I hiked this trail on Saturday, July 4th, 2020 with my brother, mom, dad, and our dog.

This loop starts at the Cove Creek Falls trail head. To get there, take US 276 north, towards Waynesville; after 5.3 miles, take a left onto Forest Service Road 475 (Davidson River Road). After 1.5 miles, you'll have to turn left to stay on FSR 475; drive another 1.6 miles (passing the Roadie River Rocks along your way) and you'll come upon a large gravel parking area that's right alongside the Davidson River. Lots of cars will be parked there, but a lot of people will probbaly just be enjoying the river; instead, turn to the gated gravel road to your right as you drove in. There should be a large brown map of the park at the start of this road.

Start the trail by heading down the gravel pathway. After a few hundred yards of walking, there will be a major river to cross, but to the right there's a narrow wooden footbridge which you can also use to cross the river if you don't want to get wet. As you hike this section, watch out for cars: though there is the gate, there's a campsite (Cove Creek Group Camp) down the road which campers can reserve, and once they reserve the site, they can get the code to the gate and simply drive up to the true start of this trail. Follow the blue blaze.

Before you get to the group camp site, there is a small area off the trail called Little Sliding Rock Falls, along Caney Bottom Creek. As the name suggests, you can slide along the rocks in the water. Though much less crowded than the true Sliding Rock, it's a rougher (looking) ride that I personally didn't attempt.

After about maybe a half-mile of walking, you'll come upon the aforementioned campsite, and there will be a dirt trail towards your left with a sign bearing the names of your desired trails. After walking down this way a few hundred feet, you'll come upon a split in the dirt trail; you'll want to turn right (not sure what is straight, as there's no sign for it--maybe that's a trip for another time!) and follow the trail briefly alongside the campground.

Thankfully, the campsite doesn't stay in view for too long, and the trail begins to narrow. After about a mile, you'll hit a branch in the trail; the trail signs will be either Cove Creek Falls or Caney Bottom Trail. You can take either way, but we stayed left first so we could go ahead and see the waterfall; if you want the waterfall to serve as a sort of reward in the end, take Caney Bottom trail first. Caney Bottom Trail keeps the blue blaze, while Cove Creek takes a yellow blaze.

Continue following Cove Creek Falls Trail for another 1/2 mile or so and you'll come upon a sign which points you towards the waterfall. Following that sign leads to several very narrow and steep trails down to the falls; unfortunately, this section is fairly poorly marked, and which trail is the "official" route to the falls has long since become a moot point. I would recommend just following whichever path is the easiest. Once you've descended down, you've reached the falls!

Unfortunately, the entire time we were there (including a fairly long stop for lunch), some rappellers were scaling the face of the falls. While it made our lunch break entertaining, it did slightly impair our ability to enjoy the falls.

Going back up the way you came, you can return to Cove Creek Falls Trail and keep hiking it. The hike will involve crossing Cove Creek several times. All of the crossings on this portion of the trail are fairly well maintained and flat, which makes sense, since this section of the trail is open to bikers.

After about 2 miles of hiking from the intersection with Caney Bottom (or about 1.5 since the waterfall), you'll come to the intersection with Caney Bottom. Caney Bottom Trail is a much narrower and smaller trail, and is also more rugged, but it offers lots of beautiful views of the area's nature and is a very scenic hike.

The Caney Bottom section is also much steeper in some short sections than the Cove Creek part, but not exceedingly difficult, and never for very long. Along the trail and its 3 (or more?) river crossings, you'll come upon an open section. Make sure to look to your left and get a view of a distant waterfall.

For a map of the trail, click here.

For additional pictures from the hike, click here.