Falling Spring Falls

Wayyyyy back in September of last year, I went back to West Virginia over Labor Day weekend because I actually had a long weekend(!). It was a 7-hour solo drive, so I scheduled in a couple pit stops so I wouldn’t fall asleep on the road. One such pit stop was to…you guessed it–Falling Spring Falls!

I’d seen a gorgeous picture of it on a friend’s instagram and she told me it was only about an hour away from our med school. How I never knew of this, I’ll never know (well, I do know because…well, med school), but better late than never!

Falling Spring Falls in Covington, VA

Falling Spring Falls is a gorgeous 80-foot waterfall located in Alleghany County near Covington, Virginia. Stuff Route 220, Covington, VA 24426 into your GPS and it should get you there!

If you’re going down 220 N, it’ll be on your left (you can’t miss it). Just be aware that if you’re heading there from Covington, you need to disregard a sign that says, “Falling Spring” that tells you to make a sharp-ish left turn. It’s full of lies and a kind gas station owner sent me back up the hill I drove down and told me keep going down 220 N for another 4-5 miles.

If you go to the right of the sign and past the black fence, you can walk around to follow a fairly self-explanatory “trail” into the woods…

Make sure you bring a swimsuit and towel, because there are rope swings to swing off of! :]! I did in fact bring both, but didn’t get on the rope because as per usual, I was traveling alone and my phone is not waterproof. (I could’ve left it in the car, but I wanted it for the waterfall, so…yeah.)

Keep walking and veer to the left a bit and you’ll end up at the top of the falls!

Thomas Jefferson apparently once wrote about this waterfall back in 1781: “The only remarkable cascade in this country is that of the Falling Spring in Augusta…it falls over a rock 200 feet into the valley below.”

I wanted to get a better view, so I waded out to the very edge. The water actually wasn’t very cold! It was a pretty comfortable temperature that I acclimated to almost instantly. (I came here in very early September, in case you’re wondering.)

For the record, it’s about an 80 foot drop to the bottom, so if you are in fact wading out here, be really careful about it! I felt like I was sitting on the edge of the world. <3

A photo posted by Farrah @ fairyburger (@fairyburger) on Sep 2, 2016 at 11:15am PDT

For the record, it’s pretty darn difficult to take pictures when you’re perched on the ledge of an 80 foot waterfall without a waterproof camera, but…I tried to make it work!

If I ever get to come back here, I wanna hike to the bottom of this waterfall! :] (I was in flip flops this time around, so I decided against it.)

If you want to visit a couple other nearby places, Falling Spring Falls is also located near the Jackson River Trail as well as the Humpback Bridge! :]

• Are you afraid of heights?
• Would you sit at the edge of a waterfall?