Big Rock Falls, also listed as Whitetop Laurel Falls, is a 5-foot ledge waterfall on Whitetop Laurel Creek in Washington County, Virginia, in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area near Damascus. It sits just below a trestle of the Virginia Creeper Trail, a stretch closed since Hurricane Helene and scheduled to reopen on March 31, 2027.
The falls
Whitetop Laurel Creek pours over a single rock ledge. Lidar data indicates a drop of no more than 5 feet, possibly less, which is below standard thresholds for a waterfall. Earlier surveys listed 6 feet, and another count gives 8 feet.
Getting there
The falls are on the Virginia Creeper Trail in the Jefferson National Forest. Before the closure, visitors used an easy 2-mile round trip from the Straight Branch Trailhead on US-58, about 4 miles east of Damascus: west on the Creeper Trail toward Damascus for just under a mile to a trestle over the creek, with the falls just downstream.
That route is closed. Hurricane Helene in fall 2024 damaged the trail and its trestle bridges, and the Forest Service is rebuilding them; the Appalachian Trail Conservancy gives March 31, 2027 as the reopening date. The adjoining Appalachian Trail section from Straight Branch on US-58 to Grassy Ridge Road is closed too.
When to go
Not before the Creeper Trail reopens.
On site
The rocks around the falls are very slippery, and the trail is shared by hikers, cyclists and horses, with dogs allowed.
Nearby
Straight Branch Falls is about 2 miles away. Across the Tennessee line, Backbone Falls is about 4.7 miles away and Gentry Creek Falls about 5.2 miles.
Distances are straight-line.