In Search of Waterfalls
One of my favorite hiking destinations has always been to see a waterfall. I have been lucky enough to see them in many places around the world.
This spring, we have had a lot of rain in northern Alabama, so we decided to go camping in DeSoto State Park and check out some of the waterfalls there.
This delightful park is on top of Lookout Mountain, near the border of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. (Side note: my iPad is telling me it is one time, and my iPhone is saying it’s an hour earlier. We must be very close to the Eastern time zone.)
Not only are there a lot of waterfalls nearby, but many spring flowers are in bloom. Most visible are mountain laurels, azaleas, thistle, and something called a field marigold that looked like a coreopsis to me.
We’ve seen small, pale blue butterflies (probably a Common Blue), as well as larger yellow ones and black ones (maybe Swallowtails). Lots of birds have been chirping as we walk, as they are likely migrating back to North America from South and Central America. All in all, an enchanting place to be outdoors.
Up until today, we had been to DeSoto Falls, Indian Falls, the Azalea Cascade, and Lodge Falls. We have also taken a side trip to Little River Canyon, which also had a nice waterfall with lovely, almost spooky mist. DeSoto Falls is the most majestic (see photo below), but the others are interesting too. For instance, you can tuck yourself behind the falls at Lodge Falls. There is an easy, handicap accessible boardwalk to Azalea Cascade, and many of the trees along the boardwalk have identifying signs.
The weather has been very nice, mostly cool and partly sunny. There aren’t too many other campers, although there are enough to chat with.
Today, we finished our search for waterfalls by hiking three and a half miles into the forest on the mountain. As we started our journey, we were accompanied by three deer, but they soon tired of us and went on their way.
We took the orange trail out to Laurel Falls, then continued on to Lost Falls. Both were beautiful and definitely worth the trip. We connected with the blue trail to head back, most of which fortunately was downhill. Mission to find pretty waterfalls: accomplished.
