Every organization we link to: local tourism offices, the state and federal agencies that manage the land, the nonprofits and clubs that keep access open, and the universities doing the research.
West Virginia has roughly 1.5 million acres of public land and a handful of places that carry almost all of the attention. The consequence is that a great deal of very good ground sits nearly empty, usually for one of three reasons: nobody has heard of it, the road in is gated or rough, or it is undeveloped and has nothing to advertise. Those are the places below — of them across regions.
Almost Heaven Swings
Three drops of 25, 45 and 63 feet
Falls of Hills Creek packs three waterfalls into three-quarters of a mile of stream. They drop 25 feet, 45 feet and 63 feet in that order as you descend, and the 63-foot lower falls is the second-highest waterfall in West Virginia. The published round trip is 1.6 miles.
Density is what makes the site unusual. Plenty of places in the state have a single waterfall worth the drive; very few give you three of increasing size in a distance most people would call a stroll on flat ground. This ground is not flat.
The trail is on national forest land and reads as two different outings stacked on top of each other: a short paved approach to the first falls, and a stair-and-boardwalk descent to the other two.
The paved section, and treating the upper falls as the destination
The trail to the first falls is paved and accessible. The lower two are not, and there is no version of reaching them that avoids the steep stairs and boardwalk into the gorge.
That division is worth reframing. A 25-foot waterfall reached on pavement is a real destination, not a consolation for the people who cannot continue. It is one of a small number of West Virginia waterfalls where the accessible route ends at water rather than at a viewing platform aimed downhill.
Specifics beyond the fact of the paving are not published: no grades, no surface widths, no rest points. If those numbers decide whether the trip works for you, ask the ranger district for them rather than inferring them from the word accessible.
Stairs and boardwalk into a shale gorge
Past the paved section the trail turns into steep stairs and boardwalk, dropping into a shale gorge. The structures are there because the terrain does not otherwise permit a trail, which tells you how the grade behaves.
Everything you descend you climb back out. That is the sentence to plan around, because the walk out comes at the end of a trip when people are wet, cold and finished. The 1.6-mile round trip figure carries a lot more work than 1.6 miles usually does.
The gorge deepens as you go, so the character of the walk changes between the first falls and the third rather than repeating.
Flow is the variable that decides your trip
Best flow is in spring and after rain. Waterfall height is fixed; volume is not, and a 63-foot drop running thin is a different subject from the same drop running full.
For photography that makes timing the whole game. The gorge stays dim and wet enough that a tripod is the default, and the days after rain are when the falls have weight. The 63-footer is both the largest and the hardest to reach, sitting at the bottom of the stairs and boardwalk.
If you are choosing between two possible weekends, choose the wetter one.
Ice makes the winter descent dangerous
Ice makes the descent into the gorge dangerous. Steep stairs and wet boardwalk in a spray zone are exactly the surfaces that glaze, and the consequence of a fall on them is not a scraped knee.
In practice that closes the lower two falls off for part of the year even when nothing is formally gated. The paved upper section is a different proposition from the stairs below it, and treating the upper falls as the whole trip is the sane winter plan.
Whether the Forest Service gates the road or the trail in winter is not stated in the record we work from. Ask the Monongahela National Forest, at fs.usda.gov/mnf, before driving out in cold weather.
Wet shale, moss, and what grows on it
Shade and constant spray keep the shale gorge mossy, and that wet-rock plant community is as much the subject as the water. Waterfall visitors tend to look up and photograph the drop; the walls beside the stairs are doing something quieter and more specific to this gorge.
Spring and the days after rain show the whole system at volume, plants included. Winter takes the lower gorge out of reach in practice, which means the mossiest part of the site is a three-season subject.
The details the record leaves out
The record behind this page gives heights, count, round-trip distance, the accessible section and the seasonal warnings. It does not give fees, hours, parking capacity, restroom availability, dog rules, or the number of stairs on the descent.
None of those are unknowable; they are simply not in what has been published here, and guessing at them is how a planning page stops being useful. The Monongahela National Forest is the agency to call, and the ranger district is the place to ask about surface and grade detail on the paved section.
Reach people planning this trip
Placement alongside guides for outfitters, guides, shops and lodging.
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