Florida’s Tallest Waterfall

March 25-27, 2025                                                       Most Recent Posts:
Falling Waters State Park                   Last Visit to Silver Springs for this Year
Chipley, Florida                                        Unique Things of the Rainbow River

TUESDAY MARCH 25

I left Silver Springs and drove 270 miles north west to Falling Waters State Park in Chipley Florida.  It’s claim to fame is having Florida’s Tallest Waterfall.  It was on my way, so why not.

I had booked a pull through so I would not have to unhitch.  If you are a big rig, I do not recommend this here.  If you are anything over 35’, I do not recommend this campground period.   When I drove up to the campsite it looked like and upside down V.  Not a gentle curve. 

Look closely at the photo and you can see the rig is very severely slanted down back to front.  The car is at the very edge of the site and so is the RV. What you cannot see and I should have included in my photo is that the front end of my site is right at the front end of a back in site so I literally could not pull forward at all.  In fact the second night I was there someone came in at 10pm and made multiple attempts to back into that site without hitting me.  In the dark dark.  While I watched.

I could have disconnected but why?  Leveling up the RV would have taken the tires off the ground which would have required my horse pads to stabilize the tires for the sake of the axle.  WAY too much trouble to stay two nights in my opinion.  So I plugged in the electric so the horribly off level would not ruin the appliances by trying to use propane, and made the best of it.

The campground is small with 24 campsites which I usually really like.  The sites circle a single bathhouse  More about that later.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 26

Today was the day to hike to the waterfall.  When I’d checked in the guy seemed surprised that I wanted to hike there and told me there was a waterfall parking lot at the end of the road but there was no hiking map he could give me.  Luckily while walking the short campground road yesterday, I’d seen a trail head and a map which clearly showed that I could walk there.

The campground circle is at the top of the map, the green with the tiny loop at the end where the trailhead with this map is located.  As you can see the map takes you to the lake and then by the picnic area and ultimately to the waterfall there at the very bottom.  What it doesn’t tell you is that one branch of the yellow trail is a boardwalk and the other is a road.

On the trail I was happy to see the wild azaleas in bloom.   The trail took me to and around the lake as you can see on the map.  The two acre lake was created to provide a consistent water supply to the waterfall.  I guess the tourists don’t want to see it during the most of the year it would probably be dry without that.  

You can see the small beach on the opposite bank.  The lake looks deceptively big in this picture.

I walked around the side of the lake to the swimming beach.  There is a bathhouse up the hill. I read that fishing was allowed although I have no idea what kind of fish.   Apparently there are several streams which naturally feed the waterfall.   The lake overflow goes into one of them.  The stream I saw flowing into the lake was very small and the others must be as well to require the lake overflow.

Once at the lake (pond in my opinion) it wasn’t clear where I should go.  Along the trail there were no signs color coded like the map so I wandered around until I found this waterfall sign and followed it.  A nice boardwalk lead me to an upper overlook of the waterfall. 

More blooming Wild Azalea to enjoy at several spots along the way.  I felt very lucky to have arrived here while they were in bloom.  They were highlights of the hike.

Once I reached the upper deck, I could see there was a lower one.  There were steps that went down to a lower viewing area but about 10 feet of those were blocked off at both ends.  I could see folks down at the lower area but could see no way to get there from here. 

At this point I had no choice but to backtrack to the lake and see if I could find a way to the lower viewing deck from there.  So back I went up the steps this time.

When I got back to the lake there was a long partly covered bridge over one of the streams that assumedly create the waterfall.  It lead to a path to the parking lot for the “lake”.

A woman was coming down from the lot so I asked her if I could get to the lower viewing deck from here.  She said “oh yes honey just follow the road past the picnic area”  So I walked on down the road this time until I came to the picnic area where there were folks following a cement path.

So I did too and came to the lower viewing platform.  I now had a much closer view of the entire waterfall and could see the sinkhole below.

The sign at the lower viewing platform said this was the highest waterfall in Florida at 73 feet and was unique because it flows into a sinkhole.  Over years the water containing a weak natural acid seeped through cracks in the soft limestone. 
Eventually the rock collapsed resulting in the sinkhole.  I was told that during a summer thunderstorm the water may be a raging torrent cascading over the edge.  I wondered how much water from the lake was being used for what I see today.

I took a few more pictures but this short video is the best look at it and enables you to hear it as well.  Click the highlighted link to see it.

Part of the way back to the campground I was serenaded by this very happy sounding mockingbird who stayed right there and let me take his picture while he sang.

Back at the campground
I thought I would take a shower after my hike to the waterfall on my only full day at the campground.   I got undressed, turned the water on and waited for it to warm up and waited and waited.  There are two showers in the women’s bath house so I left #1 running to get warm water and went to #2 and turned it on.  When it started to get warm, I went back, turned off the other one and brought all my things in to #2.  Still it wasn’t as warm as I wanted but I got in assuming it would continue to warm.  I got my thick hair wet and soaped it up when the warm disappeared and I was in a cold shower with my hair fully soaped.  Thick hair is difficult to get thoroughly wet in the first place and just as difficult to get rinsed.   I was freezing when I jumped out of the water and threw my clothes on.  So much for a shower.  At least my hair is clean.

At that point all I wanted to do was get back on the road.  The next day I did just that and headed for Gulf Islands National Seashore where I have been now for 5 days and leave tomorrow for New Orleans.   Please leave tips in the comments for me about what not to miss in NOLA.

My take home messages about Falling Waters are:
1)  Nice day trip.  No need to stay overnight
2)  Really not set up to handle big rigs even big 5th wheels or airstreams although a couple of the back ins might handle the latter.  Not sure about the truck too.
3)  Beware the shower which I did report so maybe it will be better for you.