CCCNP - The Waterfall
CAUTION!! THIS CACHE IS VERY CLOSE TO A CLIFF AND WATERFALL WITH A 60 FOOT PLUNGE TO THE ROCKS BELOW! BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL.
The CCCNP caches are in some of the scenic areas of the Preserve and, on the hike to the caches, one will pass many other scenic and beautiful areas. Please use the trail map available at the location of the Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve cache and plan your route carefully to minimize your hiking distance. To find all the caches in one trip could require as much as a 10-12 mile hike.
The Waterfall is about 1/4 mile from cache # 1. The trail starts at the edge of the woods and is marked by an arrow sign which can be seen from the parking area. The trail descends downhill to the top of the waterfall. The falls overlooks Waterfall Creek gorge about 60 feet below. The short trail passes many native plants: native azaleas, mountain laurel, trailing arbutus and an assortment of wildflowers in season.
Waterfall creek flows across a thick, resistant layer of Hartselle Sandstone. The water plunges 60 feet in two stages into the water-carved canyon below. The best and safest view of the falls is from a rock ledge on the far side of the falls and can be reached by crossing the footbridge. There is a small path on the far side of the falls that leads down stone steps to a large rock shelter behind the falls. One may go behind the falls to the other side of the rock shelter to another path that leads down the ledge to the pool at the base of the falls.
Most of the above information is courtesy of the owners of this beautiful Preserve. For additional information including archeology, geology and biology notes, please refer to the information sheet in the packet you retrieved from Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve cache.
The Cache: Camouflaged waterproof match container containing a log sheet Due to the location, the coordinates (averaged 500 readings) had only about +/- 15 to 20 feet accuracy. You do not have to go more than 2 feet off the trail to retrieve the cache. In fact, depending on arm length, you may be able to retrieve the cache while your feet are still on the trail.
Please do not log this cache as a team find unless the team is a family unit registered only as a family unit. If the individual members of the team are geocaching.com members then each member of the team should sign the log individually. It is not fair to the geocachers that hike up to 10 or 12 miles round trip to find the caches in the Preserve to have “team” members log a find without actually going to the cache site. Log entries not meeting these requirements may be deleted.