The Copperas Falls

I have a green map out on the table, one I bought back in the late 90's. One of the first Internet purchases I can remember making, it is now held together with strips of clear tape. Luckily, Christmas is right around the corner and the tape dispensers seem to be on every counter and night stand in our house. The map is heavily creased into nine distinct squares and gives a nice topographical look at the Red River Gorge that includes the Sheltowee Trace Trail section north of the area's famous suspension bridge. Some of the Gorge's heavy hitters are in this area - Indian Staircase, Cloudsplitter. No wonder I used this map so much. It also traces the Red River, running like a ribbon tucked in between the towering cliffs.

It also encompasses the Copperas Creek area. Like the map on the my table, this creek is also a preferred choice of mine. It drops into the Red River from the north and when followed back up through its valley, will lead you to one of the best waterfalls Kentucky has to offer.

The Copperas Creek waterfall is an anomaly of sorts. As far as distance goes, it is not a long way off of the beaten path or even the paved roads. But there are no trails to it, at least not official ones, and over the years I can recall numerous parties to whom I gave detailed directions to and yet they never made it there. On the other hand, some people make it there the first try and once you visit the site, it is fairly easy to make it back. One can't simply say to follow the creek, even though this seems like a rational method. If you're going to find a waterfall, you would think you could simply backtrack up the creek until you run into the falls. The unfortunate part is that the creek splits off multiple times and when there are heavy rain falls, impromptu creeks appear from the valleys and the hollows, making it nearly impossible to discern which branch is the main creek and will hold the desired path.

Several other items make it a hazy journey as well.

Although there is no official trail, there lies one fairly prominent unofficial one, yet it is beset on all sides by splintered side trails lying in wait to lead its occupants astray if one should choose to follow them. I recall telling these same things to the minister in town, and him telling me there was definitely a sermon in the making in there somewhere.

Furthermore, as peaceful a place as it is, Copperas Creek was not unlike the other valleys in the gorge whereby its landscape changed dramatically with the seasons. Over the years, I have visited the area in all types of weather, from the summer equinox to the middle of Persephone's dissent. I have been there when it was completely iced up and I have visited during the dry seasons when the falls were just a trickle.

Summertime it is a leafy, green jungle and a permanent buzz hangs over your head with every step. In the dead of winter, the forest is quiet and brittle and it reveals itself to those who pay attention so that no matter how familiar, each trip reveals new intricacies.

Even when you plot the coordinates on a map, they don’t go where one would think they go.

I had friends, who heard me talk of the place, call to get the data one day. I gave them the locations, the landmarks, and maps. Then I ran into to them two days later where they promptly reported that an injury turned them back and they never made it to the falls. I had some family attempt to find it, and they started back to the car after they were forced to cross the creek for the tenth time.

Then others make it effortlessly. There remains no rhyme or reason. It’s like it has a mind of its own, and can make it impossible or it can make it a walk in the park. It is a wonderful mystery I have come to love but accept, like trying to understand why the mixer messed the TV picture up when I was a kid. 

It has, without question, become my favorite place on Earth. And over the years I have come to realize the only thing I love more than going there is taking some else there for the first time. Tomorrow I will go back there again. And again, I will take someone along who is going for the first time. I wonder what will be revealed this trip. I have often thought one could easily lose themselves in that place. 

Luckily I have this map.

-JW