Swallow Falls Blog & Vlog

Nestled in the foothills and forests near Deep Creek, Maryland are some of the most beautiful waterfalls to be seen in the area. Not far from Wisp Ski resort, down some backroads lay the parking area for Swallow Falls; bring cash as they accept donations for parking passes, be a good person and donate the $3! Park and jump on the trail for a short walk to the trail split that will take you left to Muddy Creek Falls, or right to Tolliver Falls. The hike itself is a mere 1.5 miles of easy terrain, unless you plan on branching off the trail to get the best views of some of the falls (I did). My preference is to start with Muddy Creek Falls, and loop around to the Tolliver Falls section, ultimately ending up back at the parking lot. Muddy Creek Falls will be the largest fall of the excursion, with multiple viewpoints from the top and bottom of the falls. This fall is handicap accessible as well from the top platform, as there are ramps to get there which offers a great view of the falls. I stopped at the top of the falls to get some drone footage and prepare myself for the trek ahead of me, see the vlog included below. After leaving the top of the falls, you’ll descend a fairly large set of stairs the bottom of the falls, this is where I stopped to take most of the pictures of Muddy Creek, then got on my way to fall #2 of the trip, aptly named Lower Falls. While these were pretty from the walkway, not much in the way of space to stop and photograph due to the cold, however during the summer time, I’ll happily hop in for a swim and get directly in front of the Lower Falls. Progressing forward to fall #3, the Upper Falls, these are a cascading style fall with a massive rock structure in front of them viewable from multiple areas. My personal favorite spot is to break trail towards the water, which gets to be a little more complicated of hike, but well worth the view from the bottom. I set up shop down here and flew the drone for some more overhead stills/footage and brought the tripod and Canon R out at the ground level. Leaving this spot of the Upper Falls and hanging a left will take you across a walkway and to the upper part of the falls, where you can stand right next to (or even in) the water that’s cascading over them, a great opportunity for some selfies. Continuing on will take you to my favorite part of the hike, Tolliver Falls. Tolliver just so happens to be the smallest of the 4 falls, but in my opinion, is the most beautiful. It’s perfectly calm, serene, and beautifully framed in by the surrounding foliage. This is a spot that you can set up and spend some time there peacefully, have a picnic, play in the water, enjoy the scenery, and just take it all in. Ending the trip, you'll hike around the basin at the bottom of Tolliver, through some rock formations, up some rock stairs, and back to a path that will take you right back to the sign at the beginning of the loop where we split left to go to Muddy Creek Falls. A short overview of Swallow Falls: beautiful rock formations, breathtaking waterfalls, various points of high energy and calm serenity, places to jump around, climb, and explore, and in the summer, lots of great areas to swim and enjoy nature, and accessible to nearly all people. If ever in the area it’s absolutely worthy of stopping by and checking out, or even spending a few hours to a whole day there, as there are other landmarks in the surrounding areas as well.