High Falls is a 280-foot waterfall on Toms Branch in Henderson County, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge region. It lies about 5.3 miles east of Fairview and roughly 15.9 miles southeast of Asheville as the crow flies.
At 280 feet it stands in the tallest quarter of North Carolina’s 288 waterfalls with a recorded height, ranking 18th; the typical North Carolina waterfall is about 50 feet. 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. Toms Branch carries 2 recorded waterfalls, and High Falls is the tallest of them.
Henderson County holds 20 recorded waterfalls, and several are close by. Toms Falls, is under a mile away. Hemlock Falls, a tiered waterfall, is about 1.3 miles away. Camp Minnehaha Falls, a horsetail waterfall, is about 2 miles away.
High Falls is located at 35.4863° N, 82.3084° 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.