Rufus Morgan Falls is a really nice 60-70′ waterfall not to far west of Franklin, NC. The 1.5 mile (round trip) hike is family friendly and moderate in difficulty. The waterfall is at the half way point, so the hike can either be done as a loop or an out and back. You could combine this hike with Big Laurel Falls and Mooney Falls in the Standing Indian area and have a really nice half to full day of waterfall hiking.
Directions: From the intersection of US64 and US441/23 in Franklin, drive west on 64 for 3.8 miles and turn right on Old Murphy Rd. Drive another 0.2 miles on Old Murphy Rd and turn left on Wayah Rd (SR1310). Continue for 6.3 miles on Wayah Rd and turn left on the gravel FR388 to the obvious parking area on the right. One end of the loop trail begins here and that’s how I will be describing the hike. This forest road may be closed from January 1 – February 15 depending on conditions.
The trail begins with a slight hill climb and soon comes to what looks like a split with double blue blazes on a tree. Be sure to turn right here and keep following the blazes. The trail is easy to follow from here and continues to gain a bit of elevation. At 1/2 mile into the hike, you’ll come to a smaller 2 section waterfall which is also on Left Prong Rough Fork. It has some downfall on it, but is kind of nice if the water levels are up a bit. It doesn’t have a name that I know of – so we’ll call it Basswood Falls.
One thought on “Rufus Morgan Falls”