Lick Branch Falls

Lick Branch Falls is in Laurel County. I came across it in the pre LiDAR days on the USGS topo maps, around the same time that I documented Pine Island Double Falls. Pine Island is its neighbor and is much more popular, exponentially more popular than Lick Branch Falls. Lick Branch, however, might be a favorite of mine over Pine Island Double Falls. It is hardly visited, and a forest fire within the last ten or so years has caused regrowth that makes the off trail hike absolutely miserable to get down below the cliff line to visit the falls.

What was neat on my first visit, just after a rain, was this massive, wide, tall curtain of water that is just breathtaking. The rock shelter was so untouched, with moss and lichens everywhere covering everything. On that first visit, I even found an old shotgun shell that had been overgrown with moss, showing just how the forest owns this place. I think that’s what makes Lick Branch Falls so special and spectacular in my mind over Pine Island or other falls in that area.

If you get a chance and you don’t mind a lot of mountain laurel, a lot of holly trees, and endless greenbriers, then I highly recommend making your way off trail to this waterfall to see just how spectacular it really is.

The waterfall: Lick Branch Falls, Laurel County