However you reach the Falls, it’s well worth the effort. From the top, it's a spectacular vertical drop of 404 feet. From below, it's a cool, refreshing stop. Hickory Nut Falls, one of the highest waterfalls east of the Mississippi River, can be reached by hiking along the Skyline-Cliff Trail Loop to its top or by taking the gentler walk via the Hickory Nut Falls trail to a platform at its bottom. Get a majestic perspective of the Falls from Peregrine's Rest on the Skyline trail, or Inspiration Point along the Cliff trail.

Icy spring waters pool at several levels at the top before spilling over the edge of the mountain. At the bottom of the Falls, the water pools again before splashing through a series of cataracts to the Rocky Broad River below. If you've seen the romantic adventure The Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe, you'll definitely remember the climactic fight scene that took place at the top of these Falls. (The fence was removed to make this scene even more dramatic!)

Hickory Nut Falls is a perfect example of what geologists call a "hanging valley": a tributary valley that drops off abruptly into its main valley. Over thousands of years, the gorge below has been eroded more rapidly along a fault line by the Rocky Broad River. The much smaller Falls Creek had a tougher job of it with less water and no fault line to help it carve through the solid rock. Even today the valleys are cut down at different rates, so Hickory Nut Falls may become higher in centuries to come, as the large valley erodes more quickly.

In cracks next to the waterfall and even in some places in the falling water, several plants have found a wet home—lady rue, a dainty white-flowering plant, and deerhair bulrush, a grass-like plant. The stream at the top of Hickory Nut Falls is lined with a dense growth of big-leaf rhododendron, with towering hemlocks and chestnut oaks forming a lush forest canopy more than 200 years old.

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