Waterfalls in Mississippi

Mississippi's small falls: river bluffs, a millrace and the Piney Woods

Wind-blown loess piled deep along the Mississippi River gives the state's southwestern corner a run of steep, crumbling bluffs where small streams have cut falls into the soft ground; eight named waterfalls appear on the state's map, most of them in that bluff country, with a couple shaped by different ground farther east.

Where the waterfalls are

Wilkinson County holds Clark Creek Falls, part of the Clark Creek Natural Area, a network of loess-bluff ravines with roughly fifty small waterfalls; the park sits about 13 miles west of Woodville and is commonly reached from the Louisiana side, off Pond Road near St. Francisville. The same bluff country continues into Claiborne County, home to Owens Creek Falls and Rocky Falls, Copiah County, home to Scutchalo Falls, and Warren County, home to Mint Spring Falls near Vicksburg.

Lauderdale County, in the east-central part of the state, sits on entirely different ground: Dunns Falls there runs over an artificial millrace rather than a natural bluff, and nearby Rawson Gully Falls drops on Rawson Creek. Covington County, in the Piney Woods farther south, adds Seminary Falls on Okatoma Creek.

Waterfalls worth the trip

• Dunns Falls, 45 feet on a millrace off the Chunky River, is a short walk down wooden stairs at Dunns Falls Water Park; the mill above it dates to 1857, and the park's own materials still put the drop at 65 feet.
• Clark Creek Falls, 15 feet, is one of about fifty falls inside the Clark Creek Natural Area's steep loess ravines, on trails that run 1.75 to 2.6 miles depending on route.
• Mint Spring Falls, 30 feet on Mint Spring Bayou near Vicksburg, sits in the same bluff country and has no marked trail.
• Owens Creek Falls, 6 feet on Owens Creek, rounds out the Claiborne County group.

Fees and access

Dunns Falls Water Park, run by the Pat Harrison Waterway District, opens daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and charges $5 for an adult and $3 for a child age 2 to 12, with a $75 annual pass. Clark Creek Natural Area charges no fee but limits hikers to trails and the creek bed, bans motorized vehicles, hunting, camping and rope climbing, and requires leashed dogs; it has no potable water, so hikers should carry their own.

Safety

A hiker drowned in the Dunns Falls mill pond in 2001 while swimming across it, a pond accident rather than a fall from the waterfall itself. Clark Creek's bluffs run steep enough that the park asks hikers to stay on marked paths or in the creek.