Waterfalls of the Southern Appalachians & Great Smoky Mountains

Reviewed by Dean Goss

This is the fourth edition of this book. Each is an improvement over the previous edition. The fourth edition covers 126 waterfalls in Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina. It's a fairly large undertaking so there will naturally be hundreds of omissions, but it DOES portray the best waterfalls the region has to offer. In addition, rather than being a beefed up version of the third edition, it is quite a bit different from the previous editions, particularly in as much as it has different waterfalls portrayed for the most part.

The book is well laid out. It doesn't waste much time in introductory material or verbose preambles. By page 8, you are into the waterfalls. The book is divided up into four geographic sections: The Great Smoky Mountains, Western North Carolina, Northeast Georgia, and Western South Carolina. In addition, each of the four sections are categorized into geographically similar subsections. The organization of the book is respectable.

The book does have some drawbacks. There is virtually no information beyond that which is associated with the waterfalls. No photographic hints, no appendices, no glossary, no history, and so forth. There aren't many photographs and those that are in the book are of average quality.

The Bottom Line: This book is primarily a guidebook that is composed of virtually nothing but waterfall information. I'd like to see better quality stock, perhaps more or better photos, some adjunct information, but the ultimate purpose of the book is to be a guidebook. It fulfills that purpose admirably. If you dedicated your weekends to waterfall pursuits, this book, as a checklist, would take a long time to complete.