Spectacular Waterfalls of Western North Carolina

Reviewed by Dean Goss

A full color book of waterfalls in Western North Carolina should have waterfall enthusiasts dashing to the bookstore (or Amazon.com) to track this down.

Save your money. I'll tell you why. This book doesn't cover any material that hasn't already been covered before, often several times. Redundancy isn't a strong selling point. The text, while fully functional is limited to basic information including a description, directions to the trail, directions while on the trail, and suggested locations from which to shoot the falls. In addition to this, there is a factbox that gives a beauty rating, water flow, height, type, property owner, county, trail rating, and trail length.

The photos, while color, are of mediocre quality both in terms of execution and print quality. The photos seem to have been printed by an inkjet printer. The paper is standard matte finish paper. I could print shots like this at home with an old inkjet printer on regular white paper. The author mentions in the forward that he doesn't prefer to take art shots, meaning his waterfall photography doesn't use longer exposures. While this might render the falls more like the average hiker will see them in the wild, they are ho hum.

The Bottom Line: This book offers a scanty smattering of material that has been better done elsewhere. Buy one of Kevin Adams' books.