Snowbird Creek
1. Hooper Bald to Junction(Upper Snowbird)
| Difficulty | III-IV+ |
| Length | 7.9 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 137 fpm |
| Reach Info Last Updated | December 17, 2025 |
River Description
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
River Features
Put In
Take Out
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportRapid we put in at due to losing water, Boof right side due to log in left slot the rattle down runout
Rapid we put in at due to losing water, Boof right side due to log in left slot the rattle down runout
snowbird info New [add to watch]
Forum: BoaterTalk
Re: Some questions on Treemont, Ranses cascades, Snowbird creek (in the smokies) otto New
Date: Feb 04 2004, 21:13 GMT
From: southeastcreekin
I ran snowbird by hiking down from the skyway...first of all if you do this start out EARLY..it takes forever, and you'll need ALOT of water
2nd ...the trail head on the map isn't clearly marked when you get there and takes a little work to find out where you need to go
once you figure out that you are hiking in the right direction its a long walk..several miles before you reach the creek..then a little longer before it becomes large enough to put on. (you'll step over it a couple times while you descend the trail)
you'll paddle alot of flat stuff before reaching the falls..you'll wonder if you are on the right creek
the waterfalls and slides are GREAT!!!! pretty big and challenging.
then the creek turns into continuous fun class three/four stuff...we got screwed by nightfall and had to hike out and missed the last half mile or so....
if I were to do it again and had a medium level at the takeout...I'd hike from the bottom until I reached the big river wide 25-30 footer, and put on above it (it would be a long hike, but an obvious and straightforward trail)...you won't miss much except for a slide or two, but you'll spare yourself the hike in from the top, and alot of work. When the bottom half is running medium the top half won't have much water (tributary effect) and won't be worth the effort (you'll scrape over alot of stuff)...
NOW if the lower is really high...THEN I would consider hiking in from the top and catching the waterfall section, because then it would probably be at a good level. However the lower sections might get kinda out of control and force you to get off and have to hike out...or you could run out of daylight like we did, so make sure you start EARLY..it takes much longer than it looks like it would from reading the map...especially if you have to scout.
all in all..I'd probably just hike up and put on when you get tired of walking
want more info..email me (and if you do it..keep your eyes peeled for a small black pelican box....)
SEC