grand canyon of the east?

I went to Birmingham this past weekend to visit a couple of friends. We didn’t really have any set plans for the weekend, so after an amazing Saturday checking out Moss Rock Preserve and the B’ham Botanical Gardens we started talking about Sunday plans. I started googling waterfalls near Birmingham and happened upon Little River Canyon National Preserve. Yesss! This place was close by, supposedly had a great waterfall and to top it off, the website I found it on described it as the “Grand Canyon of the East”.

So…the “Grand Canyon of the East” it is not. I mean, come on East, do you really have to have a Grand Canyon, too? It might be able to squeak by as the distant cousin of the Grand Canyon, but even that is pushing it! For those of you that need statistics, the deepest point of the canyon is over 600 feet (Grand Canyon – 6,000 ft). That being said, it was still a beautiful place and made for an unexpectedly great day trip from Birmingham.

An hour and a half after leaving Birmingham, we arrived at Little River Falls. There was a small crowd of cars at the parking lot but after walking the short trail down to the overlook, we could see that the area was large enough to enjoy the falls without feeling like you were stuck in a crowd. We waded around at the top of the falls, studied some cool rock formations and posed for pictures for a bit. It wasn’t long until the hot July sun made us go back to the car, change into bathing suits and search for a footpath down to the bottom of the falls for a swim. The trip down to the bottom is relatively easily, though there are a few places you actually have to climb down rocks and the “trail” along the bottom is really just  navigating over varying sizes of rocks and boulders.

Now waterfall frolicking is definitely ranks pretty high on my list of pastimes and frolic we did! First we swam to the section of waterfall on the right side. It has a pretty good sized overhang behind it and actually looks like people may have camped inside it at some point. A short swim across the river and a climb over some rocks and we were actually able to sit behind the falls on the left hand side. Sitting behind the falls, you somehow feel protected even though you are so close to the powerful waters…it can be pretty hypnotizing! But my favorite area here was the center of the falls (behind the rock sticking out of the water). The rock there was flat and smooth and the flow of water from above was more like a light rain. We sat (and laid) in that sunny spot for awhile, enjoying the refreshing water falling over us.

After that we headed out to follow the scenic drive. Unfortunately, we soon realized that our ill-prepared rations of a gas station purchased bag of cheezits and some warm bottles of water were not going to hold us over very much longer. Jackie was threatening to get cranky and I was heading towards a BLH attack, so we called it a day and headed back towards town to get some food!

A couple other items…Whenever I visit a National Park, my first stop is almost always at the visitor center to talk to a ranger. They will give you a map and mark it up with items of interest and fill you in with current conditions. I also ask them what their favorite trail, view point, etc. is and they usually have some pointers to avoid crowds. This time the ranger was stationed at the falls and he gave us some good info. He also showed us a photo taken in March of this year when the volume of the falls was at its peak. It was incredible. In the photo, all you could see was raging whitewater pouring over the edge from one side of the river to the other. So the point of that statement is that while the falls were perfect for swimming in (and relatively safe) on the day we visited, this is not always the case. The death of 3 people this past week in Yosemite after slipping over the edge at Vernal Falls is a reminder that precautions need to be taken, rules followed and good judgment used when enjoying these awesome water features.