Hiking At Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve, Tuscumbia, AL
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Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve is our second hike of the year and the first time we have visited this beautiful preserve. It is privately owned by Jim and Faye Lacefield but open to the public at no charge. They are both some of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet and will answer any question you may have about the property or the local area. The owners go above and beyond to help the hikers by servicing the two bathrooms and providing several five gallon water coolers along the first two miles of the hike. They own 713 acres and work a cooperative project with the Natural Conservancy of Alabama. It was the best kept trail I have seen in Alabama. Almost the entire trail has been widen and paved with fresh small rocks from the creek below. It must have taken years, if not over a decade to make these trails as nice as they are. They have done a much nicer job than some of Alabama’s state owned parks.
We felt energized on this hike and decided to do the long eight-mile hike to Karen’s Fall. While it was barely running, it was well worth the hike. A lot of cliff overhangs and crevasses to explore, just watch out for those snakes. The first few miles of the hike, the trails are nice and wide with a lot of flat river rock paved trails but as you get closer to Karen’s fall, the trail becomes much narrower, maybe a foot or two wide, but still manageable. The small paved rocks are gone and you are just walking on the clay soil. As you make your way to the falls, there is a small descent but it is not too difficult. I almost gave up and wanted to turn back but my kids pushed us forward and within 100 feet of us, we saw the sign that said .7 miles to Karen’s fall. I am so glad we didn’t give up. I was just tired and worried we wouldn’t make it back to our car before closing time. It was 2:40 and we had just over 2 hours to make it back. Karen’s fall was beautiful, but I imagine it would have been much prettier in the spring time when the water was flowing more.
Our Adventure at Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve
Map of the All the Trails
The preserve is open from Friday – Sunday from 7am – 5pm. They are located on 251 Loop Rd, Tuscumbia, AL. Below is the map of the trails. Take a picture with your phone before setting off on your hike. It was pretty hard to read and navigate, but the signs along the hike make it much easier. Pay attention to the marker points. Each post is numbered with point 8 being Karen’s Falls.
Table of Rocks, Fossils And Indian Artifacts
Before you start your hike you must sign in. This is to keep track of all visitors, making sure you are not eaten by some new undiscovered dinosaur or carried off by Bigfoot. After you sign in, there are two tables showing all kinds of stuff that people have left and found over the years. Most of them were found in the creek beds or along the trails. On the first table, I noticed several pieces of petrified wood, Indian arrowheads, pottery shards, rocks with fossils, a lot of flint and some unusual rocks formations.
Second Table of Interesting Finds
The second table has some interesting quartz crystal, geodes, deer antlers, turtle shells, and several large rocks with fossils. The owner said you can keep anything you find or simply donate them to the pile on the table.
Start of Our Hike
Except the first part, the entire trail is under shade. It was about 5-10 degrees cooler in the canyon. Here is Noah, Jacob and Elia getting a head start. If you look closely, our second oldest, Jacob is giving Elia a piggyback ride.
Salamander in the Stream
You can see and hear many different animal species living in the preserve. Here is large salamander.
Bird Nest
My daughter found this bird nest in a crevasse along the canyon wall.
Black Racer Snake
My second oldest son Jacob said he stepped over this black racer. He joked that I stepped over it too. I seriously doubt that!
First Waterfall
This is the first waterfall you will come to. I just can't remember the name of it, but according to the owner it is the biggest waterfall here. We came during the first week of June, towards the end of the spring rains which at this time of the year, the waterfalls barely flow.
Elia Gates
Here is Elia enjoying this scenic and picturesque preserve.
Joshua at one of the Waterfalls.
Here is Joshua with his Moses staff.
Dark, Scary Cave
Did I mention there are a lot of creepy caves here? Too scared to see if Bigfoot might be living in one of these dark caves.
Here We Are at One of the Cave Openings
Not sure if you can zoom in, but after we uploaded the pictures, my son noticed two eyes from deep into the caves looking at us - creepy!
Finding Indian Artifacts
We have found a few arrowheads on our property and some small fossils in our own creek. Here are our boys sifting through the dirt at one of the cave overhangs. Needless-to-say we did not find any.
Almost Had a Heart Attack
"Boys get down and away from that cliff!" I almost said a four letter word when my middle son sat down and swung his legs over the ledge.
We Made it to Our Final Destination!
Here we are at Karen's Falls. The Waterfall wasn't flowing much but it was well worth the 8 mile hike. We'll try again perhaps this fall or next spring when the rains begin.
Jacob Climbs on Karen's Falls
Here is Jacob climbing up mid level on Karen's Falls. The height in the picture is a little deceptive. It's actually a pretty big dropoff. Compare the water marks in the two pictures above.
Kids Swimming at Karen's Falls
Here is another picture of Karen's Falls the with kids cooling off before our long hike back to the car.
The Blue Hole
Hey! You need to watch for snakes!
Swimming with a snake
Just like seeing the creepy eyes in the cave looking at us, we started to examine this picture that was taken prior to the kids swimming and sure enough, a snake was at the bottom of the water hole.
Close-up of Snake
Here is a second picture with a better zoom shot of the snake. Wow, that was close, but no worries, my husband said it was a harmless king cobra.
Your Guide - Jennifer Gates
Hope you enjoyed reading about one of our Alabama hiking adventures!