20210619 – Great Smoky Mountains National Park – The Sinks
docscape
Date: 06/19/2021 – Distance: 2.4 mi – Elapsed Time: 1.5 hr – Ascent: 541 ft – Descent: 525 ft – Difficulty: Medium
Along a bend in the Little River, the 70 foot wide creek “sinks” dramatically for 12 feet over a narrow channel of huge rocks. Before the Smoky Mountains was a park, the Little River Gorge Road used to be a railroad for lumber, then later for tourists. Before the railroad, they used to float timber down the river. In the late 1800s, a log jam clogged the river, and the loggers blasted through the rock to bypass the log jam, creating The Sinks.
Not only is this fall impressive, it is easily accessible, and has an interesting history.
Parking lot is small, but people don’t stay long.
The waterfall is right at the parking lot. The road goes right over the top of the falls.
The Sinks.
The rocks are fantastic.
The pool below the falls.
About the logging and early tourism days.
This small map shows the original course of the river and the bypass they created.
This is the log jam.
While heavily discouraged, as several people have died here, people still jump off the cliff below the falls.
This is the trailhead at the falls, I took it for a bit but turned back because it started raining pretty heavily.
Meigs Creek Trail.
Small river crossing.
It’s pretty lush along this trail.
Rhododendron.
This Rhododendron is about to open.
Little River below the falls.
Looking upstream toward The Sinks.
On the way back toward Cades Cove, I stopped at a pull off along Laurel Creek Road and found this cascade. I could not find a name for it. There is a waypoint for it below called West Prong Little River Falls Pulloff.
