The falls are believed to be named after William Crabtree, who settled in the area in 1777. The Tye River, at the bottom of the falls, is named for Allen Tye, who did extensive exploration in the local Blue Ridge Mountains.
This was our afternoon hike after climbing up Humpback Rocks in the morning. The results were just as spectacular. The trail was extremely well taken care of, except for two areas were trees had fallen over the trail, one that you had to duck under, the other that you had to crawl over. Every 1/10th of a mile was a mile post so you always knew where you were in relation to the top, which was 1.3 mile from the parking lot. The trail has wooden gaurdrails at critical points and railed overlooks at most scenic overlooks. Steeper areas have steps either notched out, built up, or laid out in stone. There's a $3. entrance fee, so please do the honorable thing and pay - we all benefit from this.
I learned my lesson from this morning's hike. This time we took a bottle of water and a pocket full of almonds.
After this second hike of the day we stopped by a small shop and had our official [late afternoon] lunch at 3:30 pm.
For more detailed information see: Crabtree Falls