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Backpacking Panthertown Valley: Day 2 - Nantahala National Forest, NC

2,545 views · Published 19 May 2018 · 15:42 · Indexed 11 October 2026

Channel: Zachary Robbins · 2018 · Travel & Events

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This video is the second day of a 2-day weekend backpacking trip to Panthertown Valley of Nantahala National Forest, NC. The video for the first day can be viewed here https://youtu.be/X5ZZ3wYN38Y 

In the morning I crossed the Tuckasegee River at Riding Ford, which got close to my knees in some sections. The forecast for the day was cloudy with a decent chance of rain, but clearly the weather got worse. A dense, low hanging fog covered the valley all day with off-and-on mist and drizzle. Right when I was packing up my tent I had a consistent drizzle, which added some weight to my pack and made my consider cutting the hike short. I still sauntered west on the Riding Ford Trail and Powerline Road Trail towards Blackrock Mountain. I'm stubborn and wanted to record a complete loop hike. Even though I had few views during the day, it was always mist and drizzle and never a hard rain thankfully.

Blackrock Mountain was completely shrouded in clouds, which is disappointing because the huge exposed cliffs provide fantastic views of the valley from the opposite side of Little Green Mountain. I think the steepest climb of the day was the final ascent on the Overlook Trail to the summit. From there the Blackrock Trail dropped down to the Salt Rock Gap Trailhead. I then hiked to Wilderness Falls, which completely surprised me. The cliff was massive and the waterfall is nearly 100-feet tall. (I said in the video I didn't want to get my feet wet again, which I regret because around 30 min later I had to ford Panthertown Creek. Oh well.) The next stop was Frolictown Falls, a quaint area directly below the trail intersection.

The next section I was most looking forward to, the Great Wall Trail along the base of Big Green Mountain. The trail passes through the upland bogs of Panthertown Creek mere hundreds of feet from vertical cliffs ranging between 200-350 feet. Fortunately the fog had lifted enough to allow me to see the scope of these amazing cliffs. Few places in NC compare to this. When I reached the ridgeline, I dropped my pack and hiked the out-and-back to two overlooks on Big Green Mountain. From there I followed the Big Green Trail and Macs Gap Trail to Greenland Creek, where I did the out-and-back to Greenland Creek Falls. This was easily the most picturesque falls of the weekend, a double-drop around 50 feet high. My hike for Day 2 was approximately 11.5 miles in 5 hours, including 3 waterfalls and 2 mountain summits. The weekend hike was approximately 20.5 miles with 3,353 feet elevation gain in 10 hours and 30 minutes.

Hike location
https://goo.gl/maps/UjYSXiqHXvR2

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