Upper Piney Falls is a waterfall on Little Piney Creek in Rhea County, Tennessee, in the Southwestern Appalachians region, with a total height of about 80 feet. It lies about 2.7 miles north of Spring City and roughly 50.9 miles northeast of East Chattanooga as the crow flies.
At 80 feet it stands in the tallest quarter of Tennessee’s 332 waterfalls with a recorded height, ranking 35th; the typical Tennessee waterfall is about 30 feet. The water comes down as a plunge, where the water drops vertically and loses contact with the rock face.
The Southwestern Appalachians are the Cumberland Plateau and its escarpments, a sandstone tableland covered in oak and mixed mesophytic forest and cut by deep gorges. Creeks pour off the plateau rim over sandstone caprock into gorges, creating many tall, dramatic falls. Little Piney Creek carries 2 recorded waterfalls, and Upper Piney Falls is the tallest of them.
There are 14 recorded waterfalls in Rhea County. Lower Piney Falls, a 40-foot plunge waterfall, is under a mile away. Stinging Fork Falls, a 60-foot plunge waterfall, is about 3.6 miles away. Ray Falls, is about 3.7 miles away.
Upper Piney Falls is located at 35.7310° N, 84.8635° 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 exact position has not yet been verified on aerial imagery, so treat the map pin as approximate. Details on trails, parking and access have not been documented for this waterfall yet.