Middle Prong Trail

Middle Prong follows an old logging railroad grade up Lynn Camp Prong from the end of Tremont Road, which means the climbing is steady but never steep and the creek is in sight or earshot the whole way. The payoff starts immediately: within the first half mile a footbridge and a viewing area face Lynn Camp Prong Cascades, the long sliding falls that many visitors come to see on their own, and the grade keeps passing chutes and pools as it climbs through a valley that was clear-cut by the Little River Lumber Company a century ago — watch for the rusted hulk of a Cadillac abandoned just off the trail near mile two. Most hikers turn around at Indian Flats Falls, a four-tiered 60-foot waterfall reached by a short, easy-to-miss side path off the fourth switchback about 3.9 miles up. The wide tread handles crowds and wet weather well, but the upper gravel stretch of Tremont Road is closed in winter, and the slick rock around every cascade here has caused serious falls — admire from the trail.