Grotto Falls

The longer I have hiked in Kentucky and explored, the more of the so called special places I’ve had the pleasure of being shown or happened across on my own. One of the first places I was taken to early in my adventuring in Kentucky was Grotto Falls, located along the shores and cliffs of Grayson Lake. Grayson Lake is the Little Sandy River that was dammed up, and it’s now a state park and a great place to kayak or boat, especially in the wet season when waterfalls abound off the high cliffs that surround the lake.

I once did a survey for a lady in Elliott County and her mother. Her mother was in her early nineties, and I sat there and talked to them for a couple of hours after I was done surveying their farm, just to listen to her talk about her dad driving them through the Little Sandy River Gorge before it was dammed up. There were 70 foot waterfalls that now fall into water where the lake is very deep. You can imagine this area was filled with nearly 200 foot high waterfalls that plunged and tumbled down these majestic cliffs before the lake existed. I was fascinated.

Several years before that survey, while living in the northern part of Kentucky, I went to Grayson Lake with the Cincinnati paddlers group and was shown several waterfalls along the lake, including the big highlight, Grotto Falls. That trip was in early summer, late May. The water wasn’t flowing great, but I have been back several times paddling there myself and showing others this special place.

When you realize how abundant Kentucky is with these special places, you understand that we live in a state that’s vastly different than I thought it was growing up. I would say the large majority, 90 plus percent of the citizens of Kentucky, take for granted or don’t even know what we have and what is still out there, hidden away among the rhododendrons and the cliffs, waiting for someone to set eyes upon it, to enjoy it, and to let it bring them peace and boost their morale.

Kayaking to Grotto Falls will definitely do that for you. As you paddle the lake, you pull your paddle into your kayak and use your hands to navigate around this crescent moon shaped channel where the cliff has fallen into the water on your right, and the cliff is on your left and above you. As you push yourself through, you empty into this grotto with the waterfall in front of you. You feel like you’ve been teleported into something in South America, in the jungle. But here you are on a lake in eastern Kentucky. This is a must visit location and waterfall in our state.

The waterfall: Grotto Falls, Carter County