About this spot
Mill Shoals, also called French Broad Falls, is a wide 15-foot river-wide ledge where the North Fork French Broad River meets Shoal Creek in Balsam Grove, on the Living Waters retreat property off NC 215, about 25 minutes from Brevard. The land is privately owned, but the owners welcome the public; a short, obvious path from a roadside gravel pullout near the ministry leads down to the falls. Multiple independent trip reports and reviews describe the plunge pools as a popular family swimming spot, with shallow water for kids and boulders to spread out on. The hazard that matters is slick, algae-covered rock on the ledge itself — the drop lands on rock, not deep water, so stay in the established swimming pools rather than on the shoal. An old mill and Bird Rock/Cathedral Falls sit just downstream.
