I went to Moss Rock Preserve to see what waterfalls there were to find in the central Alabama region. I had it in my mind that I was going to be out in nature at this “preserve” because of the name. What this actually seems to be is a city park for Hoover, AL. It is surrounded by lots of city, all the city noises, traffic and I even had to park in what looked like a newly developed shopping area to be able to even access this place thanks to some construction that must have disrupted the normal parking lot for the preserve. If you do a search on Google Maps for this place, you’ll probably have a similar realization.
Entering Moss Rock Preserve I knew there were going to be large boulders to explore, and it didn’t disappoint. There are all sorts of giant boulders you can climb around on, walk through, enjoy for a photo opportunity, whatever.
For the sake of hiking, there are several miles of trails, mostly as little interconnected loops. These seemed to be mostly in use to entertain children, for dog walkers, and joggers. I looked like a total moron heading in with my hiking gear by contrast. I did about 5 miles wandering the trails in this park trying to find the waterfalls. According to a book I have there’s a Tunnel Falls, a High Falls and some random waterfalls. I found the named ones and a couple random ones, and nothing was particularly huge. Tunnel Falls is fairly easy to spot once you get past the boulders. High Falls was at the extreme NE side of the preserve along what they call the “orange trail.” It was probably my favorite, but just because it took a little more effort to get to. Probably could have been named something different though, as I’ve been to many places called “high falls” and this one wasn’t really a very high fall.
To sum up, this is a city park. Don’t lose sight of that if you go.
