Location: South Mountains State Park
Date visited: 9/6/18
Level: Easy to hike, moderate to photograph
This small waterfall is unique enough that it is worth a stop here if you are visiting High Shoals Falls. You’ll want to find Jonestown Road from NC 226. One mile down the road, turn left on Melton Road. At a little over half a mile, go right at the fork on a dirt forest service road (SR 1731). Along this road, you will need to drive through a small creek. On this day, water levels were normal, and the creek was no problem to drive through. I’m not sure how it would be during high flow. After about 3 miles, you will come to a large clearing. Park at the red gate.
Hike the old road which turns into a trail about .3 mile in. Don’t take any trails to the left. The trail will cross the creek several times before you reach the waterfall. The trail is about .5 mile to the falls.
Up until this point, the hike is easy. When you reach the waterfall, you’ll be faced with steep and slick rocks in order to get into a good position to photograph the waterfall. There isn’t a way to get the entire waterfall in one shot because scrambling to the base of it all, means that the top portion gets blocked. The photo I am posting is the top portion, which in my opinion is the most scenic part. In order to photograph it, I had to get into the waist high pool after scrambling across very slick rock.

I have read that since I visited Pot Branch Falls a large tree has fallen here and obscured this view. I’m not sure if that has been removed or not.