How To See 3 Waterfalls & 1 Canyon In 1 Afternoon In Northeast Alabama

After visiting the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama, we decided to make the most of being in northeast Alabama by checking out some waterfalls.

There are several waterfalls close to each other you can see without having to go on a hike. One of them is in a state park which also has a canyon, so we added that to our list of things to do as well. That meant we got to see all four natural attractions in one afternoon, made even better by the fact that they were all free to visit.

Here’s everything we saw and the route we took.

DeSoto Falls

The first stop on our tour was DeSoto Falls, found in DeSoto State Park near Fort Payne. I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed with the falls when we first pulled up in the parking lot.

We could see some cascading water, but that only turned out to be A.A. Miller Dam rather than a waterfall. As we walked down the path, we saw the “dam” waterfall, along with another set of falls.

That’s not all though. Keep walking farther down the path and you’ll come to a more torrential waterfall.

That final set of falls ends up in a large pool below.

After spending a few minutes at the falls, we took one final photo and made our way to the next set of waterfalls.

Little River Falls

Having left DeSoto Falls, we made our way to Little River Canyon National Preserve. That’s home to a couple of sets of falls, with the first ones we visited being Little River Falls.

Once you arrive at the parking lot for Little River Falls, you only have to walk down a set of steps before ending up with this beautiful view.

There’s a boardwalk at the base of the steps you can take to get a little closer to the falls.

Scenic Overlook

The route to our final set of falls passed by some scenic overlooks. We stopped at Canyon View Overlook as it had great views of Little River Canyon where we’d be hiking later on that afternoon.

I’m not normally one for sitting on the edge of a cliff face (King’s Chair was the first time I’d done that), but figured I’d give it a go. As you can probably tell from the photo, I was hardly the epitome of relaxation. I also made sure to lean back so there’d be no chance of falling over the side.

Grace’s High Falls

Our final set of waterfalls for the day was Grace’s High Falls. Also found in Little River Canyon National Preserve, these falls are 133 feet tall.

Whether or not you get to see Grace’s High Falls is highly dependent on rainfall. As we were visiting in early April soon after it had rained, Grace’s High Falls were indeed falls. The only downside to this waterfall is that its overlook is from a much greater distance than DeSoto Falls and Little River Falls. That means your photos aren’t going to be as impressive – the shot below was zoomed in.

Eberhart Trail

Leaving Grace’s High Falls, we drove ~4.7 miles farther south on Little River Canyon Parkway until we reached the Eberhart Trail. There were several parking spaces available as the trailhead is also home to a picnic area and Eberhart Point Overlook.

The trailhead starts from the parking lot, so you don’t have far to go once you’ve parked.

This is a difficult trail that takes you down into Little River Canyon. The reason why it’s so difficult is due to its grade – it’s a steep decline and feels like an even steeper incline on the way back up!

As you walk farther down the dirt / gravel path, there’s the start of a small gully that’s eroding away some of the path.

At the end of the steep path is Little River Canyon. You can walk over the rocks to the left to head upriver…

…or to the right to go downriver.

We went both ways. Off to the left, there are several smaller rocks leading out to a larger rock in the middle of the river. Be careful when stepping on them though as they could be very slippery – despite wearing hiking boots, I still managed to slip in the water.

I had better success a little farther downriver. There’s a larger rock jutting out into the river which is much easier to climb on to.

After an hour down by the water, the sun was starting to set and so we started our ascent up the hill.

Eberhart Point Overlook

After finally making it back to the top, we walked over to Eberhart Point Overlook for one final view of Little River Canyon before heading back to our hotel.

Final Thoughts

If you’re going to be spending any time in or around Huntsville, Alabama, we’d highly recommend visiting these waterfalls and canyon.

It only took us 3.5 hours to do all of this (not including the journey to and from our hotel), so it’s something you can do in a morning or afternoon. Otherwise, pack a picnic, take your time and make a whole day of it. There are plenty of other sights to see and trails to hike along the way.

If you’d like to do the same trip, here’s the route that we took: