Princess Falls

Princess Falls is located near the mouth of Lick Creek in McCreary County, Kentucky. The name of this falls is supposedly from the folklore and story about Princess Cornblossom, a Cherokee princess. To note, the Cherokees had no royalty and no royal titles, so this story is probably no more than just a tale.

You hike a little over a mile to get to Princess Falls along the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, starting at Yamacraw where the bridge crosses the river. It is an absolutely spectacular hike in early to mid spring as the wildflowers abound along the hillside above and below the trail.

I have been to this waterfall many a time. The most memorable was when Ronald and I hiked to Princess Falls when Lake Cumberland was at its highest level ever and had just started receding. We could not hike the trail as it was well underwater for its entire length, so we walked the hillside on the sides of our feet well above the actual trail. A couple of things I remember are the amount of trash that was up on the hillside from where the waterline had hit its historic mark, due to how polluted some of these rivers are, especially in flood stage. The other was when we got to Princess Falls, the water had only just recently receded away from the falls, and I’m pretty confident that the lake had made its way all the way to the waterfall. The first thing to note was the sandbars. Completely different. They did not exist before the lake went up, but the lake had pushed all that sediment up into Lick Creek and into that alcove below the falls. It made it beautiful and vastly different than I had ever seen it, before or since. The picture above is from that trip right after the lake had been so high.

If you are heading to McCreary County to do any kind of hiking, most likely you already know about Princess Falls. But if you don’t, you need to go. It’s a relatively easy, level hike along the river to a beautiful waterfall, and it’s well worth visiting for people of all ages.

The waterfall: Princess Falls, McCreary County