Great Falls of Catawba SC 29058

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Casey Robinson

This is a fun little walk! There’s a pretty beach area and a neat old bridge with the little waterfall. Some folks told me that you should come after a storm to see it at its best. When you turn left at the beach area to go towards the waterfall, it’s not that far and that little bridge will be hidden on the left through the woods so you need to be looking. If you get to the insane gray mud from the construction area, turn around! You will sink almost up to your knees and lose your shoes!! (They were ugly, but expensive, orthopedic slides, so I went elbow deep and dug them out lol)

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David Harmon II

I had the same experience that most others do with our GPS and trying to initially find these falls. However, I found a reliable hiking blog that stated the trailhead to reach some falls was only about 8 minutes away from where the GPS originally took us (which was all over ) . Trailhead was just before a bridge with parking available. It was beautiful and well worth it to stick it out and look around a little.

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K T

This is NOT a waterfall, nor a trailhead to one. Someone has posted a misleading image of another site that is luring googlers here. From Wikipedia: “Historically the Great Falls of the Catawba were approximately 4 miles long, with a total elevation drop of 121 feet. (The word "falls" was an 18th-century appellation, when any river rapids and vertical waterfalls alike were both referred to as falls.) The creation of the dams at Great Falls, South Carolina has resulted in the top 2 miles of it being completely dry (dewatered) except during times of very high flow. The bottom portion of historical Great Falls is drowned by Cedar Creek dam, another hydroelectric project.” So, no waterfall and also no rapids these days. Just search for a waterfall trailhead instead.