Cascades, Protected conservation area in the Appalachian Mountains, Giles County, Virginia, United States

Cascades is a conservation area in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests of Giles County, Virginia, named for a 60-foot waterfall on Little Stony Creek. The area is bounded by Pacers Gap Road to the north, Butt Mountain to the west, and Doe Mountain to the south and east. It lies within the Ridge and Valley Province, where sedimentary rock has folded and faulted into ridges and valleys, and fossils can be seen in rock exposures.

The Wilderness Society recognized the Cascades area as a special place worth protecting from logging and road construction. The U.S. Forest Service surveyed its lands for wilderness potential, but the Cascades was not included among the inventoried roadless areas, leaving it open to possible road building and timber sales. The area lies within the Mountain Lake Wilderness Cluster.

The name comes from the 60-foot waterfall on Little Stony Creek, which leaves the area and flows into the New River. Hikers reach the falls on trails from a trailhead about 4 miles from Pembroke, and a second route leads to Barney's Wall, a tall cliff overlooking the area.

The waterfall trailhead lies about 4 miles from Pembroke on a well-maintained road; the Forest Service charges a parking fee there, and weekend queues can form before the lot. The Barney's Wall trailhead is about 34 miles from Pembroke, with the final stretch on a dirt road that low-suspension cars struggle with. Roads and trails appear on National Geographic Trail Map 788.

The area holds 445 acres of potential old-growth forest, and Little Stony Creek is eligible for Wild and Scenic River designation. The southern Appalachians around it shelter nearly 10,000 species, including the walking fern, whose narrow tips root where they touch the ground.