Triple Falls

Back in March a round of storms dumped a lot of rain across the state, resulting in some pretty bad flash flooding. And the Buffalo River was hit especially hard. At St. Joe, the river is at flood stage at 27 feet, but back in March it reached 48 feet. At Steele Creek, the river flooded the campground and made it all the way up to the ranger station. It's now been several weeks but you can still see evidence of the flooding there, like the fences that are far from the river that were knocked down (or still have pieces of debris stuck in them). Closer to the river there are a lot of downed trees, which were pushed down by the force of the water.

Steele Creek was busy that morning. The campground was back open and completely full. The put-in at the river was full of people loading up canoes and kayaks.



From there I drove over to visit the famous Triple Falls. But along the way I pulled over and got a picture of this red barn, sitting in a foggy field.



And the fog got thicker as the dirt road makes its way down towards the river.





As I continued on, a guy driving a truck coming uphill tried to wave me down as we passed each other. I didn't manage to stop in time, so we just kinda awkwardly looked at each other for a few seconds. But luckily there was another truck right behind him, and the driver stopped to talk. He said that I might need to wait a bit. A car got stuck trying to drive up the steep hill, and was being towed out. He said there was a long line of about 30 cars waiting behind it.

Triple Falls is a popular waterfall, which sits within a Boy Scout campground. And that weekend just happened to be a big Scout campout, and the families were all trying to get home that morning. The road to the campground is steep, and can be rough. Especially after heavy rains. And apparently someone in a little sedan attempted to take on the dirt road and got stuck. I headed down the road, and soon enough saw a little car being slowly towed up the hill. And beyond, a long line of cars and SUVs sat waiting like it was rush hour in a big city.

Eventually I made it to the small parking area for Triple Falls, and then started the short and easy hike to the waterfall.



The falls are beautiful, falling 48 feet into a small pool before flowing off towards the Buffalo River.



It is definitely worth the drive to reach the falls (as long as your car doesn't get stuck).





By then, all the campers had departed and were on their way home. I guess no one else got stuck since the road out was clear and empty (except for the fog).

Triple Falls

Triple Falls might be one of the most popular waterfalls in the state. It's easy to see why - they are incredible scenic, and relatively easy to reach (the trail is very very short, but the drive down the mountain is steep and bumpy and could require a 4-wheel drive vehicle). The falls are almost 50 feet tall, and can be quite beautiful if you catch them with a lot of water.



I've not had the best of luck at this waterfall over the years. I've made several visits here, but had only been here once before when there was any water in the falls. All the other times, the falls were just barely running. They could rename it Trickle Falls since that is what it usually looked like. But last week a heavy storm dumped a lot of rain in the area, and it got the falls (and the nearby Buffalo River) up and running again. I managed to get there in time to catch the falls while they were still running and managed to get a few shots....







It was starting to get dark so I made the short hike back to the car and made the steep ascent up the mountain. The road was a bit muddy in parts after the rains, but my little car made it up successfully. I did stop along the way, and got one last shot from the road: