The Overlook at Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve EarthCache
The Overlook at Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve
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You are about to experience a 7.5 mile hike along well maintained trails within the Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve. There is no fee for the use of this area but they do ask that you sign in. They also have very nice, heavy duty maps of the area near the sign in book for you to use and return. While the trails are well marked, they can be confusing at times and a map will come in handy for reference.
Email to me, via the profile link above, the answers to the following questions:
To log this earthcache find, you must fulfill the following requirements:
1. Which particular force would have caused the most erosion here?
2. What is your estimation of the amount of time required for the forces of nature to cut this elevation differential?
3. Use the altimeter function of your GPS at the listed coordinates, and at picnic area near creek. What is the difference in elevation?
4. What is the name of the overlook
5. A photo of yourself and your GPSr from the vicinity of the posted coordinates with the canyon as your background with your log entry would make a nice addition to commemorate your visit. Although not a requirement, it would be appreciated.
The focus of Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve is the canyon cut by Cane Creek The best views into the canyon are found near the overlook. One of the Preserve trails will take you from the overlook down to the Linden Meadows picnic area near creek.
A canyon is a deep valley between cliffs often carved in the Earth by a river. Most canyons originate by a process of long-time erosion from a plateau level. The cliffs form because harder rock strata that are resistant to erosion and weathering remain exposed on the valley walls. Canyons are much more common in arid areas than in wetter areas because weathering has a lesser effect in arid zones. Canyons' walls are often formed of resistant sandstones or granite. The word canyon is Spanish in origin (cañón).
Photo by Tim Martin
Throughout the ages, every minute of every day, rocks are being worn down by wind and rain. Tiny grains of dirt, sand, mud and clay are worn off and washed into streams, rivers, lakes and oceans. When these tiny bits of sand and dirt settle to the bottom of the water, they are called sediment. Minerals in the water and microscopic, or very tiny sea animals also get mixed in with the dirt and sand to form the sediment. Every day more sediment piles on top of what is already there. After thousands and millions of years we end up with a really deep pile of sediment. The weight and pressure from all the material on top turns the sediment on the bottom into sedimentary rock. Sandstone is a sedimentary rock that is made up mostly of tiny grains of quartz. Most sandstone is formed in oceans, lakes and rivers. Sandstone can be found in many colors and has a texture that feels like sandpaper.
Introduction to Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve
Just south of Tuscumbia, a large swath of wild streams, box canyons, waterfalls, rock shelters and sandstone bluffs remains nearly as pristine and wild as it did centuries ago. The fact that this remarkable piece of natural beauty is still unspoiled is largely due to an equally remarkable couple, Jim and Faye Lacefield, retired educators who bought a 40-acre tract of land in 1979 and have gradually added to that original purchase, keeping the land in its natural state.
Today their Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve encompasses 700 acres. Working with The Nature Conservancy, their foresight has ensured the preservation of a good portion of Cane Creek Canyon, a rare environmental wonder amidst a sea of farms and houses that Jim says shows up on Google Earth “like a deep green ribbon surrounded by brown fields and roads”.
Even more remarkable, the Lacefields have chosen to share this natural wonder: the canyon is open to the public, free of charge. This generous philosophy unlocks an area of incredible Alabama wilderness. The diversity of the preserve is astounding: 60-foot waterfalls, wetlands, sparkling streams rushing through boulder-strewn notches, sunny glades, sheer canyon walls and towering cliffs overlooking seas of hardwood forests. The canyon itself is steep and deep, in some places as much as 350 feet from the rim to the clear blue-green waters of Cane Creek.
The Preserve hosts a large variety of wildflowers, plants and ferns, including the rare French’s Shooting Star, a wildflower that grows only beneath sandstone overhangs and whose only known Alabama population is in the canyon. Even on our visit on a cold December day the lushness of the canyon is evident and we find ourselves hiking through thick patches of mosses, woodland ferns, Allegheny spurge and foamflowers. Beginning in March and through early summer, mountain laurel, trout lily, lady’s slippers, yellow-fringed orchids and other wildflowers bloom and carpet the canyon.
We hike into a narrow box canyon called Devil’s Hollow that features a huge
amphitheater-sized half-circle rock shelter named Yellowwood Falls. It is beautiful. Cold water showers off the sandstone rim above, splashing into a tiny crystalline pool that is ringed with verdant moss and ferns. Research indicates that these rock shelters were occupied more than 10,000 years ago by Paleo-Indian hunters, and it’s easy to see why they would have chosen to stay in this magical spot.
A quarter mile or so further the canyon dead ends at Karen’s Falls, yet another picturesque cascade. The water plunges 30 feet, splashing against a thin shelf and falls another 10 feet into a narrow rocky stream.
We hike with Jim down another trail and stop in front of a large sandstone outcropping where he relates a very convincing story about sighting a mountain lion atop the boulder two years before. Given the rugged isolation of the canyon we have no reason to doubt him. Deer abound here and bald eagles have been sighted.
Eleven miles of trails provide access to even the most remote areas of the canyon. Many of the trails are former logging roads; some are narrow paths that Jim and Faye blazed, so choices range from easy to moderate to strenuous. Either way, a short jaunt into the woods or an overnight backpack, Cane Creek Canyon is a wonderful taste of one of Alabama’s most unique and unknown natural areas.
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[In case of emergency dial 911
For directions or further information please contact
Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve
251 Loop Rd, Tuscumbia, AL 35674
(256) 381-6301]
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