Cove Creek and Caney Bottom Best Hike

• Difficulty: Moderate
• Total Length: 4.2 mi
• Trail Tread Condition: Moderately Rough
• Climb: Climbs Moderately
• Lowest Elevation: 2560 ft
• Highest Elevation: 3050 ft
• Total Elevation Gain: 500 ft
• Trails/Roads Used: Cove Creek Group Camp Access Road, Cove Creek, Caney Bottom
• Hike Configuration: Loop with out and back extension
• Starting point: Access Road for Cove Creek Group Camp on FR 475, near the Pisgah Fish Hatchery.
• How to Get There: From Asheville, take I-240 west to I-26 east to the exit for the Asheville Airport (exit 40). Turn right onto NC 280; follow this 4-lane highway for 16 miles toward Brevard. At the intersection with US highways 276 and 64, turn right onto US 276 west. Proceed on US 276 for 5.2 miles. Turn left on FR 475, which is freshly paved, following signs for the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education and Fish Hatchery. You'll pass the Hatchery on the left after 1.4 miles. Drive 1.8 more miles on this road; it used to be gravel but is now paved. The pavement ends at the road to Cove Creek Group Campground just before a small bridge; there is a parking area on the left. Park here.
  Directions on Google Maps

Small falls on Caney Bottom Creek

Begin the hike on the road leading uphill along the creek. Your first main destination will be Cove Creek Falls. A large sign at the beginning of the road states "group camping only", but that does not restrict use of the road and/or trails for hikers or mountain bikers. The road fords the creek after 100 feet or so; follow the trail to the right instead which leads to a nice bridge across the stream and joins back with the road. Continue up the road; the hike along this section is pleasant. The creek will now be on your right and you will pass several small cascades and potholes at one point. The road climbs gently toward the group camping area.

On your left just before the big clearing, the signed Caney Bottom trail will exit uphill. Do not take this yet, although this is the trail you'll follow later on. (If a decent connecting trail from the Caney Bottom trail to Cove Creek Falls existed, I'd recommend taking it for this hike instead. Let's hope the Forest Service recognizes the need for this soon!) Continue on the gravel road passing through the large clearing for the group camp. The road will enter the woods near a pit toilet on the other side of the clearing. To the right is a small "sliding rock" with a large pool at the bottom. This makes a popular place to cool off during the summer, and, yes, people do use the bumpy rock as a waterslide!

The road will reach another ford, this time of Cove Creek, shortly. Bear left on the path closest to the creek to cross on a nice wooden bridge. You'll then enter the second group camping area, which is another large clearing. Bear left off the road toward the pit toilet, and follow the edge of the woods on the left side of the clearing. Take the trail at the far end of the clearing leading upstream along the creek. You'll follow this path upstream all the way to Cove Creek Falls. The Caney Bottom trail joins from the right, follows your path for a few feet, and then exits to the left to cross the creek. Keep going straight onto an unnamed trail at this point. The path is easy at first, but soon starts climbing steeply on an eroded bank just before reaching the falls. Why this trail to a very popular waterfall hasn't been made into a decent path, which wouldn't take much work, I don't know - but it is quite off-camber in places, though short. The trail will place you right at the bottom of the falls after a few large steps.

After you're done enjoying the falls, cross the creek and pick up the trail on the other side. It leads below some large boulders and climbs steeply to reach another, unnamed path. Turn right. This path leads to a point near the top of the falls and again gets very steep. It's short. Ignore any dangerous side paths that lead right toward the top of the falls. The main path will split; one path goes sharply left and one less sharply left, both uphill. They both go where you need to go, so just pick one. Both will intersect with the Cove Creek trail after 100 feet or so. Turn right on the yellow-blazed Cove Creek trail.

Section of the Caney Bottom trail through the open woods

The Cove Creek trail is wide, on an old logging road bed, and easy to follow. It's not nearly as steep or rough as some of the unofficial paths near Cove Creek Falls - in fact, the roughest part of the hike is now behind you. The trail does climb gently, through a varied forest of mixed hardwoods and sick hemlocks along tributary creeks. (Note: As of August 2006, many hemlocks along this trail are nearly dead due to the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid infestation, but others are showing nice new growth and vigor). There are a couple of rotting log bridges - another aspect of this hike the Forest Service needs to look at closely. Near the top of the climb, a longer, nicer wooden bridge exists. Just past this, the trail climbs some steps and bears right. It is well-signed and blazed. Sections of trail in this area have been re-worked recently. In one area, the erosion gulley through which the old road bed travels iss so deep, the trail was re-located onto a bench cut into the side of the erosion gulley itself! This does keep the trail tread out of the bottom of the gulley and the mud. The character of the land changes as you approach the upper end of the loop as well. There are flats and a large opening to the left of the trail at one point. It's almost flat enough to be considered a small plateau, and this area lets the streams gather enough water before dropping into the Davidson River valley and forming their waterfalls.

You'll reach another log bridge, the trail will turn right, and you'll reach a trail intersection. The Cove Creek trail turns left and intersects gravel FR 225 in about 1/2 mile. The trail straight ahead is the Caney Bottom trail, and is the trail you will take. This marks the highest point on the hike, and it goes downhill from here. The Caney Bottom trail is not open to bicycles, although mountain bikers have been known to poach the trail from time to time (a bad idea if they don't want ALL the trails in this area closed to bikes!)

The Caney Bottom trail does follow some old logging roads, but is mostly custom-built trail tread. It's character is much different from the Cove creek trail - it's a bit rougher, but never very difficult. The trail generally follows the creek downstream. This part of the creek is slow and lazy, and some small bogs contribute trickles of clean mountain water into the main stream. Parts of the trail near the creek are thickly hemmed in with dog hobble and moist, mossy logs lie everywhere.

As you head downstream, the creek suddenly drops over a small series of falls and cascades to your left. It's difficult to get a closer view of this first set of falls by leaving the trail. If you do try, be careful - the banks are steep, easily eroded and covered with fragile vegetation as well as some not-so-fragile but frustrating thickets of rhododendron. The first falls is not the nicest anyway. The creek levels out, and the trail descends to catch up with it again before the water drops over a larger, more significant falls which is easily visible from the trail but almost impossible to get to the base of. Just beyond this, the trail travels through an open section of woods with the ground carpetd in ferns. The trail catches up with the creek one final time, before it drops into another set of cascades, but this last falls is smaller than the one above, and it lies between huge boulders in a very wet, dank cove.

This third distinct set of cascades marks the last on this hike, and the trail will begin a slight uphill climb as it wraps around the end of the ridge between this and Cove Creek. The trail will intersect with a couple of different trails leading out of the group camping area; you can bear left on either of them and pick up the gravel road to return to the parking area.