You have one afternoon in Banner Elk, which waterfall should you hike to?

When you’re on vacation with the family, whether you’re at an Airbnb or camping, you know it’s imperative to have a plan and a backup plan. But what happens when you just can’t decide what to do? I’m here to help.

If you and the family find yourself in the Banner Elk or Boone area, you may decide to hike to a waterfall. We found ourselves in this exact predicament last week, we had planned to take in one waterfall but at the last minute added in an additional stop – and we were sure glad that we did!

While planning our trip to the high country of North Carolina we had some cornerstone activities mapped out:

Now if you aren’t lucky enough to live in North Carolina you may not have a ton of waterfall options nearby, fortunately for us, we have tons!

While doing my preliminary research into the area I kept seeing videos and trail reviews for Otter Falls located in the Seven Devils area in Banner Elk. After mapping the trailhead to our AirBnb and realizing it was only a 7 minute drive, we decided to make this an activity for whichever day we didn’t go to Grandfather Mountain. The morning of our hike, however, I called an audible and added a last minute hike to our list, we first would visit Crab Orchard Falls in Valle Crucis.

Before I start getting all nitpicky on you, let me say that either of these hikes should serve as good exercise, so don’t get too hung up on my opinion. Come to think of it the only two places I’ve never been sad at in my entire life are waterfalls and Mexican Restaurants.

But I digress…

We decided we would drive up to Valle Crucis, check out Crab Orchard, then head back towards the AirBnB and hike to Otter Falls before heading back to basecamp and getting spruced up before checking out Grandfather Vineyards. This was the right move. Crab Orchard proved to be such a superior experience even if it did take about 20 minutes to drive to the trailhead.

So who wins, Crab Orchard or Otter Falls?

I polled the whole family and it was unanimous, Crab Orchard was a much better hike and a much more enjoyable waterfall. The whole hike was just at 2 miles and only had about 400′ of elevation (the route we took, there are a couple of options), it was an easy hike in and out and we were able to spend a lot of time playing in the water. It did get busy, so like any trail you’re going to have a better time the earlier you can get there, so set your alarm and get out the door by 9am at the latest.

For me the big factor is how enjoyable is the actual waterfall. Otter Falls just didn’t compare to Crab Orchard.

In comparison Otter Falls was a total of .8 miles (the route we took, there are even more options here, which is slightly annoying in my opinion) with 230′ of elevation, while not the steepest trail we’ve done, it was pretty vertical, there were plenty of people taking breaks along the short trail to catch their breath. While pretty, it was much less impressive than Crab Orchard.

But don’t take my word for it – get out there and hike them yourself! (Or check out the photos below)

Otter Falls

Otter falls with moss covered rocks

Crab Orchard

Crab orchard falls from the middle of the cascade looking up

The Valle Crucis Area

view through the trees in Valle Crucis near the crab orchard falls trailhead of a red barn in the middle of a field with mountains in the background

What are your thoughts?

Have you hiked both? Or maybe have another recommendation for us? Leave it in the comments or send us an email!

We’ll see you on the trail!