| The Falls of Dowdy Creek
Text and photographs by Ed Rehbein
When I was growing up, my family picnicked on the Fourth of July at a park called Lucia Falls. The falls lie on the course of the Lewis River as it descends through the Cascade Mountains of western Washington State. Fed by snow melt from high volcanic peaks, even in summer the water is swift and cold.
Lucia Falls held a certain magic for me as a child. From my perspective, the falls seemed larger than life, with immense waves of bubbling whitewater that cascaded into a seemingly bottomless pit. The thunder of the falling water mesmerized me.
Today I still love waterfalls. I can’t say for certain whether my passion was born at Lucia Falls, or whether I was simply born to love waterfalls and discovered that affection at Lucia Falls. Regardless, I count myself lucky to be living in southern West Virginia, for it is truly a waterfall lover’s paradise.
In this article I’ll describe a particularly stunning set of falls along the course of Dowdy Creek near Prince. In addition, from a geologic perspective, I’ll offer some ideas about the forces of nature that are at work creating the many waterfalls of the New River Gorge.
A Hundred and Counting
According to my friend Fred Wolfe of Huntington, the New River Gorge and surrounding areas are home to more than a hundred waterfalls. Fred is an expert on the falls of southern West Virginia, having made more than a hundred trips to the Gorge to scout out, photograph, and savor its waterfalls.
I’m indebted to Fred for making me aware of the falls of Dowdy Creek. Five waterfalls grace the last mile of the creek’s lively descent from its headwaters south of Dowdy Bluff to its confluence with the New River. Each different and lovely, I consider these falls to be among the best in the region.
 The easiest way to get to the falls is by water—that is, from the New River. The two lowermost falls, Upper and Lower Dowdy Falls, can be accessed by beaching a kayak or raft at the mouth of Dowdy Creek. Trails worn by whitewater enthusiasts lead to the falls, which are no more than 500 feet from the river (see directions). It’s little wonder that Dowdy Creek is a popular stop for float trips on the Upper New River.
The Overland Route
For those limited to the overland route, the falls are accessed from the south end of McKendree Road off State Route 41(SR 41) near Prince. McKendree Road, a single-lane, gravel road, has a solid rock base but plenty of potholes. I generally take my pickup truck because of its higher ground clearance. Dowdy Creek is about two and three quarter miles from SR 41. It’s not difficult to identify the creek because it’s at the first bridge you cross from the south end of McKendree Road.
Continue past the bridge for about 1,000 feet to a right-hand bend in the road. Park on the left in the middle of the bend and start hiking downhill. Paths bushwhacked by other waterfall lovers lead to a trail cut in the cliffs surrounding Upper Dowdy Falls.
The first view of Upper Dowdy Falls on this trail is a spectacular profile, set against a cliff of red, brown, and green shale, which forms a small amphitheater around the falls. The narrow, veil-like falls plunge about 40 feet into an oval pool. The plunge pool sits in a relatively flat basin, allowing easy access to both sides of the falls and the outlet. Beauty abounds from all vantage points of this welcoming falls.
A trail cut from the steeply sloping north banks of the creek descends to Lower Dowdy Falls. The lower falls also make one lone plunge, but it is a smaller one-about 25 feet. But unlike the upper falls, Lower Dowdy Falls fans out like a broad apron as it descends into the plunge pool. The plunge pool is ringed with massive, emerald green, moss-covered boulders. In my mind the boulders, rather than the falls, are the signature feature of this setting.
Geology Made for Waterfalls
About the time that I was exploring Dowdy Creek, I began to wonder why the New River Gorge has so many waterfalls. Being a geologist, I came up with two reasons: erosion and rock composition.
In mountainous regions such as West Virginia, rivers and streams erode the landscape. As sediments, such as sands, silts, pebbles, and even boulders, sweep downstream, they wear away the river bed and lower it. The amount of lowering, or down-cutting, is proportional to the volume of sediment that the stream carries. This explains why the New River, which carries a large volume of sediment, has carved a gorge about a thousand feet deep through the rock formations of southern West Virginia.
