Little River Canyon National Preserve — Attraction in Fort Payne

I am a writer and photographer for National Park Planner and I visited the Little River Canyon National Preserve December, 2013. The park is located on Lookout Mountain near Fort Payne, Alabama. While people think of Chattanooga, Tennessee, whenever Lookout Mountain is mentioned, it actually extends all the way into northeastern Alabama. Atop the mountain flows the Little River, the only river in the country that begins and ends on top of a mountain. Millions of years ago at the spot marked by Little River Falls today, the river started to wear into the mountain, digging deeper and deeper each year until it wore a 12-mile long, 600 foot deep gash into the rock, forming Little River Canyon. In 1992, the canyon and surrounding areas became the Little River Canyon National Preserve.

For the typical tourist, the park offers nothing more than a few views along a scenic, canyon rim drive and a spot for a family picnic along the river. Little River Canyon is a sportsman’s park, and an extreme one at that. Little River Falls marks the start of the Canyon Area, which runs the length of the canyon, terminating at the Canyon Mouth Picnic Area. World class kayaking can be found below the falls, with water so dangerous that the US Olympic Kayak team has trained here. Rock climbers can have a go at the miles of sheer canyon walls. Even the hiking trails are strenuous, some no more than a rock slide path down to the bottom of the canyon.

The area north of the falls in known as the Backcountry Area. This area offers outdoor activities a little less strenuous, with easier trails and a calmer river open to canoeing and kayaking. Being that the park is a Preserve, hunting is allowed in the Backcountry, as is limited camping in three primitive sites. A high clearance vehicle is highly suggested for visiting the Backcountry.

For complete information and plenty of photos about the park, please visit my web site, National Park...

Bob and I recently went on a 3-day camping trip to Desoto State Park in Alabama and visited the Little River Canyon National Preserve atop Lookout Mountain in Alabama. Nearly the entire length of the Little River flows along the middle of Lookout Mountain from Georgia to Alabama. The National Canyon Preserve protects a 25-mile stretch of the river that runs through a deep canyon carved by the river over millions of years. A must do is The Little River Canyon Rim Parkway a scenic drive that runs the length of the canyon, beginning at the falls and ending at the Canyon Mouth Park, is a scenic drive with several overlooks. There are also some hiking trails that go to the bottom of the canyon. We begin our trip to the National Preserve at the Little River Falls. An ADA-accessible boardwalk overlooks the 45-foot-high falls and a hiking trail to the water. Visitors can swim in the Blue Hole, a beautiful pool of water above the falls, or, when the water is calm, in the deeper pool below the falls. The size of the parking lot near the falls suggests that this place gets very crowded on hot summer weekends. The overlook offers a beautiful view of the falls and the pool of water below, while the view from the Highway 35 bridge between DeKalb and Cherokee counties showcases the top of the falls and the beginning of the canyon.

Before embarking on your drive along the Little River Canyon Rim Parkway you can use the restrooms here, as the next facilities will be at the other end of the parkway.

If you find this review...

This place had great reviews so I was looking forward to checking it out. Compared to all the other State parks I've been to, this one was very dissapointment and unkept. For hikers this is not a very good destination. The trails are not marked and there are very few signs marking the trails, you just pull over into a patch of gravel and there's no parking spots. We did one of the trails that claimed to have an overlook which was just small dock over a creek that was completely blocked by bushes and vines. The canyon and waterfalls were pretty but the trails here are so boring and poorly designed, you're better off just wandering around in the woods exploring but that's an easy way for someone to get lost or hurt. The people at the office were also somewhat rude to us and when I asked for a map, the woman acted annoyed and said to the other employees "I guess I'll do it" and acted like I was wasting her time while she explained the map to me (which I didn't need her to do, u just wanted her to give me a map and I was going to figure it out). It seems like all the funding here goes to the visitor center which is good for the kids in the area, but it's a shame none of that money goes into improving the preserve and the trails it has. At one of the overlooks there were picnic tables strewn about like they were dumped there and the grass was very tall in an area where it should have been mowed so people can actually use the tables. I'll stick to Georgia for my hikes...