Beauty Falls is a waterfall on Big Sandy Creek in Wilkes County, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge region, with a total height of about 160 feet. It lies about 6 miles west of Thurmond and roughly 48.1 miles northwest of Winston-Salem as the crow flies.
At 160 feet it stands in the tallest quarter of North Carolina’s 288 waterfalls with a recorded height, ranking 40th; the typical North Carolina waterfall is about 50 feet. The water comes down as a tiered waterfall, falling in several distinct steps one after another. It falls in 2 drops.
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. Big Sandy Creek carries 3 recorded waterfalls, and Beauty Falls is the tallest of them.
There are 16 recorded waterfalls in Wilkes County. Middle Falls, a 20-foot tiered waterfall, is under a mile away. Lower Falls, a 15-foot slide waterfall, is under a mile away. Widows Creek Falls, a tiered waterfall, is about 2.2 miles away.
Beauty Falls is located at 36.3809° N, 81.0345° 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.