Location: Jessamine County

One day Barb and I were doing a little road exploring in Jessamine county and found ourselves driving on a narrow road alongside a canyon to the right. It looked deep and narrow from our vantage point. I parked and we walked down the slope part way and saw white water rushing along the bottom of the chasm. It was interesting. I knew I had to get down there soon, but we couldn't that day. We checked it out from the top somewhat. Near the mouth of the canyon we could walk out on bare rock to the rim and look down. This place has been used as a dumping site for some time. More about that later.

We found an old road that angles down to the main creek that runs through that area, and goes alongside the creek a short distance and to the mouth of the canyon where it ends. It's on private property; not posted. A man doing work at a residence nearby told us it would be ok just to walk down there and look. On high ground above the falls is a trail going down to the falls. We saw other people walking back up the trail one day, and we have seen cars parked along the road. It appears that there used to be some kind of hand rail (probably cable type) going along that trail to the falls, but it is gone now.

A few days after finding this place, Barb and I and our dog went there again and walked down that old road and into the mouth of the canyon. The water was still running nicely, as you can see in the first two pictures. This was last March, 2005. We walked up to the falls and made a bunch of pictures of all that, using both digital and film cameras. Trees were still bare then, so they didn't look as good as they would later.

In spring we went back and walked down the old road again and into the canyon to the falls. The water flow wasn't as heavy, but it was still interesting. We also walked from the paved road down the trail to the top of the falls, as shown at left. I guess some people could make their way up or down alongside the falls, but that was not an option for us. It would be difficult. To get to the bottom, we would use the road.

This is a picture of Barb at the top of the falls. The descent down to it isn't hard, but a person needs to be in reasonable condition for such a place. From there, we followed the water upstream a while, maybe 100 yards or so; not sure just how much. On the left side of Barb are some things left there by people who must have camped there. We found a rolled up tarp or tent at the bottom of the falls. One time we found a bunch of beer cans down there at the bottom. It would be nice if people would take their stuff out with them, especially their trash. It is deplorable that some people leave their cans and bottles and food wrappers where they hike or camp. What an insult to the beauty of this place!

This scene is just a short distance upstream from the falls. That's me standing there. At the top of the stream is a hulk that looks like rock, but isn't. It's a car. We found two cars down there. I guess people wanted to get rid of them, so they just rolled them off the bluff. That happened years ago, from the looks of them. People dumped other junk down the slopes in the middle area, and off the cliff near the mouth. It's really a shame that people would do that. If they're going to dump their trash in the boonies somewhere, why don't they go to some flat, boring ground some where, instead of dumping down a creek bank, or over a cliff to a creek. We found a lot of trash that had been dumped down a high bluff along Jessamine Creek. It's just convenient to people--they don't care about messing up a scenic place.

At left is that same car. Behind it is some other junk. This was near a landslide of trash--a former dumping place. Some people might still dump there. Not sure. On the right is the other car, an early Mustang It's a little farther upstream.

We made various pictures going upstream, at different times.

I think this one is part of the same scene just above.

Barb is standing by this short drop of the creek which is near the scene shown above. To us, it's wonderful to get out into a place like this and enjoy the flow of water, the sights, and sounds of water rushing over rock and tumbling over little falls. Flowers of different kinds add their beauty.

At this part of the creek, we found what might be the remnants of an old mill. That seems most likely. It is next to that tree hanging out over the water. On the right is a picture of it. That same tree is leaning out to the left in this view.

This scene is the same place as the one above, different perspective.

This past September of 2005, Barb and I took the grandsons out there. We walked down to the top of the main waterfall and then went upstream. The boys, of course, tended to go ahead by themselves. They found this overhang and went up to investigate. When I caught up with them, they were still up there. Then they came down, and Aaron was carrying this goat skull. He had to take it home for a souvenir.

Alex, the younger one, found a couple things he wanted for souvenirs--a mushroom and a ceramic bear.

This is part of the cliff line in the lower part, on the western side, between the bottom of the waterfall and the mouth of the canyon.

We found a bunch of these orange flowers scattered near the mouth of the canyon.

This is a March view of the lower canyon, from near the waterfall looking out.

The stream that descends through the canyon flows out to join Hickman Creek where Aaron is standing in this photo.

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The Trash

It really is a shame that some people think no more of a place like this than a convenient place to dump their trash. The road being close to the cliff made it easy to do, and they dumped plenty of trash over the side at the mouth of this fine canyon. This picture on the right shows only a small part of it. I guess most of the trash has been there a while.

These pictures were made near the mouth. Below is a photo of a lawn chair in the stream near the dump pile. It washed downstream just a bit. There is a motorcycle down there too, just rusty junk now, near the confluence with Hickman Creek. We found assorted pieces of metal in the stream bed; some of it car parts.

At the right, is a picture of a washing machine or other appliance. I saw this the first time we laid eyes on this creek and canyon. This was at another dumping area about midway along the canyon. There is trash scattered from the edge of the road all the way down to the water. People that would do this need to be locked up. We walked some of Jessamine Creek and found a similar situation. Appliances and other trash had been thrown over the top of a high bluff. I had a few pictures of that place, but they accidently got deleted. There are some houses up there.

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This picture was made in September. There wasn't much water flowing then,
but it was still interesting. It's a lot better when the water is running well.

For a March view of this place, with more water, click here.

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