Little River Falls and Canyon (Cherokee County, Alabama)

My second destination of the day allows me to dip my toe into the cold waters of Northern Alabama for the first time since moving to Georgia. The Little River Canyon National Preserve protects a beautiful river-carved canyon at the southern end of the Appalachians and offers numerous recreation opportunities for visitors. 

After parking the jeep, I am greeted by a ranger with a park brochure before heading down the board walk to the viewing deck for Little River Falls, which is beautiful site. The waterfall drops about 45 feet into a large bowl that has been carved over the ages. I suspect that when the river is flowing more, this would look like a miniature Niagara Falls with several sections fall over the entire semi-circle that is the top of the bowl. Today though, it's just single wide waterfall. 

I snap a few shots of the waterfall and then head down the Little Falls Trail to wherever it takes me. It follows the top of the canyon wall, and while the river now occupies only a small channel of the canyon, the steep stone drop offs below me provide evidence that it was once much wider. Trees and other growth have taken up residence between the cliff and river in modern times. It's roughly a seventy foot drop in most places from where the trail passes to the bottom of the canyon below. 

After about a mile or so, I reach a set of stone-carved steps that lead down to the river. I carefully climb down them and arrive to find a large number of people enjoying various activities here in this channel. I see folks fishing others swimming, while still other people are taking the flume down a small waterfall connecting two larger pools. There is lots of stone to navigate on today, but when the river is higher, this would probably be more precarious. 

After spending a few minutes here, I climb back up the steps and head back towards the parking lot. As I was necessarily planning to do any hiking here, I didn't track my distance or route, but I think it was about 1.8 miles in total.