Falls and Canyon Ride--May 13, 2017

Five of us (Larry, Dave, Garrett, Joann, Bob S.) took off from Hardees in Canton at 8:30 heading for  Alabama's De Soto Falls and Little River Canyon. Paul and his friend Bob joined us on the way.

The ride out through Waleska, Adairsville, Summerville and Mentone provided a few sprinkles, and numerous dark clouds, but we remained dry all morning. The stop at De Soto Falls, an extension of Alabama's DeSoto State Park, is always a delight and this day it did not disappoint. The west fork of the Little River topped the dam and rushed down the cascades to the 104' drop at the falls. This is especially impressive as you can approach very near the rushing water and hear the roar and feel the mist.

After all the photos were taken we headed south through the main section of DeSoto park to have lunch at Ralph's, a smallish country store and restaurant a short distance from Little River Falls and the canyon, and still the best place around for a great hamburger.

After lunch we rode past the river to the viewing deck that the National Park Service has constructed on the cliffs overlooking the Little River Falls. The sun was now out and a few hearty souls were sunning and swimming off the rocks a bit down river from the falls.

After a while we rode back over the river to pick up 176 the well paved road that follows the canyon rim and offers a number of canyon viewing pull-outs. After the last pull-out we had a choice of continuing on 176 or taking the less traveled and poorly maintained county 275 down to the canyon's mouth, We chose 275 with it's roller coaster whoops and steep downhill sections. One downhill at Johnnies Creek bridge always gets your heart pumping a bit faster.

Once out of the canyon we headed for a fuel stop in Centre Alabama and then rode the 80 miles home.