Fall Creek Falls State Natural Area -

Fall Creek Falls State Park

Fall Creek Falls State Park encompasses almost 30,000 acres across the top of the Cumberland Plateau. Within the park is the 16,181-acre Fall Creek Falls State Natural Area. Here old-growth trees are mostly located in the mixed Mesophytic cove forest found in the gorges formed by several creeks which flow into Cane Creek and feed the 256-foot Fall Creek Falls, the highest waterfall in the Eastern US. Estimates of old growth range from 20 to 200 acres (Davis 2003, cited in Riddle & Blozen, Bulletin of the Eastern Native Tree Society, 2007). Tree species include white basswood, American beech, green ash, yellow buckeye, Eastern hemlock, bitternut and shagbark hickory, and tuliptree. According to Riddle & Blozen, the 146.7-ft green ash is the second tallest known while the beeches “may constitute one of the tallest known groves in the southeast”.