Eye Socket Falls

This week’s Waterfall of the Week takes us to Mammoth Cave National Park. If you’ve never hiked Mammoth Cave National Park above ground, be warned, it is full of ticks. It is a place you don’t really want to hike a lot in the summer. The nice thing is, if you’re waterfalling or arching, it can be quite gorgeous in the winter due to the fact that Mammoth Cave has all these eastern hemlocks that are way outside of where you would expect to see them today, which is more in the Appalachian Mountains.

A friend first took me to the magical places of Blue Springs and First Creek in the park. If you don’t know much about the park, the official trails lead to nothing scenic. The park service has rerouted the trails many times over the decades, always moving them away from anything worth seeing. Once you know this, and with the ability to off trail hike at Mammoth Cave, that’s where the real adventure begins. First Creek has an official trail, but it does not go along the stream, does not visit anything along the stream, and is heavily used by horses. You start on this horse trail, and then you veer off and go down to First Creek.

When you get down to the unofficial trail or animal path that goes along First Creek, there are some dangerous drop offs, but you find yourself among waterfalls after waterfalls underneath the hemlocks in this gorge. One of the last waterfalls along First Creek is called Eye Socket Falls. It is named for the arch behind the falls on the left as you look at the picture, called Eye Socket Arch. If you get up into that little rock shelter, the arch looks like an eye socket. It looks like you’re an owl looking out through these eyes, and hence the name.

The falls itself isn’t anything spectacular compared to other places in Kentucky. But it’s what surrounds it that makes it special. It has those ferns, that green in the middle of winter, and then you have this arch back behind the waterfall. On the other side of the creek sits First Creek Rock Shelter, a massive rock shelter with countless holes in the rock. It was a Native American gathering spot or even temporary living area centuries ago. With this whole environment and all the waterfalls you’ve hiked along to get to this point, this place is truly special. If you haven’t ever hiked above ground at Mammoth Cave, I highly recommend it, and I recommend you only use the official trails to quickly get to where you can hop off trail and go on a true adventure.

The waterfall: Eye Socket Falls, Edmonson County