Linville Falls

Linville Falls, on the Linville River in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, drops through upper cascades, a narrow gorge, and a powerful 45-foot plunge with the highest volume of any waterfall along the range’s northern edge. The falls begin Linville Gorge, which the river continues carving downstream. Flooding altered the main plunge when an upper section collapsed, lengthening the lower drop. In 1952, John D. Rockefeller Jr. helped bring the falls and surrounding land into the Blue Ridge Parkway. Now managed by the National Park Service, the area is known both for scenic overlooks and for notable incidents, including a 1928 rescue and a 2010 kayak descent.

North Carolina · United States