No multiple-day trip to Greenville is complete without a bit of adventuring and sneaking in a sight or two.

The last time we had a multiple-day visit to Greenville was last November before HG’s hip surgery. On that trip, we found ourselves at Caesars Head Overlook & Pretty Place. During that trek up the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway, we noticed a section marked off for parking and a waterfall that we could see from the road. As we already had our destination that day in mind, we didn’t stop but made a mental note to revisit and check the spot out when we had an opportunity.

Well, this being a 2-day visit meant that we had said opportunity.

The waterfall we passed that day ended up being the lower section of Wildcat Falls, also called Wildcat Wayside Falls and Wildcat Branch Falls. The falls themselves are part of Wildcat Branch Creek. What is actually just the first portion of the falls, the one that originally caught our eye, is a 30-foot fall that lands in a shallow granite pool. A granite pool that proved to be the perfect swimming hole for many on this hot July day.

A path from these lower falls leads to the second section of the lower falls, with a 20-foot cascading fall. While nice and pleasant, both lower falls were pretty heavily occupied for our taste, so we opted to take a short hike up the path. Along our hike, we passed an old chimney (one of my favorite things) which is part of the remnants of a Civilian Conservation Corps built shelter. 

After a quick photo-op, we continued our hike deeper into the woods. There we found our reason for stopping and adventuring; The Wildcat Branch Upper Falls, a 130-foot cascading waterfall. While we came across a couple of uninvited guests on our hike, we still took the time to take in the view. The view at Upper Wildcats Falls was breathtaking and the type of view we needed on the day prior to HG’s next procedure.