Adventures in Pisgah: Kiesee Falls

Since I'm trying not to do much but can't just sit at home and do nothing I got out yesterday for a fun little Pisgah exploration. My goal was Kiesee Falls. I knew there were two separate, but very similar falls, on the creek and knew roughly where they both were and planned on finding both. 140 was in poor shape with the low bridge barely being passable and after a quick glance up Kiesee Creek I decided not to bushwhack up the creek but to follow an old rail grade and then bushwhack down to the creek when I got closer to the falls. It took a little work but was easy enough to find the first waterfall.

False Kiesee Falls:

This was a very nice waterfall with a nice, big and deep swimming hole at its base. It is a little tricky to find and the bushwhack down to it is tough but very doable. I'll be coming back to this spot come summertime.

Kiesee Falls proper was not as easy to find or get to. I'm not going to say exactly where it is as I believe finding it is a lot of the fun. It took me a little while to pin point exactly where it was, though my first hunch had been right, and once I did find it I then had to solve the problem of how to get to it. This required a very hard bushwhack down to the creek. Duma couldn't make it and I had to leave him perched on the bank just above the upper part of the falls.

I probably had no business trying to get down there as the steep bank was sheer rock covered in a sheet of ice. Treacherous to say the least but I had come all that way to get the shot so down I went. I won't try this again without a rope. I'm not sure that going up the creek from 140 would be any easier. This is not an easy place to get to. If you look closely you'll see Duma in his orange vest in this shot:

Kiesee Falls is a very nice falls and is worth the visit but be careful if you do go. Very similar to the False Kiesee Falls - both are double falls with nice swimming holes.

For the return trip I decided to follow another old logging grade that I had a hunch was going to spit me out at the gap on Kissee Creek Rd. just before the unmarked right turn. It did just that which also happens to be right where Chestnut Falls is.