Cascades Preserve – Keyauwee Trail

Keyauwee Trail is the second extension trail feeding off the Falling Waters Trail at Cascades Preserve — a 0.5-mile loop marked by Red Diamond blazes just outside Kernersville, NC near Oak Ridge in Guilford County.

The trail’s name honors the Keyauwee — a Siouan-speaking Native American tribe who inhabited the NC Piedmont region long before European settlement, with communities across what are today Guilford, Randolph, and Alamance counties. That pre-colonial cultural reference gives the trail a genuinely singular editorial anchor that most local preserve trails can’t offer.

Be sure to check out the YouTube video and pictures below to get a feel for Keyauwee Trail before you go — or to relive the visit after.

The Keyauwee Native American Naming Origin

The Keyauwee were a Siouan-speaking tribe who lived in the North Carolina Piedmont region until the early 1700s, when European settlement and colonial expansion increasingly displaced Native American communities across the American Southeast. The Keyauwee’s traditional territory included substantial portions of what are now Guilford, Randolph, and Alamance counties — placing the Cascades Preserve directly within the tribe’s historical homeland.

By the mid-1700s, the Keyauwee had largely merged with other Piedmont Siouan tribes and their distinct identity gradually faded from the historical record. Naming the trail after the Keyauwee tribe honors that pre-colonial Native American presence on the land — a genuinely thoughtful editorial choice for a preserve located within the tribe’s traditional homeland.

The Trail Experience — A Ridge Loop and Figure-Eight Option

The 0.5-mile loop is rated moderate — largely due to some roots and rocks along the path — and winds up a gentle ridge through a hardwood forest of towering oaks and abundant ferns. Underfoot, hikers walk on soft paths covered in pine needles — a genuinely distinctive tactile experience that gives the trail a quieter, more cushioned feel than typical dirt-and-rock trail surfaces.

The trail’s most distinctive network feature is that both ends of the Keyauwee Trail loop connect back to the Falling Waters Trail — allowing hikers to enter the Keyauwee Trail from one Falling Waters junction and exit at another. That connection pattern creates a genuinely wonderful figure-eight hike option — hikers can combine the Falling Waters Trail’s 1.53-mile main loop with the Keyauwee Trail’s 0.5-mile loop for a combined ~2-mile experience that offers substantially more landscape variety than either trail alone.

The trail also offers occasional creek views from the ridge, plus the general woodland scenery that shifts with the seasons. For hikers looking for a shorter add-on to a Falling Waters Trail visit — under an hour of extra hiking — Keyauwee is a natural fit that adds ridge terrain and Native American history context to the broader Cascades Preserve experience.

Good to Know

Location: Cascades Preserve, just outside Kernersville, NC near the town of Oak Ridge in Guilford County
Trail length: 0.5 miles (loop)
Trail blaze: Red Diamond
Difficulty: Moderate — due to roots and rocks along the path
Network role: Extension trail that feeds off the Falling Waters Trail (the preserve’s central spine); both ends of the Keyauwee Trail loop connect back to Falling Waters
Trail name origin: Named after the Keyauwee — a Siouan-speaking Native American tribe whose traditional homeland included the NC Piedmont region (Guilford, Randolph, and Alamance counties) until the early 1700s
Terrain: Gentle ridge climb through hardwood forest
Underfoot experience: Soft paths covered in pine needles (a distinctive tactile feel compared to typical dirt-and-rock trail surfaces)
Forest composition: Towering oaks and abundant ferns
Landscape features: Ridge terrain with occasional creek views
Combination option: Combined with the Falling Waters Trail, creates a natural figure-eight hike — approximately 2 miles total, combining Falling Waters’s 1.53-mile main loop with the Keyauwee 0.5-mile loop
Time investment: Under an hour for the Keyauwee Trail alone
Access: Requires hiking a portion of the Falling Waters Trail from the standard preserve parking on Goodwill Church Road
Full preserve context: Cascades Preserve main sub-page
Full trail catalog: Cascades Preserve Trail List
Deep-dive resource: Hike the Cascades Preserve trail guide blog post
Cost: Free
Best for: Hikers looking for a short ridge-terrain extension to a Falling Waters Trail visit, families with children wanting a manageable-distance loop, visitors curious about the Native American history of the NC Piedmont, and photographers of hardwood forest scenery
Pair with: The Falling Waters Trail for the classic figure-eight combined hike (the natural pairing); the Headwaters Trail for a longer 2.2-mile out-and-back adding the Mountains-to-Sea Trail connection; the broader Cascades Preserve experience; or the full Kernersville attractions cluster including the 1880 Körner’s Folly historic home, the Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden, the Kernersville Auto Museum, and Triad Park (including the Carolina Field of Honor veterans memorial)

A Kernersville Highlight

Keyauwee Trail is the kind of stop that stays with you for the sheer editorial depth packed into a 0.5-mile loop. Standing on land that once belonged to the Keyauwee Native American tribe — a Siouan-speaking Piedmont community whose traditional homeland extended across Guilford, Randolph, and Alamance counties before European settlement — gives hikers a genuine sense of the pre-colonial history layered beneath the modern trail infrastructure.

The figure-eight combination with Falling Waters rounds out the appeal. Between the pine-needle-covered ridge paths, the hardwood forest scenery, the occasional creek views, and the seamless connection back to the Falling Waters Trail at both ends of the loop, the Keyauwee Trail has become one of the more distinctive short-hike extensions in the greater Winston-Salem/Piedmont Triad region.