How to get there: Bark Camp Creek is on the east side of the Cumberland River, a little more than half way up between Cumberland Falls State Park and the mouth of Laurel River. There are two ways to get there. One is by going to Laurel River Dam, crossing it, and going south from there, or by going out highway 90 which goes to Cumberland Falls, and turning north off that road.

Laurel Dam route: Cross the dam and head south on highway 1193 for about 3 miles until you get to paved road 1277. Turn right and follow that one for about 1 mile, then turn left on Forest Service road 193. There should be a typical Forest Service type road sign, brown with white letters. Follow 193 about 1 1/2 miles and you will get to Bark Camp Creek and the trail head. This creek is a Trout stream, and there are signs on trees about fishing for Trout. Road 193 continues. I have put a link below which will go to the appropriate topographical map on the Terraserver website. It won't have the Forest Service road numbers. For that, you have to get a topo map from the Forest Service. The regular USGA map is very helpful, but having the Forest Service road numbers is much better.

Highway 90: If you're traveling on Highway 27, turn off on 90 (east), which will take you to Cumberland Falls State Park. Continue past the park about 5 miles until you get to Forest Service Road 195 on the left (north). A little past this road (going east on 90), is a sign saying that you are leaving the Daniel Boon Forest. Conversely, if you are driving west on 90, look for 195 a little past the sign that says you are entering Daniel Boon National Forest.

Road 195 will also take you to the Dog Slaughter Falls trail. There is just a small parking strip alongside the road at the trailhead. To get to Bark Camp Creek, follow 195 about 3 miles until you get to FS road 88. Turn right. Follow 88 about 2 miles until you get to FS road 193. Turn left on 193 and follow it until you get to the creek, about 2 miles. When near the creek, you will head down hill alongside a cliff on the left, creek on the right. The trail starts at a hairpin turn of the road.

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This shows FS road 193, at the bend where the creek crosses underneath. The trailhead is on the left.This view is facing roughly north. The road is good enough for a car. Not much room for parking. When making this picture, I was standing at the beginning of an old road, or short lane, that went back along the creek. There is room to park right there. That old road is grown up. I don't know if it ever went much past this point. I didn't walk back there to look. It appeared to be just a short lane.

Barb and I both made numerous pictures with digital cameras (non DSLR). This page combines some from both of us. I included a representative group that shows a lot of what you can see as you walk along the trail. This trail is 2 1/2 miles from the trail head to the end, presumably where it connects with the Sheltowee Trace that goes along the Cumberland River. The pictures on this page were made along the first half of the trail. That isn't exact, but approximataely the first half. About midway on this entire trail is a high cliff that forms a bit of a corner, and it has a modest waterfall, sometimes. I saw only a trickle the first couple times there, but this time there was a decent showing. Barb and I walked back to this falls, which I call "Corner Falls", and that is as far as we went. The other page on Bark Camp Creek shows the falls at the lower end, and some of the creek and rock in that area.

This little falls is on the right of the trail, just past the trail head.
Near this falls, we found several groups of sprouts that look like pine cones.

This rock wall is a little past the beginning of the trail. Creek on left.

I made this shot of the creek from the road. Facing downstream. Trail on right.

This scene is just a little ways down.

There is a little white water here and there.

Following the trail, we went up some, then back down to the water.
There are some rock steps on the way down.

In tthe middle of the boulders is a narrow channel, a chute. Below is a closer view of it.

This is a little drop in there somewhere.

There is a lot of Rhododendron along this creek; a lot of it in this region.

Before long, we had to go back up again, along a fairly high cliff.

Then we went back down again. This photo shows part of a long cliff parallel to the creek
but back away from it a little bit. Water dripped of in a couple of places and it was kind of wet along there.

Of course there are ferns all over the place. I found these tall ones growing next to the cliff.
There is plenty of water there at times.

Another moderate ascent, and the trail passes under a boulder leaning against the cliff.

Same place, but looking back.

Moving along, we came to this high cliff. The creek is on the left.
We found nice bunches of flowers by the cliff,Columbines and some purple flowers.
Barb always gets pictures of the flowers. She knows more about the names than I do.

Columbines and holley.

Wild Irisis

Columbines, and Violet.

This is a pool of the creek, at a bend, and it is next to the high cliff where the flowers are.

I think the trail went through here. We walked through it anyway.

I think this part is just past what the previous photo shows.
There are a lot of cliffs out there.

You can barely see it, but there is a thin spray of water showing under and beyond this overhanging rock.

This is about the halfway point, what I call the corner falls.
It was running good that day, compared to what I had seen before.
There is a broad overhang here, a rock shelter. The creek is nearby.

This shot was made on the return walk. We made some pictures going back.
Lighting was different, and we skipped some going to the mid point.

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