Onion Falls is a 240-foot waterfall on West Fork Tuckasegee River in Jackson County, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge region. It lies about 8.1 miles south of Cullowhee and roughly 43.7 miles southwest of Asheville as the crow flies.
At 240 feet it stands in the tallest quarter of North Carolina’s 288 waterfalls with a recorded height, ranking 22nd; 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. West Fork Tuckasegee River carries 2 recorded waterfalls, and Onion Falls is the tallest of them.
Jackson County holds 79 recorded waterfalls, and several are close by. Tuckasegee Falls, a 120-foot tiered waterfall, is under a mile away. Thurston Hatcher Falls, a horsetail waterfall, is under a mile away. Betsy Falls, is about 1.8 miles away.
Onion Falls is located at 35.1974° N, 83.1526° 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.