North Carolina · Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Mingo Falls
41 mi from Asheville · ~1.2 hr drive
120ft tall
≈ 37 m
≈ 37 m
Mingo Falls is a named waterfall in North Carolina — a substantial cascade dropping 120 feet, about 41 miles from Asheville, NC. Full visit details below.
- State
- North Carolina
- Nearest city
- Asheville, NC · 41 mi · ~1.2 hr drive
- Height
- 120 ft (37 m)
- Coordinates
- 35.5318°, -83.2749°
- Park
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park (NP)
- County
- Swain
From Wikipedia: Mingo Falls is a 120 ft (37 m) high waterfall located in the Qualla Boundary—a land trust of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians—near the town of Cherokee, Swain County, North Carolina in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the eastern United States. The waterfall is among the tallest in the southern Appalachians. Excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Mingo Falls, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
About Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Mingo Falls is inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a U.S. National Park managed by the National Park Service. Conditions, road status, trail closures, and reservation requirements are published directly on the park's NPS page — check it before driving in, especially in winter or during major weather events.
Entrance fee: Free. No entrance fee. Parking tags ($5/day, $15/week, $40/year) required for vehicles parked over 15 minutes.
Park homepage: https://www.nps.gov/grsm/
Visiting Mingo Falls
The exact location is at 35.5318°, -83.2749° — open in Google Maps for driving directions from your location.
Before you go: check current conditions with the appropriate land manager — state parks department, U.S. Forest Service ranger district, or National Park Service unit. Trail access, parking, water levels, and seasonal closures all vary. Several waterfalls in our database are seasonal and may run dry between mid-summer and the next rainy season.
If you've visited Mingo Falls and have current notes (parking situation, dog policy, seasonality, kid-friendliness), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn more.
Stay nearby
Driving in? The nearest documented metro is Asheville, NC — 41 miles away (~1.2 hr drive).
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Other waterfalls within 30 miles
Sources
Location and tag data for Mingo Falls comes from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL license) ; the Wikipedia article linked above provides additional history. We do not modify the underlying data — this page presents what's already publicly recorded. To suggest corrections, see our methodology page or contact us.