Virgin Falls

Virgin Falls Pocket Wilderness

Useful Information

Location:	On Scott Gulf Rd. From Sparta 18 km east on Hwy. 70. Turn right on Eastland Road in Derosset, after 9,5 km turn right on Scott's Gulf Road. Parking after 3 km.
Open:	no restrictions [2004]
Fee:	Free [2004]
Classification:	Karst spring
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	Department of Environment & Conservation, Division of Natural Areas, 401 Church Street, 7th Floor L&C Tower Annex, Nashville, TN 37243, Tel: +1-615-532-0431. Sparta-White Co. Chamber of Commerce, Tel: +1-615-336-7424, +1-615-836-3552.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1970	first pocket wilderness established by Bowater corporation.
1996	Pocket Wilderness Area acquired by the state and converted into a State Natural Area.

Description

Virgin Falls is is an exceptional ensemble of karst features which consists of an underground stream that emerges from a cave entrance, flows some 50 m on the ground, drops over a 33 m high cliff and goes back into a cave at the bottom of the drop. So we have a river cave, a resurgence or karst spring, a doline, and a loosing stream on an extremely small area. Virgin Falls Cave is almost 1,000 m long and ends in a massive breakdown. The huge passage is 10 m wide and 14 m high, and rather easy to visit. The river is only a trickle in dry season, late summer and early fall. In the wet season, winter and early spring, it becomes a raging torrent and the cave ist not accessible. The lower cave is called Virgin Falls Pit, the entrance is only 4 m from the base of the waterfall. The water flows through this cave to a spring at the base of the Cumberland Escapment.

The 128 ha Virgin Falls State Natural Area has outlooks, streams, caves and a primitive backpack camping area. Virgin Falls is reached on a trail which includes numerous other karst features. Starting at the Virgin Falls parking lot, the trail stays on top of the plateau for about two kilometers. Then it goes down into the gorge, eroded by Big Laurel Creek. The climate and the vegetation in the gorge is different from the plateau, the valley is more humid and cooler, so oaks and hickory trees are replaced by hemlocks, mountain laurel and magnolias. Big Laurel Creek is crossed on a furt, the river ist often dry, but for times of higher water there is a wire cable to help hikers. Big Laurel Falls is a 13 m high waterfall at the base of the gorge, halfway to Virgin Falls. Almost two kilometer after this waterfall is a fork. The right trail is a cul-de-sac leading to Sheep Cave, only a few meters from the trail. It is an ensemble of a cave entrance, a waterfall and a deep doline called Sheep Cave Sink. The other trail ends after one kilometer at Virgin Falls. Allow 6-8 hours for the complete 13 km hike.

Virgin Falls was the first pocket wilderness established by Bowater corporation. Bowater was an American pulp and paper company based in Greenville, South Carolina. They started in 1970 to set aside several tracts of their private land for preservation in its natural state, which they called pocket wilderness. This was done in cooperation with the State of Tennessee and many of those areas were later purchased by the state and converted into National Park Service sites.