Yahoo Falls is a 108-foot plunge waterfall on Yahoo Creek in McCreary County, Kentucky, in the northern part of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, reached by a short loop trail that leads down to it and behind the falling water.
The falls
Yahoo Creek leaves the rim of the Cumberland Plateau in a single free drop past a large rock shelter into a shallow pool. Laser measurements from several angles confirmed the drop at 108 feet, whereas older surveys recorded 113 feet. The gorge below is lined with cliffs and steep slopes of mountain laurel and rhododendron.
Getting there
From U.S. 27 at Whitley City, take KY 700, then follow a gravel road for 1.5 miles to the Yahoo Falls picnic area and trailhead, which provides parking and restrooms. Admission is free. A 1-mile loop descends to the falls, runs behind the drop, and climbs back to the rim. Trail descriptions rate the route as moderately easy but note steep metal stairs at the falls: hiked clockwise, the stairs are a steep descent; counterclockwise, a steep climb. A 1.6-mile spur continues to Yahoo Arch, and the 15.4-mile Yamacraw-Yahoo Falls Loop serves longer outings.
In April 2026 Yahoo Falls Road was closed while crews fought the Alum Fire nearby; check current Big South Fork alerts before driving out.
When to go
The area is open year-round. Flow is strongest in spring after good rains; by autumn the falls can slow to a trickle.
On site
The trail passes behind the falls through the rock shelter and climbs to overlooks above them and into the Big South Fork gorge, with a picnic area at the top. The path gets muddy in some seasons. In 2024 a 23-year-old hiker died after falling over the falls while trying to catch his dog, which had run off; keep a firm hold on dogs and stay back from the rim.
History and name
In the 1960s forest supervisor Robert Collins created the Yahoo Falls Recreation Area in the Stearns Ranger District of Daniel Boone National Forest, with an all-weather road and a long flight of steel stairs into the gorge. A local legend relates that the name comes from a "Yahoo," after Swift's Gulliver's Travels, that Daniel Boone claimed to have killed here. The story of an 1810 massacre at "Ywahoo Falls" is disputed and lacks contemporary documentation.
Nearby
Princess Falls on Lick Creek is about 3.2 miles away, Lick Creek Falls about 3.8 miles, and Cumberland Falls, on the Cumberland River, about 10.6 miles.
Distances are straight-line.