Dukes Creek Waterfall
What was my experience at Dukes Creek Waterfall?
Spectacular Cascading Beauty!
Finding the trailhead to Duke Creek Waterfall is simple. From the traffic circle look for a trail that follows the road you came in on.
The information sign for the waterfall read that the observation deck was one mile and the waterfall was 11-miles. So we set off to the observation deck wondering about the 11-mile distance to the fall. Couldn’t they find a closer location to the waterfall.
Well, I am telling you that apparently, the dot or period before the one-mile and between the ones on the 11-mile has been painted over. We almost gave up on finding the observation deck because I thought surely we had gone over one mile. I did not see an observation deck. But when the trail turned downhill toward the stream I figured something was going on.
Let me give you an overall picture. The 1st 1/3 of the distance to the waterfall is going downhill with sloped trails, steps, and timber walkways. At the end of a timber ladder that makes a 90-degree bend is a “T” in the trail. A sign points to the left with one word “falls”. From there the walk is wide and relatively flat. Some really cool trees growing out of rocks. You can even see some rocks being broken apart by tree roots.
You can occasionally see the stream far down the sloped hill as you hike the flat part of the trail. I was just about to turn around when we came to a steep but manageable decline obviously going down to the stream. So down we went and well worth the effort. There are three (3) observation decks to view the falls. The splendor and beauty are refreshing.
It took me 25-minutes to walk down to the waterfall and 35-minutes to walk back up. Note that the path to this waterfall is not paved like Anna Ruby or Amicalola.