Alcove Spring Falls is a 5-foot spring-fed plunge waterfall in Marshall County, Kansas, inside Alcove Spring Historic Park near Blue Rapids. It spills from a rock alcove at a campsite used by emigrants on the Oregon and California trails, including the Donner-Reed Party in 1846.
The falls
A spring emerges beneath a ledge of hard Permian limestone that sits on softer shale, dropping over the lip in a single 5-foot plunge into a shallow rock pool before running toward the Big Blue River.
Getting there
The park is on East River Road about 6 miles south of Marysville. From the parking lot an easy quarter-mile trail leads to the spring, and the park has about 5 miles of trails through tallgrass prairie and hardwood forest. Wagon swales from the trail era are across the road from the parking lot. The site is run by the Alcove Spring Preservation Association; fees and hours are not formally published.
When to go
The waterfall runs mainly in spring and is usually dry by summer.
On site
Names carved by emigrants remain on the rocks around the spring, alongside two areas of intact swales along the mowed walking paths.
History and name
Emigrants camped here while waiting to cross the Big Blue River at the Independence Crossing. Edwin Bryant, traveling with the Donner-Reed Party, gave the spring its name on May 27, 1846, describing a cascade of about ten or twelve feet falling into a rocky basin. Sarah H. Keyes died of consumption during the stop, marking the party's first recorded death; her grave's exact location is unknown. The spring is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a certified site on the Oregon and California National Historic Trails.
Nearby
Idlewild Falls is about 4.6 miles away, and Pillsbury Crossing Falls, on Deep Creek, is about 44.6 miles.
Distances are straight-line.