Cane Creek Falls is a 68-foot curtain waterfall on Cane Creek in Fall Creek Falls State Park, Van Buren County, Tennessee. It drops into the head of Cane Creek Gorge just above the creek's meeting with Rockhouse Creek, landing in the same plunge pool as Rockhouse Falls, with the park's Betty Dunn Nature Center on the cliff between them.
The falls
Cane Creek leaves the rim in a single wide sheet; one older trail guide puts it at about 50 feet across. The World Waterfall Database, working from lidar data, gives the drop as roughly 68 feet; earlier surveys listed 86 feet. Below the pool, Cane Creek Gorge runs about 15 miles to the Caney Fork River, and the creek loses several hundred feet in its first mile inside the gorge.
Getting there
Park at the Betty Dunn Nature Center, the trailhead for both falls. There are two viewpoints: the Gorge Trail, which looks across at the falls from the rim, and the base of the gorge, reached by the Cable Trail. The Cable Trail is open, a 0.1-mile spur off the Paw Paw Trail down to the basin Cane Creek shares with Rockhouse Creek, and is rated extremely strenuous. The descent follows a steep rock face with a steel cable anchored above and below for a handhold.
Day-use areas close at sunset, and the road to the falls is locked after dark.
When to go
Cane Creek is prone to flash flooding, so check the forecast before heading down the Cable Trail; the base of the gorge is no place to be when the creek rises.
On site
Rock steps on the cable descent run as high as 4 to 5 feet, and it isn't recommended for children. Jumping from the falls is dangerous: in June 2022 a 17-year-old was seriously injured after jumping, and rescuers spent about two and a half hours carrying him across the creek and hauling him up the cliff on a rope high line. Cane Creek Cascades, upstream, is a wading spot.
History and name
Lawson Fisher ran a gristmill at the head of the falls until the Good Friday flood of 1929, the worst in the area's history; Fisher felt the building shake, got out, and the mill was swept away that night. The Cane Creek Mill had operated since 1831 and was never rebuilt.
Nearby
Rockhouse Falls pours into the same pool, and Cane Creek Cascades is about 0.1 mile upstream. Coon Creek Falls and Fall Creek Falls, which share their own plunge pool, are each about 0.4 mile away.
Distances are straight-line.