Cascade Falls
Waterfall In The Jefferson National Forest, On Little Stony Creek In Giles County · Pembroke, Virginia
A sixty-six-foot waterfall dropping into a wide green pool at the head of a gorge outside Pembroke, and one of the few big Virginia waterfalls you are actually allowed to swim beneath. Little Stony Creek has cut a two-mile gorge through the sandstone, and the walk up is the best part of the visit: the lower trail follows the creek itself, crossing it on footbridges, running past smaller cascades and pools and under hemlock, while the upper trail takes the old road along the hillside and is drier, faster and duller. Most people go up one and down the other. The falls at the top come as a proper reveal - a single clean drop into an amphitheatre of wet rock, with a beach of boulders at the bottom where on a hot Saturday there will be forty people in the water. That popularity is the catch: the car park fills completely by mid-morning in summer and on autumn weekends, and the overflow has been a persistent problem for the Forest Service and the town.
Cascades Drive, Pembroke, Jefferson National Forest, Pembroke, Virginia, 24136, United States
Trail open daily, generally dawn to dusk, year round; a day-use parking fee applies at the trailhead and a federal parks pass generally covers it. THE SINGLE CAR PARK FILLS COMPLETELY by mid-morning in summer and on autumn weekends - arrive early. Restrooms at the trailhead only. Swimming is permitted at the falls but there is no lifeguard. Sections can close after storm damage; check Jefferson National Forest alerts.