Coon Creek in Alabama

Trip Overview

Arrive at launch area at the end of Jackson County 491 around 9:AM. Launched and headed straight across the Coon Gulf between the buoy markers towards the buoy markers on the other side of the gulf which you can make out faintly from the launch. Its about .75 to 1 mile across here. The waters are calm and the paddle was very pleasant across this expanse. After reaching markers on the other side, went to left along shore line looking for the opening to cave #1. Found cave# 1 and hung out and enjoy the air conditioning took some pictures and then proceeded along same shore direction to locate cave# 2. Its about a mile from cave #1 to cave# 2. Cave # 2 is most impressive and you can paddle right in. You can hear the sound of a water fall from the depths of the cave. Beautiful and picturesque place. From here proceeded along same shore line to cave #3 about .75 miles to this one and it is similar to cave#1. Heard thunder at this point and paddle out to see how close storm is, it was fairly close, so we headed back towards launch, which was no swift task. The winds across the open river gulf can swell up some fairly good swells to maneuver, luckily for us the stormed moved north and we meander on back to the launch, a round trip total around 6 miles and 5 hours.

This is great place to paddle, get in touch with nature and enjoy the day.

Accommodations:

No fees, and parking available.

Fees:

No fees for public use. Fee is required for commercial activity.

Directions:

Turn off Alabama Hwy. 117 onto Jackson County 491 go all the way to end to Coon Creek Gulf public boat launch.

Launches:

Keep in mind that once on location things can take on a different appearance than on a flat map. While, this is an easy paddle, the reason why I rated it moderate to difficult is the sheer expanse of the gulf and winds can pick up very quickly an turn an easy float into a very tiring paddle against the elements. People with younger children or health concerns might find themselves at a disadvantage should these situations arise.

Resources:

To locate the caves, I used the Lake Guntersville Destination Report on paddling.com. I plugged the coordinates from that report of the caves into Google maps and became familiar with the terrain from studying the map and was able to locate the caves on location.