Exploring the North Fork of the Blackwater River: Kennedy Falls
Though the falls of Douglas are striking and dramatic, there are many more falls on the North Fork as it makes its descent into the Blackwater Canyon. Indeed, an intriguing entry in Philip Pendleton Kennedy�s Blackwater Chronicle led me to look for one of them. In Kennedy�s description of his scramble down the North Fork below Douglas Falls, he wrote: �This level of the stream, however . . . leads you to a second large fall, a clear pitch again of some forty feet.� When I read that, my eyes widened. A second large fall as high as Douglas? I had neither read of these falls in any modern travel guides nor seen photographs of them. Was Kennedy exaggerating�merely caught up in the thrall of the cascades? Kennedy Falls Following in the Footsteps I had to find out, and the only way to do so was to follow in his footsteps. With the help of some kayakers who ran the North Fork, I found the falls. I�ll call them Kennedy Falls after Philip Pendleton Kennedy, the man who first wrote of...