| Difficulty | III-IV+ |
| Length | 7.9 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 137 fpm |
| Reach Info Last Updated | December 17, 2025 |
Hike into the Upper Snowbird from the Hooper Bald parkinglot on the Cherohala Skyway. The Upper Snowbird has fourwaterfalls in between sections of class III whitewater. Theriver then changes into class IV whitewater for the last few miles. Three of the waterfalls can be found in most senicwaterfall books and are labeled on most maps. Upper falls is along slide, Middle falls is a 22' riverwide drop, Big falls is a series5 or 6 small slides ending with a 10' drop, and the last waterfall (which is not labeled on the map) is a 4' drop directly on to a 20'slide. If you are in the area and everything else is too high this will be a good run.
***Edit 2/11/18***
Snowbird is by far one of the best runs in the southeast. It has all the elements of a truly long, expeditious paddle which passes through multiple styles of SE rivers all set in a hard to reach area of WNC. It includes probably 1 mile of mank, followed by 2 miles of class III micro-creeking, after that a section of 4 class IV+ waterfalls, followed by about 4 miles of continuous class III-IV boogie water to the takeout.
The takeout for upper snowbird is at the end of Big Snowbird Road near Lake Santeetlah. Park in the obviously large gravel parking lot at the end of the dirt road and from here you can get a good look at the river by hiking about 50 yards down the trail to a bridge. If the creek is raging (no/few visible rocks) from the takeout/bridge then the upper section will be running. Just keep in mind rain could still make this rise or drop out quickly and you have about 2 hours of driving and hiking before putting on the river.
At this point you can consider a couple of options regarding shuttle:
From here you do have the option to hike your own shuttle, big creek style. There's a trail that parallels the creek on river left all the way up to the top. The waterfalls are 4 miles up so this would be a long hike in but you could walk a shorter distance and enjoy continu
Biggest drop on the river by far. Probably a good 20ft or more
A series of 4-6 ledges of different sizes. Can scout from river right
Dec 9, 2009
Rapid we put in at due to losing water, Boof right side due to log in left slot the rattle down runout