American Travel Journal: Benton Falls - Cherokee National Forest

Benton Falls is a 65-foot high fan-shaped waterfall on Rock Creek in the Chilhowee Recreation Area of Cherokee National Forest in southeast Tennessee.

Unless you like to drive rutted gravel mountain roads, don't trust Google to route you to the falls. To reach the recreation area on a paved road, you'll need to be on US route 64. From the US 64 and US 74 junction east of Cleveland, Tennessee, drive east on US 64 for 14.8 miles. Turn left at the brown informational sign marked for Scenic Overlooks, Chilhowee Recreation Area and Benton Falls Trailhead. This left turn is about 100 yards past the turn for the Ocoee District Ranger Station. Although there was not a street sign when I visited, this is labelled as Oswald Road on topographic and recreational maps. Drive up Oswald Road for 7.3 miles to the Chilhowee Recration Area. Along the way up Chilhowee Mountain, there are several overlooks with magnificent views. At the sign for the recreation area, turn right and follow the paved road to the day use area. Stop at the fee station to pay the $3 per vehicle per day fee and then park in one of the three paved parking areas.

Although the official trailhead to Benton Falls begins near the dam for McCamy Lake, I included the short distance from the nearest parking area to the trailhead in my GPS route. The hike is 3.2 miles roundtrip from the end of the parking area. The first 1.5 miles only descends 125 feet for an average grade of 1.6%. However, the final 650 feet of the trail descends nearly 100 feet for an average grade of about 15%. This isn't as strenuous as it might first seem as nearly the entire descent is a series of stairs and constructed stone and timber surfaces.

I visited in early June 2017 on a cloudy weekday late afternoon. Although I met several people on the trail, I had the falls to myself during my visit. Because of recent rains, Rock Creek had sufficient flow for the waterfall to spread across the entire breadth of the rock formation. The flow is much reduced during drier seasons.