 Due to their smaller size, the creeks that feed into the New River have far less erosive power and cannot keep pace with the rapid down-cutting of the New River. Tributaries to the New River, especially smaller ones, are forced to flow down ever-steepening inclines as the gorge deepens. These steeply inclined side streams are fertile ground for waterfalls.
Yet, spectacular waterfalls do not line every tributary of the New River because another factor is at work: the amount and regularity of water flow. When fed by small watersheds, many tributaries lack year-round water. These tributaries are either intermittent streams, which normally cease flowing for weeks or months each year, or ephemeral streams, which flow only for hours or days following a rainfall. These types of tributaries don’t erode their streambeds very much and, of course, with little or no water, there are few waterfalls of any note along them.
On the other hand, a perennial stream, during periods of normal annual rainfall, has continuous flow all year round. These streams are better waterfall makers because they are continuously eroding and shaping their streambeds.
Working hand in hand with active erosion to promote waterfall formation is rock composition. The rocks of the New River Gorge are predominately interbedded, horizontal layers of sandstone and shale. Shale is a finely laminated rock composed of consolidated layers of mud, clay, and silt. Sandstone, as the name suggests, is composed primarily of individual grains of sand that have been cemented together. In this portion of southern West Virginia, many of the sandstones have been cemented with silica or quartz, which makes them very hard and resistant to erosion.
Compared to sandstones, shales are soft and much more easily eroded. Therefore, as a stream flows over a series of interbedded sandstones and shale, the softer shales are more readily washed away, while sandstone layers resist erosion and remain as ledges. Typically, as the shales continue to erode, hard sandstone layers become the top ledge of a waterfall. If the underlying shales undercut the sandstone ledge, the falls will plunge in one unbroken stream into a pool below. Indeed, Upper and Lower Dowdy Falls were created this way.
More Falls on Dowdy Creek
When my wife, Phyllis, and I first went hunting for the falls of Dowdy, we got lucky. We took a wrong turn. Normally that isn’t good, but in this case it was a stroke of good fortune. We stopped at the bridge over Dowdy Creek, but instead of descending the stream, we turned upstream. We of course didn’t find Upper and Lower Dowdy Falls, but we weren’t disappointed either. We discovered three more falls on this unique stream.
 The further you follow Dowdy Creek upstream from McKendree Road, the more rugged the terrain becomes. Beginning at the bridge, old roads crisscross and wind their way up the north side of Dowdy Creek. But after awhile, the roads diverge from the creek as the slopes along the stream become increasingly steep. At several points Phyllis and I found ourselves literally clinging to steep banks, not knowing how to proceed. We finally learned that the best route when the banks steepened is Dowdy Creek itself. Though the streambed is choked with large boulders and slippery rocks, with caution it can be safely negotiated.
About 2,000 feet upstream from the bridge, Dowdy Creek gets interesting. At this point the waters of Dowdy break into a striking stretch of continuous cascades. Looking like a giant waterslide, Dowdy Creek descends in a continuous rush of whitewater along an even, though somewhat curved, decline of some 200 feet. At the end of the run, the cascades are tossed over a waterfall formed by a rocky ledge that spans the creek at a height of about 6 to 10 feet. Needless to say it’s a breathtaking sight.
The top of the run can be reached by walking the streambed at the edge of the cascades. The cascades are fed by yet another waterfall. Here the waters of Dowdy Creek run over, under, and through a 12-foot-high pile of moss-covered, emerald-green boulders that spans the creek from bank to bank. This boulder-choked stream forms a beautiful waterfall. Above the fifth and uppermost fall, Dowdy Creek resembles a boulder field with a stream running through it.
We stopped here - the boulders being too formidable to traverse. But why go further? Five waterfalls are plenty for one stream!
If you love waterfalls, you’ll love Dowdy Creek. When you go, take a moment to appreciate the forces of nature that have made this and the entire New River Gorge area a waterfall paradise. Happy trails!
Award-winning writer and photographer Ed Rehbein of Beckley is a frequent contributor to Wonderful West Virginia. He and Randall Sanger are authoring a book of photography called West Virginia Waterfalls: The New River Gorge. Published by Headline Books of Terra Alta, this book will include maps and guides to the falls. To preview the book, visit www.wvscenicphotography.com.
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The Falls of Dowdy Creek
