Mingo Falls is on the Cherokee Indian Reservation (Qualla Boundary), just outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. No special permits are required for access to the reservation. At 120 feet tall, the waterfall is one of the tallest and most spectacular in the southern Appalachians. The hike to the waterfall is only 0.4 miles in length, but is considered moderate in difficulty.

One Native American myth that has captured my attention is the idea concerning the mystical nature of waterfalls. As water travels along its water-bed it is attached to the natural world. When the water falls from its heights into a gathering pool below, it creates a liquid veil separating the two worlds, beyond that veil is a world existing only within the supernatural.

There are strange possibilities beyond the veil, that there might even exist a greater part of ourselves that is divinely guiding us even though we might not be aware of it due to our attachment to earthly living. Its more difficult for most of us to peer into that veil, than it is for the supernatural to occasionally push its nose out through the veil to remind us we’re more connected to the supernatural than we think.