With two confirmed waterfall accidents this year in WNC, I have to pull out a little bit of harsh reality and look at this situation from a different angle. Waterfall injuries and even deaths are far too common, and it is absolutely senseless that anyone should have to suffer like this in connection with one of nature’s most beautiful creations. Historically, people are injured and die each year at North Carolina’s many waterfalls, and all of the occurrences have a common thread: the person slips and falls at the top of the falls, or (more rarely) is swept over the falls by a strong current. All judgment aside for anyone who’s ever fallen at a waterfall, this goes out to anyone who is considering doing it in the future. Folks, the solution to this problem is pretty simple.
Don’t do it. Do not EVER put yourself in a situation where a slip could send you over a waterfall. Do not climb across the creek at the top of a falls. Do not swim in a pool right above a waterfall. Do not climb the rocks beside a waterfall. Just use common sense!
I would think that people’s self-preservation instinct would tell them this already. But apparently not. Nothing except perhaps drunk driving burns me up more than people falling off a waterfall. The sad thing is that if you aren’t concerned about your life enough to keep from deliberately putting yourself in danger, you obviously don’t care about your family who must suffer the tremendous emotional and perhaps financial consequences of your decision, the rescue workers who risk their own life to haul you out of the woods, or the innocent bystanders who just don’t deserve to have to watch someone suffer a horrible death on what should have been a pleasant hike to the waterfall.
Consider the death at Moore Cove Falls last year. As if this wasn’t bad enough, it happened directly in front of his new fiancé and other families and children who were visiting the falls that day.
Most of our waterfalls are already named, and we won’t be renaming them after you when you fall.