Turkey Creek Canyon Alatrails.com Grouphike Pictures and Trip Report

[Joshua Szulecki]

Hey folks,

I'll leave a descriptive trip report to somebody with a better memory than me. Suffice it to say that I had a blast, even if it did end up costing me the life of my Neutral Density Filter. Such is the life of a waterfall photographer!

Anyway, here are my keeper pictures from today's hike.
http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=801139

Some discussion follows...
I'm not sure what to call each of the waterfalls since there are no official USGS names for any of these.
I'm considering this one Lower Turkey Foot Falls, because it is clearly on Turkey Foot Creek:
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6856298

I've never heard a name for either of the dry-ish falls we encountered on tributaries.

The second running waterfall we encountered is often labelled as Upper Turkey Foot Falls. According to the Carto-O-Craft map, this is the direction Turkey Creek flows, despite the fact that the other branch (running towards and under Cranal Rd.) had more water flowing in it. Anyway, that's this one:
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6856308

I've seen the final running waterfall we encountered labelled as Upper Turkey Foot Falls, or Pyramid Falls. I think it is probably not the rightful owner of the appelation Upper Turkey Foot Falls, and so I'll be describing it as Pyramid Falls, but I think another waterfall also claims that name in Sipsey.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6856314

As an aside, the photographer spends a lot of time catching up...
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6856481

And it did "snow" in Birmingham today.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6856482

[edited to reflect current understanding of which stream is which on 1/21/07]

[Magic City Matt]

Hey Josh, Would you mind uploading some of those to the alatrails gallery?

[Suz]

We met at Warrior Trading Post between 9:30 and 10:00.  Left there about 10:15 and drove to and parked at the Sipsey Recreation Area.  Parking  fee of $3.00.  The wind was raw, and we were down two coat due to a puppy malfunction in the car.  We decided that if we kept moving, we would be warm enough, so no one bailed. 

We headed north from the parking lot across the bridge and immediately followed the tributary that fed into the Sipsey - Turkey Foot Creek.  We hiked, maybe 1.5 miles and came to a large waterfall and the end of our canyon.  It was out of the wind here and a nice place to stop. 

There was a feeder stream coming from the left that we crossed to get to the fall, so we followed that stream to what I was introduced to as Turkey Foot Falls.  When there is more water, the cascades split into three and it resembles a Turkey Foot, which is funny, because on the map, the shape of the canyon and the three streams that make it up is also in a Turkey Foot.  Here we could hear the road and it was rathe cold and windy.  We ate lunch while we were there.  Going to the this fall, in the canyon where the cascades were, it is steep and slick on the left hand side.   Hiking out we stayed with the other side and while the trail was up and down, it seemed drier, and less slick because it had more vegetation on it.  The trail ended at the first main waterfall we saw.  We hiked down the Creek to the Sipsey. 

We did find a rusted out auto body that had been crushed by a tree on the main Creek. Also on the main creek there was a little water fall that Josh got a picture of.   I think with more rain, that one may just be turbulence in the water.  And there is one narrow, slick, bluff area on the main creek, but again, it is negotiable.  Everyone just has to be careful.

On the way out we checked out what has to be the stream coming in from the north on the map.  It was a drippy thing, but is probably fairly impressive with normal rain.  Then we hiked back to the parking lot about 1:00.  We decide to hike through the Rec area and to some large rocks in the Sipsey River, south of the picnic area.  When we got there, the sun was shining on the rocks, and we were quite reptilian for awhile.  Then, the clouds came out and we trekked back to the cars.  The puppies did great on their first hike.  Gonna have some good trail dogs...

We finished by 2:00 and headed on home, but not before getting boiled peanuts at the Trading Post.  It was a great day, but too short!  Ticks were out on this cold day.  Skippy continued on down the Sipsey and to Fall Creek. Maybe he will share his notes of slick spots, river crossings, general trail conditions, or landmarks to look for.

[Joshua Szulecki]

Matthew,

I am moving to a general policy of only uploading the vast majority of my photographs to Photo.net, as I probably won't be updating my site any time soon, and it gets hard to keep track of what I posted where sometimes, and I get all confused when somebody asks me a question about a picture I've posted somewhere. BUT, in the interest of driving interest in Alatrails and Alatrails group hikes, I'll try to upload a picture or two on every individual waterfall or other feature I photograph while hiking in Alabama. So you get an exception.

I've gone ahead and uploaded a few images that I see as representative of the trip.

I look forward to the next trip. I'm going to try and get out again next Saturday, but that's a while away...

[Rob]

Thanks for sharing folks! Sounds like it was a great trip. Sorry I was unable to attend. Maybe next time. Would like to meet the Alatrails gang. The Photo's were great Josh! Happy Trails.  Rob

[Joshua Szulecki]

Mize Mill Falls.

The name of the waterfall upstream from Upper Turkey Foot Falls is Mize Mill Falls. I knew there had been a mill at the falls site before I went there, and now I know the name.