Whitewater Falls

Figure 1. Whiteside Falls drops 411 feet in these two cascades. (Photograph by Dirk Frankenberg. More about the photograph)

The most spectacular features of the Jocassee gorges region are its waterfalls. Whitewater Falls, one of the tallest, drops 411 feet in the two cascades shown in Figure 1. The river falls through forests of several types during its descent. Above the falls is a Canadian Hemlock forest; along its flanks are white pine-oak forests, oak/hickory forests, and both acidic and circumneutral cove forests. The hemlocks, pines, oaks and hickories can be seen in the photograph, but the cove forests cannot. That is too bad in one respect, because the falls have eroded into some unusual rock called amphibolite, which produces soil that is less acid than most and supports and unusual flora that includes three different species of Trillium. This diverse cove forest is found at the foot of Whitewater Falls.

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