DeSoto Falls / Little River Canyon
DeSoto Falls State Park, Alabama | Little River Canyon National Preserve | January 2023
On our second day in the Chattanooga area, we awoke to temps in the 20s and frost on the ground. We bundled up for today’s adventures and once the frost was scraped from the car, we got on the road and drove Southwest into Alabama. Last year we crossed into this state for the first time, and it was my 50th state. But that day we only made one stop, cutting off the Northwest corner before heading into Tennessee. Today we had a few hikes planned, and we hoped to see what beauty the state has to offer, and make some memories within the state lines.
We drove up to the top of Lookout Mountain, then followed the highway on the ridge Southwest into Alabama. Our first stop for the day was DeSoto Falls State Park (not to be confused with DeSoto Falls Recreation Area which we had just visited in Georgia – DeSoto is somewhat important in the area history). We started our hike in a small empty lot off a gravel road where there is a trailhead to both an upper and lower view of the falls. We decided to start out on the trail to the upper falls, which was mostly flat and easy. If we felt the falls were worth it, we would then make the effort to hike down to the lower viewpoint.
The waterfall was tall and impressive, but the upper overlook had a lot of trees obstructing the view. We decided it would be worth taking the trail down to the lower viewpoint. Overall this trail was more enjoyable, with tall cliffs on one side and the stream with bright turquoise water flowing on the right. At the end we reached the pool at the base of the falls, and there was much more room to sit down and enjoy the waterfall, so we stayed there for a while. On our way back, we stopped to check out a cave on a side trail.
Next, we drove further South into the main park, where there were more people out hiking. We set off on a trail that started as a nature trail on a boardwalk, then continued into the woods. At first we thought the map showed it going past several more smaller waterfalls, but the trail left the creek and didn’t seem to be going where we thought it would, and there just didn’t seem to be any dramatic cliffs that would exhibit any big waterfalls, so we turned back after a mile. Back at the parking lot, we crossed the street to check out Indian Falls. This one was shorter and there wasn’t a great place to see it all unobstructed, so our favorite part of this park remained the lower viewpoint for DeSoto Falls – which is probably why the park is named after that one.
We drove further Southwest along Lookout mountain, and spent the rest of our day exploring Little River Canyon National Preserve, a unit of the NPS. The Little River is a unique watershed, existing exclusively on the top of Lookout mountain. It’s primarily rain water fed, and is exceptionally clean for an Eastern River. It also drops some significant elevation over falls like De Soto and through a deep gorge which definitely adds to the beauty factor. We started our time here at the parking lot on the East side of the river off of AL-35. There was a great viewing platform of the river and falls here and the water was a lovely deep shade of green. We followed a trail that ran alongside the river downstream, which eventually went down some stairs right down to the shore. We hopped around the rocks and admired the smaller cascading falls before returning up to our car.
After a short stop at the visitor center, we started on the long scenic drive on AL-176 through the park. There were many canyon overlooks along the way, some that we stopped to enjoy. We saw Graces High Falls, the highest waterfall in Alabama, which is seasonal but luckily there had been enough rain for it to be flowing. We also enjoyed Canyon View overlook, which had so many vultures flying around – easily 20+ gliding. The entire drive gave us a better appreciation for how scenic this river is, with tall cliffs on either side. However, it also made us think the people who made this road were crazy. It had some of the steepest hills we’ve ever driven, and sometimes we’d make it over the crest of a hill and start heading down only to find the road covered in potholes. I was thankful that Curtis is such a good driver, and relieved when we finally finished the drive! The one disappointment was that the nearby firetower was closed — it would have been nice to have a good view of the canyon and the surrounding area.
After that drive, we were ready to be done for the day, so we headed back to our rental house.
