Upper Creek Falls is a 50-foot waterfall on Upper Creek in Burke County, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge region. It lies about 11.7 miles east of Spruce Pine and roughly 36.6 miles southeast of Johnson City as the crow flies.
At 50 feet it is taller than the typical North Carolina waterfall of about 50 feet, ranking 136th of 288 with a recorded height. By form it is a slide, where the water glides down a smooth, inclined rock surface.
The Blue Ridge is the highest part of the southern Appalachians, a range of forested peaks and coves with oak, hickory, tulip poplar and hemlock and spruce-fir on the summits, in one of the wettest climates in the East. Steep mountain streams drop over granite, gneiss and quartzite ledges, giving the region hundreds of waterfalls. Upper Creek carries 2 recorded waterfalls, and Upper Creek Falls is the tallest of them.
Burke County holds 14 recorded waterfalls, and several are close by. Lower Upper Creek Falls, a tiered waterfall, is under a mile away. Upper Steels Creek Falls, a 120-foot tiered waterfall, is about 1.4 miles away. Upper Harper Creek Falls, an 80-foot cascade waterfall, is about 1.5 miles away.
Upper Creek Falls is located at 35.9604° N, 81.8634° W. The listing is based on the World Waterfall Database, one of the sources compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey in its inventory of waterfalls and rapids of the conterminous United States. The creek name is confirmed against the federal Geographic Names Information System. The position was verified on aerial imagery. Details on trails, parking and access have not been documented for this waterfall yet.