The 10 Best Waterfalls in Tennessee
The Cumberland Plateau is one enormous waterfall machine: caprock, gorges, and rivers that vanish into caves and come out as spectacle. Tennessee holds the tallest free-fall east of the Mississippi, a falls that pours out of one cave and into another, and a gorge the state now runs on permits because flash floods here have taken lives.
Every entry reflects current access — including the beloved falls whose base staircase is gone for good.
Fall Creek: 256 feet of free-fall — the East's tallest — with a state park empire around it.
Directions, season & rules for Fall Creek Falls →
Burgess: three falls stacking to a 103-foot finale, now overlook-only — the base staircase is gone for good.
Directions, season & rules for Burgess Falls →
Cummins: the state's most famous swimming hole, run on a $7 permit and a hard weather rule written in tragedy.
Directions, season & rules for Cummins Falls →
Virgin: a 110-footer that exits one cave and vanishes into another — nine backcountry miles to watch a mountain swallow a waterfall.
Directions, season & rules for Virgin Falls →
Greeter: Savage Gulf's spiral-staircase swimming hole.
Directions, season & rules for Greeter Falls →Machine: a cave-born 60-footer fanning over layered rock in Short Springs' karst country.
Directions, season & rules for Machine Falls →
Foster: a 60-foot plunge pool ringed by two hundred climbing routes — the plateau's best double feature.
Directions, season & rules for Foster Falls →
Bald River: the Cherokee Forest's roadside cathedral, back with a new viewing deck after its road rebuild.
Directions, season & rules for Bald River Falls →
Abrams: twenty feet tall, the Smokies' biggest volume, and its most dangerous pool — five miles for the sight, never the swim.
Directions, season & rules for Abrams Falls →
Rainbow Falls: the Smokies' tallest single drop, first leg of the LeConte pilgrimage.
Directions, season & rules for Rainbow Falls →Rankings reflect our research, not a verdict on your trip — every spot page takes community ratings and conditions reports, and that's where the real answer to "is it worth it?" lives.