A popular recreation area just off I-40 near Old Fort has gotten a much needed makeover.

As producer Clay Johnson and his videographer Erik Olsen show us, the waterfalls are just as beautiful, but now they're much easier and safer for people to approach.

[plaintive music] - Catawba Falls is a beautiful place, awesome waterfall, scenic trails, a place where you can sit near the tranquil water and watch the wildlife.

I come here every couple of weeks.

It's a great spot to just kind of get away and walk.

It's not a hard trail, but it's strenuous enough that I get a good exercise while on the trail.

- [Clay] Catawba Falls is a series of waterfalls at the headwaters of the Catawba River in the Pisgah National Forest in McDowell County.

- [Lisa] We actually have records dating back to the late 1800s of folks getting to the spot.

- [Clay] In the early 2000s, a local land trust purchased the property from a private owner and opened it to the public.

- It transferred over to the US Forest Service, and ever since then, we've been slowly building out infrastructure to make sure that it's safe and enjoyable for folks to visit.

- [Clay] A 3 1/2 mile loop trail takes people to three falls.

The first is an old dam site.

- [Lisa] And this is where the Catawba River was dammed to create electricity for the town of Old Fort in the early 1900s.

- [Clay] The next stop is the lower falls.

- [Lisa] That is kind of the quintessential experience here at Catawba Falls, and it's a 250-foot cascading waterfall, super unique for North Carolina.

It's got a lot of wild flowers and vegetation growing in the waterfall.

- [Clay] Next is a 30-story nearly 600-step staircase to the upper falls.

- [Lisa] It's a really artistically made staircase.

So you'll have a set of stairs.

You'll have landings.

And then about every 100 stairs, there's a large landing, like an overlook or a place with benches.

So we recommend everybody takes their time and enjoys the view.

From every point in the staircase, you get a different view of the waterfall and a different view into the valley.

It is quite the feat of engineering and construction out here, and it includes a 60-foot-tall metal tower that takes you up to an observation deck with a beautiful view into the valley.

- [Clay] The tower and staircase are the centerpieces of a renovation that closed the area for two years.

Before, getting to the lower falls had never been a problem.

- But once you got there, it became a boulder field and then a rock scramble up the side of a cliff.

There were about three ropes that folks would hoist themselves up to get to the upper falls, and that's where we had a lot of accidents.

- [Clay] Even fatalities.

- People would try to get to the upper falls, and I've watched people get hurt here before.

And honestly before the renovations, I'd stopped coming as often because it was crowded.

You would kind of get clustered up at the lower falls, but now people can safely get to the upper falls.

I love it even more after the renovations.

- And that was a big part of this project of why we wanted to develop, so that folks could get safely to the upper falls, which we know they want to visit.

We want folks to have a really good experience in their national forest, just being out in nature in a safe way that's gonna, you know, build that appreciation for what public lands are.

- [Clay] The area gets about 1,500 visitors a day in the summer.

- We get folks who are just traveling east or west on I-40 and maybe want a two-hour hiking stop on their way to, you know, Atlanta, DC, any other metropolitan area.

But we also get a lot of folks who are vacationing in Asheville and Old Fort and Black Mountain and are coming down here to do a nice day hike.

- [Clay] And locals like Christina Redman love to visit Catawba Falls too.

- Maybe I'm out here right before sunset, and trail's quiet.

It's peaceful.

And I'm in here for a 20-minute walk with my dog.

Sometimes I have a whole afternoon free, and I'll come out, and I'll find a spot to put up my hammock and hang out.

I personally get a sense of peace when I come here, and it just grounds me.

It's the time to be out in nature and away from the hustle of life.

- Catawba Falls is at 3074 Catawba River Road in Old Fort, and it's open daily.

To find out more, go to ashevilletrails.com.