Gorges State Park

Written By: Deena Bouknight | Issue: April 2024

An oft-untapped outdoor adventure treasure lies just southeast of Sapphire: Gorges State Park.

Considered an infant state park due to its official public opening in 2009, it is no less significant than the many multi-decade parks throughout this great state. However, the story of how it came to be and what it offers to day and overnight visitors is worthy of attention.

Gorges State Park’s origins were spurred by a manmade disaster more than a century ago. In August 1916, the dam holding back North Carolina’s largest private lake at the time – Lake Toxaway – failed. The resulting water that rushed southward left 15-20-foot debris piles, some of which remain today.

Historic Toxaway includes this information about the event: “Five billion gallons of water rushed over the falls and into the gorge below, with a force that uprooted trees and tumbled boulders as large as 60 feet long end over end (the resulting scour to bedrock is still in evidence at the falls today). The power plant was swept away, and in a matter of hours, the big lake was no more.”

Miraculously, there were no human casualties. The Greensboro Daily News on Aug. 16, 1916, published an account, which included: “Now Toxaway, lake and dam, are gone. Some chroniclers say the waters went out with a roar. Some say the dam just crumbled and crumpled, and the lake slid down the narrow gorge without any especial demonstration. There was no tragedy, no Johnstown (Pennsylvania, historic dam break and flood, 1889), and little devastation.”

However, the resulting effect on the landscape was that much more granite rock was exposed.

In fact, located in Transylvania County near the tripoint where North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia meet, the area features plummeting waterfalls, rocky river gorges, and lofty stone precipices. Conservation studies were called for after the dam break and eventually, by 1982, 275 acres of the interesting landscape was placed on the North Carolina Registry of Natural Heritage Areas.

Gradually, a state park developed.

What water from a broken dam did to alter an already beautiful landscape and wilderness can now be enjoyed for perpetuity. The park is situated in what is deemed the Blue Ridge Escarpment, which spans more than 8,000 acres of temperate, biodiverse rainforest. For anyone who enjoys waterfalls, Gorges has 26 of them.

Hikers have access to 56 miles of trails, while mountain bikers are challenged by 17 miles of trails. A detailed park map on the park’s website – at www.ncparks.gov/maps/gorges-state-park-map/open – shows the outdoor recreation opportunities.

Plus, 14 of the trails are listed on AllTrails, a phone app, and can be downloaded ahead of time to make it easy to stay on the trail and track progress. Each hike and its length and difficulty is also conveniently listed on the park’s website.

Choose everything from the “moderate” almost two miles roundtrip Bearwallow Falls Trail via the Bearwallow Valley Trail that includes a viewing platform to the more “strenuous” three-miles round trip to Rainbow Falls Trail that enables hikers to view – as one might expect – an imposing waterfall.

Enjoy exploring one of this area’s most beautiful and often untapped outdoor resources by taking a drive to Gorges.