Fall Creek Falls State Park
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Fall Creek Falls State Park | |
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Type | Tennessee State Park |
Location | Pikeville, TN |
Size | 15,579 Acres |
Opened | 1974 |
Operated by | Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation |
Status | open year round |
Fall Creek Falls State Resort Park, located between Pikeville and Spencer, is a state park in central Tennessee. The main feature of the park is Fall Creek Falls, which is a 256 foot high waterfall that plunges deep into a gorge carved out through the ages by the water. Fall Creek Falls has the highest continuous, free-fall vertical drop (i.e., non-cascading) east of the Mississippi River. Including cascades, the highest waterfall title belongs to Crabtree Falls in Virginia. Other smaller waterfalls in the park include Piney Falls, Cane Creek Falls, and Cane Creek Cascades. The park also features 228 camping sites in three campgrounds, each with bathouses. Several miles of hiking and paved biking trails are available in the park.
The park was used as one of the primary filming locations for the Disney live action movie, The Jungle Book. Scenes from the 1986 movie King Kong Lives starring Linda Hamilton was filmed in the area of Cane Creek Cascades and Cane Creek Falls.
Cane Creek Falls is an 85 foot drop into a deep pool of water.
The lake is man made and is dammed to provide constant water to the falls.
During the wet winter and spring seasons, Coon Creek Falls falls parallel to Fall Creek Falls. Rockhouse Falls also falls parallel to Cane Creek Falls during most of the year.
Millikan's Overlook and Buzzard's Roost offers a scenic view of the surrounding land. Both over look Cane Creek Gorge and Piney Creek Gorge. Both gorges join up with Cane Creek.
Millikan's Overlook is named after Dr. Glenn Q. Millikan, a noted scientist. Dr. Millikan fell to his death on May 25, 1947, while rock climbing on the overlook which bears his name.