Rider Falls
North Carolina · height not recorded · Last verified 2026-05-15
Flow at Rider Falls is light today (5 cfs) — visit for the geology, not the volume.
Right now
Streamflow
5.32 cfs
LITTLE YADKIN RIVER AT · 34m ago
Overnight
68°F
Mostly Clear
Friday
89°F
Isolated Rain Showers then Scattered Showers And Thunderstorms
Today's daylight
Sunrise 6:11 AM · Sunset 8:41 PM · 14h 30m
Snapshot built 6m ago. Sources: USGS · NWS RNK.
No verified photo yet
Rider 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.
Rider Falls is in North Carolina. The base sits at roughly 1,036 feet of elevation. Drive time is about 8 minutes from Pilot Mountain. OpenStreetMap shows a trail within 360 meters of the marked location, though the name isn't recorded. No public parking is recorded within 2 km, so a longer approach is likely. It draws modest visitor attention — busier weekends, quiet weekdays. Source records come from OpenStreetMap.
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 02114450 · 7.2 mi away
LITTLE YADKIN RIVER AT DALTON, NC
View live discharge data →
30-day streamflow
Below 30-day average↻ Same date last year: 38.5 cfs · 17% of last year — significantly drier
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rider Falls (this page) | — | — | — | — | — |
| Torys Falls | 4 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Tise falls | 6 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Upper Casscades | 6 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Lower Cascades | 6 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
| Hidden Falls | 6 mi | — | — | Y | Free |
Questions visitors ask about Rider Falls
Answers built from our structured data. If a question isn't here, the fact is unverified — we'd rather omit than guess.
How far is Rider Falls from a major city?
Rider Falls is 6 miles from Pilot Mountain (about 8 minutes' drive).
More waterfalls in North Carolina
Where it is
36.3978, -80.3732
Sources and live status
Where we got the data, and where to check current conditions before you drive.
Last verified by Fallspots: 2026-05-15
Been there?
Marina and Theo verify pages one road trip at a time. If you've been to Rider 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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