Great Falls, South Carolina

November 12, 2023

On Wednesday (November 8), we rode up to Great Falls, South Carolina along US Highway 21. The road was straight and lined with trees in their fall foliage, with evergreens interspersed between the hardwoods.

In a couple of areas, there were pine tree farms.

Google maps showed a camera at the Great Falls overlook. We headed to the Great Falls Overlook, expecting a view to the falls.

Instead we found a parking lot overlooking Fishing Creek Lake with a boat ramp. At the boat ramp, there was a notice that the fish were unsafe to eat. That may have been the reason such a beautiful lake on a perfect fall day only had one boat on it.

Being rather disappointed in not finding any falls, we decided to check out the Nitrolee Access Area on Fishing Creek.

Apparently, this area is used by kayakers when the weather is nice. The maps at the site focus on the water way and where paddlers need to go to avoid dangerous conditions.

We walked over to the Nitrolee manufacturing plant remains and looked around. We walked to the end of the trail, noticing ruins along the trail.

After the short hike, we spent some time trying to determine where the falls were. There is no public access to the falls based on what we could determine.

From the town site: “The name of Great Falls came from the nearby waterfalls on the Catawba River — A stretch of 8 miles, 178-foot drop of roaring and raging waters that could be heard long before it could be seen.”