Indian Creek Falls - Indian Creek Falls hike in Smoky Mountains

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Indian Creek Falls
Trail Features:		Waterfalls
Trail Location:		Deep Creek
Roundtrip Miles:		1.9 miles
Total Elevation Gain:		150 feet
Avg. Elev Gain / Mile:		158 feet
Highest Elevation:		1998 feet
Trail Difficulty Rating:		2.20 (easy)
Parking Lot Latitude:		35.4643
Parking Lot Longitude:		-83.4342

Cherokee, head south on Rt. 19. You will drive exactly 10 miles from the intersection of 441 and 19 in Cherokee to Everett Street in Bryson City. Turn right onto Everett and drive for 0.2 miles. Turn right onto Depot Street. After a short distance, take a left onto Ramseur Street and then an immediate right onto Deep Creek Road. Drive 2.3 miles to the park entrance and then another 0.5 mile to the parking lot for the Indian Creek Falls trailhead.

Bryson City author Horace Kephart, author of Our Southern Highlanders, lived for a short while with the Bob Barnett family in one of the last houses up Deep Creek in 1910. Until his death as a result of an automobile accident in 1931, he used the old Bryson Place near where the Left Fork enters the main portion of Deep Creek as his summertime camping spot. A permanent marker there commemorates the site.

The Indian Creek Falls trail is accessed via the Deep Creek Trail.

The Deep Creek Trail begins as a wide path as it traces Deep Creek up stream. Rewards are almost immediate on this trail. At 0.3 miles, 80-foot Toms Branch Falls (see picture to the left) spills down into the creek from the opposite bank. The park service has provided several benches for admiring these beautiful falls.

To reach Indian Creek Falls, continue on for another 0.5 miles and then turn right onto Indian Creek Trail. After walking just 0.1 mile, there is a short spur trail on your left that takes you down to Indian Creek Falls. This is an awesome 25-foot falls. If you were to climb back to the main trail, and walk a short distance up the trail, you’ll notice that Indian Creek Falls is more of a water slide than a true waterfall.

As an option, you can continue on this trail to access the Deep Creek Loop trail.

Trail Description:

The Deep Creek Trail was one of the first trails constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the newly legislated park in the early 1930s. The Deep Creek Campground was the site of Deep Creek CCC Camp from 1933 to 1936.

As another option, Juney Whank Falls is in this area as well, and can be accessed from the same parking lot.

Wildflowers are also abundant along the trail to Indian Creek Falls. You’ll find a variety of trilliums, blooming at different times, as well as foamflower, galax, crested dwarf iris, beard tongue, Solomon's seal, cinquefoil, bloodroot, bluets and blue-eyed grass. Jack-in-the-pulpit is also abundant, but is sometimes hard to locate among the wild geranium, clinton's lily and the large houstonia.