If you’re looking for a short, easy hike with a view, Issaqueena Falls is the trail for you. According to AllTrails, it is an “easy” level out-and-back trail that is only 0.3 miles, leading to a wooden platform from which you can see the gorgeous waterfall. Dogs are allowed on-leash and the trail is perfect for beginners and kids. 

Issaqueena Falls is named for a Native American woman named Issaqueena. According to the Newberry Observer, she fell in love with a man from another tribe, and when she heard that her tribe was planning an attack on them, she fled and warned them. This is the origin of the town names Mile Creek, Six Mile, Twelve Mile, Eighteen Mile, Three and Twenty, Six and Twenty and Ninety Six, which were all mile-markers along her journey. Furious, her tribe hunted her down until she jumped off what is now known as Issaqueena Falls, leading them to believe she was dead. Some legends say she did die at the waterfall, while others say she escaped and lived a happy life.

The trail is also right next to Stumphouse Tunnel. Work began on the tunnel in 1856, with a goal to create a faster route through the Blue Ridge Mountains. By 1859, they had spent over a million dollars, equal to about $33 million today, and abandoned the failing project. In the 1950s, Clemson University took over the tunnel and used it to make their famous blue cheese. Clemson stopped producing the cheese in the converted tunnel in the 1970s, and it is now made in Newman Hall.