National Forest recreation site. There is a picnic table and toilet at the trailhead. To reach the trailhead, you must find your way through a 16-mile maze of logging roads. Refer here or here for detailed instructions or find a local guide book. We entered from the Whittaker Creek exit from route 126 and found signs to Kentucky Falls most of the way until the right turn from a gravel road onto the paved Forest Road 919, about two miles from the trailhead.

This is a moderately difficult hike of a bit more than 4 miles round trip. The trail is steep in places and drops about 800 feet in elevation from the trailhead to the junction of Kentucky Creek and the North Fork of the Smith River. But the hike is well worth the effort with beautiful old growth forest, a continuous garden of ferns and wild flowers, and three tall waterfalls.

The destination is a viewing platform at Lower Kentucky Falls. But don't overlook the steps down into the streambed and a short trail to the junction of the two creeks where you can see both waterfalls.