After being closed for a year-and-a-half, the trail to the bottom of the 404-foot Hickory Nut Falls in the Rutherford County park has reopened, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported Sunday.
The 3/4-mile trail to the falls, which made an appearance in the 1992 blockbuster movie, is the most popular in the state park 25 miles southeast of Asheville. Its closure has been partly blamed for the decline in visitation last year.
“It is our most popular trail, bar none. We have fielded thousands of calls about when that trail is going to reopen,” said Mary Standish, Chimney Rock park marketing assistant.
A storm in November 2012 caused a massive rockslide, unleashing a boulder “the size of a school bus,” Standish said, bringing down trees, earth and debris onto the trail. It caused dangerous conditions, keeping it closed to the public since then.
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