, or run dry.
USGS gage 0344894205 · 3.4 mi away
NORTH FORK SWANNANOA RIVER NEAR WALKERTOWN, NC
View live discharge data →
30-day streamflow
Above 30-day average↻ Same date last year: 18 cfs · 297% of last year — significantly wetter
When to go (from the climate data, not our opinion)
Monthly averages from Open-Meteo's reanalysis dataset (2020–2024). Highlighted months are when we think the waterfall is at its best — but the numbers are the numbers regardless.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip (in) | Snow days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 41 | 26 | 5.2 | 11 |
| Feb | 46 | 30 | 4.8 | 6.2 |
| Mar | 53 | 36 | 4.9 | 2.6 |
| Apr | 57 | 40 | 4 | 2.8 |
| May | 64 | 49 | 4.8 | 0.4 |
| Jun | 72 | 57 | 4 | 0 |
| Jul | 76 | 62 | 5.7 | 0 |
| Aug | 74 | 60 | 5.8 | 0 |
| Sep | 69 | 54 | 6.5 | 0 |
| Oct | 61 | 45 | 2.8 | 0.4 |
| Nov | 52 | 36 | 2.9 | 2.2 |
| Dec | 45 | 30 | 3.5 | 5.2 |
Source: Open-Meteo Historical Weather API · ERA5 reanalysis 2020–2024.
Compare to nearby falls
If this one isn't the right fit, here's how it stacks up against the closest documented falls. Every column is filterable on the site — not buried in 13,000 reviews.
| Waterfall | Distance | Height | Trail | Dogs | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas Falls (this page) | — | — | — | Y | Free |
| Douglas Falk | 1 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Cascades Falls | 1 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Glassmine Falls | 3 mi | — | — | — | — |
| Walker Falls | 3 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Blue Sea Falls | 5 mi | — | — | — | — |
Questions visitors ask about Douglas Falls
Answers built from our structured data. If a question isn't here, the fact is unverified — we'd rather omit than guess.
Is Douglas Falls in a national or state park?
Yes — Douglas Falls is inside Craggy Mountain Wilderness Study Area. We inferred this from OpenStreetMap protected-area polygons; if you find we got the boundary wrong, please report it. See the park page for fees, hours, and current conditions.
Can I bring my dog to Douglas Falls?
Yes — dogs are allowed (Craggy Mountain Wilderness Study Area permits leashed dogs in most areas). Inferred from park type; check the official site for trail-specific restrictions. Always leash and pack out waste.
Is there a fee to visit Douglas Falls?
No entrance fee. Craggy Mountain Wilderness Study Area is free to access. Some trailheads may charge a parking fee separately.
How far is Douglas Falls from a major city?
Douglas Falls is 6 miles from Barnardsville (about 9 minutes' drive).
More waterfalls in North Carolina
Where it is
35.7209, -82.3743
Sources and live status
Where we got the data, and where to check current conditions before you drive.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Falls
Wikidata (Q5301461)
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5301461
Last verified by Fallspots: 2026-05-15
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Marina and Theo verify pages one road trip at a time. If you've been to Douglas Falls recently, your local knowledge improves the page for everyone. Pick the kind of contribution that fits — every email lands in our inbox and gets read (and credited when we publish).
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