The city has a park here, complete with petting zoo and mini-golf. But we were only here to see the waterfall, so rather than paying to enter the park, we just walked over to see the waterfall. We would have had to wait for it to open as well. A statue near the rim was of a Cherokee woman, Noccalula for whom the falls is named, jumping over the edge.
According to legend, she killed herself rather than marry a man she didn’t love. We got some pictures here and walked over to the footbridge over the river above the falls. Then we headed north to Little River Canyon National Preserve. We entered on AL-176 at Eberhart Point and followed the rim drive north. We first stopped at the overlook for Grace’s High Falls.
From across the Bear Creek Gorge, we could see the waterfall tumbling off the cliff. Although it’s a seasonal waterfall, when it's flowing, it’s the highest in the state of Alabama at 133 feet and today it was flowing well. As we were getting ready to leave, a turkey vulture flew right by us and I was able to get a picture before he flew off.
We continued on and stopped at a couple of the overlooks. First we stopped at the Wolf Creek Overlook for views on the west end of the Wolf Creek gorge.
Then we stopped on the other side at Canyon View.
Next, we stopped at Lynn Overlook with more great views of the Little River Canyon.
And then finally, we stopped at the Little River Falls Overlook. Although the waterfall was a ways upstream, the viewpoint was pretty good.
We stopped one more time at the parking area for Little River Falls and went down for some pictures of the waterfall close up. This impressive river-wide waterfall is split into two streams and it was really flowing today.
After a few pictures, we continued north to DeSoto Falls. I got a tip from a friend, so instead of going to the main viewing area, we parked along the road and followed a trail to the base.
The trail started past some huge cliffs and then led down to the river.
There were some beautiful azaleas blooming.
It was just a short ways along the river to the base of this beautiful 100-foot waterfall. Our friends who had visited recently had gone swimming, but it was way too cold today.
We had a snack and I climbed around on the rocks to get pictures from different angles. There were some beautiful irises blooming near the waterfall.
Along the way back, we passed some people rock climbing on the cliffs. Back at the car, we continued a short ways to the the regular viewing area. It was a view of the top, including the A. A. Miller Dam and some cascades above the main drop.
We followed the path to the overlook and had to stretch to get an unobstructed view of the main waterfall.
From here, we headed into the main part of DeSoto State Park and parked at the Talmadge Butler Boardwalk trailhead. We followed this boardwalk to the first of several small waterfalls in the park.
Azalea Cascade was just a small slide between some big boulders. We got on the blue-blazed Lost Falls Trail and hiked about a mile to the next waterfall. Lost Falls is a small waterfall and the first of several on Laurel Creek.
Although it's not big, it's pretty as it falls over the rock ledges. We crossed the creek above the waterfall and followed the orange-blazed Laurel Falls Trail to this waterfall.
We could have just as easily seen it coming in from the Lost Falls Trail. This small waterfall had a lot of moss and algae growing on the rocks over which it fell. We finished up the loop and took the boardwalk back to the parking area. We crossed the street here and headed down to Indian Falls.
A footbridge led over the falls, so we had to climb down to get a good view. This 20-foot waterfall was very scenic, the last one on Laurel Creek before it flows into West Fork Little River.
From here, we got on the DeSoto Scout Trail and followed the river downstream a bit, then took the violet Wildflower Trail to Lodge Falls.
The top of the waterfall had a small, but scenic drop. It seemed like there was more to it downstream. I tried climbing down all the way to the river, but there was really nothing else to see. So we headed back to the car and drove further into the park for one more waterfall.
We parked at the trailhead for Gilliam Loop Trail and followed this trail for a half-mile or so. Then we turned on DST Exit 1 and followed this down to DeSoto Scout Trail. It was relatively level at first, but got extremely steep before reaching river level. We got on DeSoto Scout Trail and followed West Fork Little River downstream. Almost immediately, looking across the river, we could see what looked like a waterfall on the other side. But there was no way to get across the river in such high water for a closer look. Following the trail, we soon came to Poison Ivy Falls.
This tall waterfall flows over a high cliff, forming a rockhouse behind the falls. I’m not sure how the waterfall got its name and I didn’t want to find out. After a few pictures, we continued on and took DST Exit 2 to head back. Along the way, we heard something and got off trail to find a small 10-foot waterfall on an unnamed tributary.
We called it Rhododendron Falls, because it was so covered in rhododendron that it was hard to get a picture. We then finished our hike up and headed back to the car. Driving back to Cleveland, we stopped in town for dinner at Five Point Square before heading back to the hotel.
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