Paint Creek Recreation Area--Kelley and Dudley Falls

 

Paint Creek Recreation Area--Kelley and Dudley Falls 

 

Sat. Jan. 17, 2026

Kenny & Dana Koogler

TN Landforms Kelley Falls

TN Landforms Dudley Falls 

  We made a trip to Greeneville to see Broyle's Store and ate lunch.  Once that was out of the way we headed toward Paint Creek Recreation Area to see a couple waterfalls we'd never visited before.   We moved to Tennessee in December 2001.   I was not able to visit Horse Creek or Paint Creek to see these falls for a long time.  August 3 through 4th, 2001 Greene County and Cocke County had 15 plus inches of rain fall in a 24 hour period.  The devastation was immense.   Its hard for me to wrap my head around that amount of rainfall in those mountains in that short period of time.  

      At last we visited Kelley, Dudley and Ricker Branch Falls.  

 

above and below: Kelley Falls is quite pretty 

Below: Forest and the bluff across from Kelley Falls

Below: mat of debris below the falls. I can't help wondering if some of this is still lying around since the August 2001 flood event? 

Below:  The embankment you have to climb down to get to Kelley Falls.   It was slick as snot on a door knob.   

Below is a short video of Kelley Falls

    Next we went down the road a couple miles further and found Dudley Falls. It is a low cascade, but a pretty one and the swimming hole here is large and very pretty! There is pretty good parking at Dudley Falls and there are restrooms. 

above: Dudley Falls with its large swimming hole

Below: zoomed in a bit on Dudley Falls. Someone has put up rope swings. 

Below: The skies today over the forest were incredibly blue!  

Below: blue skies and white bluffs near Dudley Falls 

Below:  I'm on the embankment much closer to Dudley Falls.  

Below: a looking back at the pretty green swimming hole.  

Below is a short video of Dudley Falls that shows it better.  It is more than worth the trip to see especially if put together with the numerous other area waterfalls. I realized how it had been far too long between trips to the Northern Cherokee National Forest.  In my mind it is a long, long way off, but it really isn't.   It is closer than Brevard and we go over there plenty.   We need to remedy this situation with some day hikes and camping trips.   We did locate Ricker Branch Falls. I did not even take a photo of it as it was such a pitifully low flow.  At least it wasn't hard to find or reach.  

      Some on my wish list are a revisit to Red Fork Falls, Dick's Creek Falls, Sill Branch Falls, 

Pine Ridge Falls and Martin's Creek Falls. 

Below is the video of Dudley Falls