Spruce Flats Falls in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Sight · Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Spruce Flats Falls

Four tiers of falls make this steep Tremont walk worth the effort.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Type
Sight
Nearest trail
0.6 mi
Audio stories
5 nearby
  • Parking
  • Visitor center
  • Restrooms
  • #42 of 104 sights

Hear the audio tour

Tremont and Spruce Flats Falls

Overview

About Spruce Flats Falls

Why stop

  • Four tiers and a pool make the cascade a more layered stop than a single-drop waterfall.

Heads up

  • The steep, uneven 1.8-mile hike takes more effort than an easy roadside waterfall stop.
Spruce Flats Falls is a forested, four-tier cascade on Spruce Flats Branch in the Tremont area. It drops about 30 feet over dark rock into a pool below. This is a hike-in destination, not a quick roadside stop: allow about 1½–2 hours for the 1.8-mile round trip and time at the falls. It suits a day when you want the waterfall itself and don't mind uneven ground.
Parkwolf’s verdictA waterfall worth the hike

Map

Where it is

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SightSpruce Flats Falls35.63431, -83.68190
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Plan your stop

Before you go

Getting there and back

Navigate to Tremont Visitor Center, not the waterfall pin some maps use. From the visitor-center lot, walk up the gravel service road, turn left at the dorms onto Lumber Ridge Trail, then follow the signed falls split about 50 feet farther. The route climbs, descends toward the stream, and gets steep and rocky near the water; you'll climb back out the same way. It's rated moderate, but the narrow, rooted footing can feel harder than that suggests. Wear sturdy shoes and take extra care after rain. Bring your own drinking water; no water point was verified along the route.

Public parking is available by the visitor center and in a gravel lot across the bridge. A parking tag is required if you leave a vehicle longer than 15 minutes, and it doesn't guarantee a space. The visitor center has staff, trail maps, hiking guides and a small gift shop, so it is a useful place to sort out the route before setting off. Pets aren't allowed on this trail. If steep, rough footing is a poor fit for you, choose an easier stop.

7 active Great Smoky Mountains alerts

  • ClosureHurricane Helene trail damage and backcountry restrictionsHurricane Helene damage has restricted backcountry trail access; avoid damaged crossings and observe trail-specific limits.Official details
  • CautionBear-related trail, campsite, and road restrictionsBear activity has closed trails, a shelter, and campsites and restricted pedestrian access on Cherokee Orchard Road; stay out of closed areas and follow vehicle-only rules.Official details
See all 7 alerts
A park ranger sits on a dash-mounted phone, talking, as Parkwolf’s Tour Guide plays “Army Cutworm Moths: A Grizzly Bear Buffet” on Grand Loop Road below Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone
Parkwolf Tour GuideThe highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.

Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide

Your drive to Spruce Flats Falls, narrated.

Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.

See the Great Smoky Mountains audio tour

Recorded for this place

Tremont and Spruce Flats Falls
0:00 / 0:27
“Up ahead is Tremont Visitor Center, the starting point for Spruce Flats Falls. The one point eight-mile round trip leads to a four-tier waterfall, with a steep, rooty descent near the water and the same climb back out.”

Plays as you drive up to Spruce Flats Falls in the Parkwolf Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide.

More stories near here in the app

  • A Butterfly Through the Winter
  • Middle Prong and Lynn Camp Prong Cascades
  • Taking the Lawmakers to the Mountains
  • Under the Fern Fronds
  • 200 audio storiesacross Great Smoky Mountains’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
  • Wildlife heatmapsfor Black Bear, Elk, Bald Eagle, and 13 more
  • Works offlinemaps, 197 trails, 137 places, and audio download before you lose signal
  • CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
★★★★★
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
JMJamesApp Store review
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4.7 from 8,600+ ratings

Guide

More about Spruce Flats Falls

Take time at the fallsThe water spills across several rock ledges, with the broad main drop beside smaller cascades…

The water spills across several rock ledges, with the broad main drop beside smaller cascades and a pool among the boulders. For a photo, frame more than one tier and leave a little of the rocks and pool at the bottom; that gives the falls their layered shape. Enjoy the water from stable ground rather than scrambling over slick rocks. The pool draws people in, but the park warns that waterfall pools and slippery rocks can be hazardous, so don't plan on swimming here.

A logged valleyThe forest around the falls has a logging past.

The forest around the falls has a logging past. Little River Lumber Company was still cutting timber in the Tremont area until 1939, four years after Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established.

Wildlife

Wildlife in Great Smoky Mountains

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Sighting maps show where each species has been reported across Great Smoky Mountains. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.

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