Kentucky Falls -- Upper to Lower Loop
A beautiful hike that descends about 800ft from the Upper to Lower Kentucky Falls trailhead. The drive from Highway 126 to the Upper Falls trailhead is somewhat arduous as you drive along a steep, curvy, and heavily potted dirt logging road for final 4 or 5 miles. (About a mile before the trailhead you reach pavement again.) Off the parking lot a little picnic table overlooks Kentucky Creek just before it enters an enormous culvert.
Start the hike by crossing the street and entering the trail along the right side of the culvert. In little more than a mile descend steeply along a the edge of an impressive canyon that envelops Kentucky Creek, creating the stunning Upper Falls. The creek is undergirded by massive slabs of basalt that make the creek look like a giant (though perilous) water slide. Spectacular old growth firs tower up above canyon walls layered with a thick medley of mosses and lichens. The mosses only grow more dense by the time you reach the Lower Falls. Mirrored by the N. Fork Smith Falls, which stands just a few hundred by feet away, the two waterfalls generate an envelope of mist that helps the moss blanket every surface. The creeks shatter into a maze of intersecting rivulets flowing over a broad low-elevation area before converging as the Smith River downstream along a southward bend.
This is a truly delightful 6-mile roundtrip hike that has something to offer year-round, but is especially pretty in late spring.