Ramsey Cascades

Wow! What an awesome trail to hike and enjoy. Given the proximity to my home I do not often consider this trail for a day hike. But Dammnnn! the few times I have done so I am blown away with the beauty, the physical challenge, and the "relative" lack of use of this trail.

Hopefully it'll stay that way, and being that the last 2.5 mls, of trail to the Cascades is fairly difficult I'd imagine the number of folks completing the 8 mls, in and out, will remain steady.
We (Nashville Dave and I), hiked this on a day when rain and thunderstorms had been happening over the previous few days. Our walk took us through a strong storm, w/some thunder and lightening, as we completed the first half of the hike to the Cascades.
The Middle Prong of the Pigeon River, which is the mountain stream/river of which Ramsey Cascades is a part of, became more elevated from the rainfall as we made our way up the trail and after a couple of cautious stream crossings and a serious elevation gain we arrived at our stopping point.
We had lunch just before the cascade as the last stream crossing was looking pretty formidable due to the recent rains and given our inexperience with this trail we decided we'd come back another day for the final 100 yards.
The first 1.5 mls. of this trail is a moderate to easy route and has some beautiful views along the river, with some log benches scattered along this portion to sit on. The remaining 2.5 mls should be considered difficult with any climbing and walking  across rocks at the Cascades as dangerous.
Fatalities have occurred as a result of folks going off the trail onto the cliffs and waterfalls. So, please be careful when enjoying this experience and the many others found in the natural world.