Asheville juvenile drowns at Hooker Falls in DuPont State Forest
A juvenile from Asheville drowned at Hooker Falls on June 13, reviving questions about safety warnings at one of the region’s busiest swimming spots.
An Asheville juvenile drowned at Hooker Falls in DuPont State Recreational Forest on June 13, a tragedy that underscores how quickly a popular summer swim spot can turn deadly. The North Carolina Forest Service confirmed the death as part of two drownings reported that day in western North Carolina, including an 18-year-old man from Lincolnton who died at Lake James.
Hooker Falls sits in the 12,400-acre DuPont State Recreational Forest, which spans Henderson and Transylvania counties between Hendersonville and Brevard. The waterfall is only about 12 feet high and is easy to reach from the parking area, a combination that has made it one of the best-known places for cooling off in summer. But that convenience comes with a warning built into state forest rules: swimming and wading are allowed only at a person’s own risk, and not within 300 feet upstream of the top of a waterfall or in areas marked as non-swimming.
Those rules are not abstract. Friends of DuPont Forest says people die every year at waterfalls in the area, and Hooker Falls has its own history of fatal swimming incidents. In 2016, 18-year-old Endi Alvarez of Henderson County drowned there while swimming with family, a loss that led the Transylvania County sheriff at the time to urge visitors to use caution and the buddy system.
The latest death adds urgency ahead of another busy weekend at a site that is frequently crowded in summer. DuPont State Recreational Forest says Hooker Falls parking is first come, first served, and the lots often fill early in the day. That means families from Asheville, Buncombe County and across the region can arrive to find a packed trailhead, heavy water traffic and limited room to spread out safely.
After the weekend drownings, emergency officials again pressed a simple message: wear life jackets when appropriate, swim only in designated areas, keep children within arm’s reach and stay out of water conditions you do not know. At Hooker Falls, officials and advocates have made clear that the safest choice starts before anyone enters the water, because the danger there is not hidden, it is part of the place.
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