
In numbers.
Feb–Apr
Dec
Best months
750m
Elevation
The water at Hickory Nut Falls, month by month
It roars from September to July.
It carries water fairly evenly through the year.
- 93%Jan
- 91%Feb
- 100%Mar
- 100%Apr
- 90%May
- 77%Jun
- 79%Jul
- 75%Aug
- 78%Sep
- 75%Oct
- 81%Nov
- 95%Dec
Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from February to April and December.
Estimate from rain, snowmelt and evaporation month by month (NASA POWER, 1991–2020) around the falls. Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall
Hickory Nut Falls is a waterfall in United States. It lies within Chimney Rock State Park.
Getting there.
- Lake Lurenearest town · 5.0 km in a straight line
- Parking 950 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Asheville Regional Airport (AVL)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 26 km in a straight lineCar hire at AVL airport (Asheville)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From February to April and Decemberbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 510 m in 2.3 km.
What is around.
- 5viewpointsDevil's Head, Exclamation Point, Pulpit Rock and 2 more
- 4waymarked walking routesHickory Nut Falls Trail, Four Seasons Trail, Great Woodlands Adventure Trail and 1 more
- 8car parks
- —swimming spots
- 2picnic sites
- 2toilets
- —information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 7other named waterfalls within 4 kmRainbow Falls, Bottomless Pools, Camp Minnehaha Falls and 4 more
- —caves
- —campsites
- 10hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmGrafton Lodge Bed And Breakfast, Minnehaha Falls Guest House, Broad River Inn and 7 more
- 12restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Lake Lure5.0 km in a straight line
- Edneyville8.6 km in a straight line
- Fruitland13 km in a straight line
- Fairview15 km in a straight line
- Dana16 km in a straight line
- Hoopers Creek19 km in a straight line
- Black Mountain21 km in a straight line
- Fletcher22 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 6 | 8 | 13 | 18 | 23 | 27 | 29 | 28 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 8 |
| Night °C | -4 | -2 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 16 | 17 | 17 | 13 | 7 | 1 | -2 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 99 | 98 | 105 | 113 | 120 | 117 | 135 | 119 | 117 | 98 | 102 | 124 |
| Wet days | 12 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 22 | 19 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| Sun h/day | 5.3 | 5.4 | 6.2 | 7.5 | 7.7 | 8.3 | 7.6 | 7.3 | 6.9 | 6.7 | 6.1 | 4.8 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 10 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (750 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Photos
Through visitors' eyes.

Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 159% | 242% | 110% | 172% | 155% | 86% | 85% | 163% | 149% | 159% | 110% | 87% |
| 2021 | 96% | 120% | 189% | 45% | 68% | 86% | 91% | 181% | 60% | 150% | 28% | 42% |
| 2022 | 93% | 147% | 121% | 71% | 137% | 39% | 115% | 87% | 115% | 37% | 144% | 80% |
| 2023 | 148% | 100% | 84% | 122% | 74% | 106% | 78% | 119% | 41% | 25% | 34% | 145% |
| 2024 | 210% | 66% | 145% | 69% | 142% | 56% | 105% | 75% | 283% | 6% | 59% | 100% |
| 2025 | 39% | 115% | 64% | 96% | 133% | 95% | 87% | 124% | 73% | 80% | 31% | 37% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q37626) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves or dark skies?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.



