Distance: 3.6 miles one way
Difficulty: Moderate with some wading
Elevation Change: gain = 811 ft; loss = 1090 ft
My Hike: 7.9 miles (round trip) Out-and-back
source: Great Day Hikes of North Carolina’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail
To date, this is my favorite hike of the MST 40 Hike Challenge. The location is very remote and only accessible via forest service roads (which are open to the public). However, the drive is worth it! The entire hike is filled with waterfalls, water crossings and plenty of outcroppings to climb and explore.
The trailhead is accessed from Pineola Road. The sign for “HuntFish Falls” is just off of the parking area and the trail is well marked with MST white trailblazes.
My son, Noah and I drove to this trail using Brown Mountain Beach Road. However, if you want less miles on the gravel road, you can reach Pineola Road from Jonas Ridge Rd. instead.
A lot of the trail is in a thick tunnel of Rhododendron and Mountain Laurel, creating a cool walk beside the waterfalls. The first part of the trail is a steady decent of about 0.7 miles to HuntFish Falls.
Huntfish falls has a lot of great places to explore, wade and swim.
This trail has 5 water crossings in 3.6 miles. Some of these are pretty simple and can be completed by rock-hopping and hopefully staying dry. However, there are a few that may require some wading, especially if the water is high. The crossings truly add to the character of this trail. Since we were doing an out-and-back trip, we ended up crossing 10 times! I brought a pair of Keens and ended up walking in them for the majority of the trip.
The crossings are well marked with double blazes and the blaze across the stream was always visible. Overall, this trail is well marked. Below are some pics of a few of the crossings.
Along the way, we met a few campers and we saw a lot of great campsites. The main stream that the trail crosses is Gragg Prong. There are many waterfalls ranging in all different sizes. For the majority of the trail, the stream is very accessible. We discovered some great swimming places. The water was crystal clear with trout easily visible in the shallows.
I highly recommend this hike. I would suggest planning on a full day so you have plenty of time to enjoy the area.