As you head further west in North Carolina, you start to find more and more waterfalls. The further east you go in North Carolina, the less likely you are to find waterfalls as the land flattens considerably. As we arrived in Greensboro, I wondered if there were any waterfalls nearby. If you drew a line between Greensboro and Charlotte, that would create a very natural boundary of waterfalls versus no waterfalls in the state. And the closer we are to that boundary, as we were in Greensboro, I wasn’t thinking there’d be many.

About 15 miles west of Winston-Salem, that’s where you can find one of the first waterfalls near that boundary, Shacktown Falls. Shacktown Falls can be found rather easily in Shore-Styers Mill Park, which is found in the four way stop which is Shacktown. Shacktown Falls is a rather small waterfall at only 12′ tall, but it’s also rather wide! The benefit of the falls is that they’re close to a major area even though there aren’t many others around here. And the falls are very pretty. If you want a retreat to nature but don’t want to go far or on a long hike, Shacktown Falls may be the choice for you.

Directions:

1. From Winston-Salem, you can head west on US-421.
2. Shacktown is near Yadkinville, both of which are off of US-421. To get to Shacktown, take exit 253 on US-421. You’ll exit onto Old Stage Road (Road 1733).
3. Turn right onto Old Stage Road. In under 1000′, you’ll come to an intersection with Shacktown Road (Road 1146).
4. Turn left on Shacktown Road. At 0.3 miles, you’ll turn right onto Styers Mill Road (Road 1510).
5. In 0.5 miles, you’ll reach Shore-Styers Mill Park on your left. The falls are a very short distance from the parking area.

Accessibility: 10/10 (easy)
Height: 12′
Length of Hike: 0.1 mile round-trip

Where in the World is Shacktown Falls?