Looking Glass Falls

While Trish and I were in Asheville, we also went with Rebecca to the French Broad Chocolate Lounge, where I got suckered into getting their Thai Coconut ice cream (coconut cream ice cream with lemongrass + ginger)–it was absolutely amazing, and is probably also going on my list of things to try to recreate.

Trish and I also stopped at the “Before I Die” wall. (There are so, so many things I want to do before I die…I didn’t have nearly enough space to write everything, so I just wrote “I want to become an amazing, badass doctor.”)

A photo posted by Farrah @ fairyburger (@fairyburger) on May 19, 2016 at 11:46am PDT

Afterward, we stopped by at the Pisgah District Ranger Station/Visitor Center to talk with a ranger for hiking suggestions. (I always like doing this because they’re so helpful and have such a wealth of information!)

If you’ve seen my past hikes, you might have noticed that a semi-recurrent theme = waterfalls (especially Ricketts Glen…).

It was a fairly cloudy day and there were threats of a huge storm coming in, but we wanted to see if it was still possible to check out a short trail, preferably with a waterfall (and even better if it eventually led to the Blue Ridge Parkway).

…Boy, did she deliver! She found us 3 waterfalls to visit and told us how to use the Blue Ridge Parkway to get back to Asheville! :] (I’ll talk about the others in different posts!)

Looking Glass Falls is a beautiful waterfall located just off U.S. 276. It’s pretty easily accessible, and is pretty kid-friendly and even wheelchair-friendly (at least for the upper view).

Its name comes from Looking Glass Rock, for where the water freezes in the winter and glistens in the light like a looking glass.

The waterfall is 60 feet tall, and you can take a short walk to get closer. Swimming is allowed in the pool at the bottom, although it’s at your own risk, and the water is very cold!

You can climb around on the rocks and/or wade in the water for different views of the falls, and if you just turn around to look behind you, you get a really gorgeous view as well!

If you don’t have time for much of a hike or the weather’s really terrible, so you’d like to just see one waterfall before you leave North Carolina, I’d definitely recommend this one! It’s super easy to get to, and gorgeous probably during all seasons of the year (I can only speak for spring at the moment, but it’s beautiful there)!

The Pisgah District Ranger Station/Visitor Center is located on 1600 Pisgah Highway Pisgah Forest, NC 28768, and is open from mid-April through mid-November from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and mid-November through mid-April from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Directions: 4 miles north of the Pisgah District Ranger Station, or either of the following (there will be signs for it off to the side of the road!):

1. Take U.S. 276 North from Brevard for ~5.6 miles
2. Take U.S. 276 South from the Blue Ridge Parkway for ~9.2 miles.

• What do you want to do before you die?
• What’s your favorite thing to see when you’re on a hike?

Check out my other Travel Tuesday posts!