Cub Creek Falls, Arkansas Ozarks near Cowell

1/29/2018 - Cub Creek Falls and bushwhack of the entire hollow.

GPS Coordinates: (Latitude, Longitude, Elevation)
  Parking for Cub Creek Falls:  35.80897   -93.15819,  2010 feet  
  Parking today (near southwest prong):  35.79420   -93.15346
  Cub Creek Falls:  35.80727   -93.15299,   1740 feet
  Bluffline Break #1:  35.79241   -93.14657
  Bluffline Break #2:  35.79143   -93.14764
  Unnamed Falls #1:  35.79263   -93.14644
  Unnamed Falls #2:  35.79730   -93.14509
  Unnamed Falls #3:  35.80441   -93.15183
  Unnamed Falls #4:  35.80897   -93.15281

Pet-Friendly: Yes.  Dogs on or off leash should be OK.  I didn't see any areas that most dogs couldn't navigate on their own.

Motorcycle Friendly: Yes.  The Parking location is almost a mile down a dirt road, but at this part of the road, it is usually pretty well maintained.

Hiking Statistics:  The hike to Cub Creek Falls is only about 0.6 miles each way, with an elevation change of 357 feet.  About half of that is along an old ATV trail.  Today, I explored the entire length of the western prongs of Cub Creek, 5.8 miles in total with a highest-to-lowest elevation change of 635 feet.  I would rate the hike to Cub Creek Falls alone as a moderate bushwhack, and the overall hike up Cub Hollow as a difficult bushwhack.

GPS files:
    Pelsor - Deer area waypoints
    Cub Creek GPS track (today's hike; western prongs)
    Lonesome Hollow GPS track
    Cub Hollow Polyfoss GPS track (eastern prongs)

Related Blog posts:
    Lonesome Hollow Falls
    Cub Hollow Polyfoss

Cub Creek Falls

Cub Creek has been on my radar for quite a while.  The 'main' creek, the drainage with most of the area, runs adjacent to, and parallel to, Lonesome Hollow.  Lonesome Hollow Falls is one of my favorites, a good-sized waterfall that is easy to get to and not far off the highway.  It is one of my go-to waterfalls for visiting friends and family.  Looking at the topology of these two hollows, it seemed to me that there should be a similar waterfall at about the same elevation, off the same bluffline, in Cub Hollow.  Looking at the hollow overall, this big northwest prong and the other prong on the west looked very promising.  The topology looked very good for waterfalls, and the two northeastern prongs of Cub Hollow certainly had quite a few of them.  I put links to blog posts for the adjacent areas above, and both are featured in Tim Ernst's excellent guidebook Arkansas Waterfalls.  If you don't have this guidebook, get it.  You can thank me later.  

Cub Creek

To get there, from the Dover town square (intersection of Hwy 7 and Hwy 27), go 39.2 miles north on Highway 7 to the Cowell Cemetery on the left.  This is about 0.2 miles south of Cowell.  The cemetery is right on the west side of Highway 7.  Old Highway 7 looped around the west side of the cemetery.  Take the loop halfway around the cemetery, and take FR-1253 (aka NC-7120, or Taylor Ridge Road) south.  There are two dirt roads at this point; FR-1253 is the south-most of these, and has signs that say 'Dead End' and 'One Lane Road with Turnouts'.  Follow FR-1253 for 0.8 miles, bearing left to stay on FR-1253 at about 0.4 miles, and park on the left where an old trace road leads off.  

Cub Creek

Since I was going out to explore an area that looked like it had a lot of rough and precipitous terrain, I decided to leave Boomer at home today.  He can go just about anywhere, but if I ended up having to climb up or down cliffs or shinny down trees to get below bluffs, that's something he just can't do.  I have made several trips to the northeastern prongs of Cub Hollow and I have followed those down to where they flowed into the main Cub Creek coming from the northwestern prong.  See the map at the bottom of this post to get a better visualization of how this hollow is laid out.  After today's hike, I know that there is a short story here;  Cub Creek Falls is fairly easy to get to,  the rest of the hollow is not.  I'll detail how to get there first, then go back and describe the rest of the hollow.

Cub Creek Falls

After you park, take the old trace road to the east.  This looks like it was used as an ATV trail at one time, but hasn't seen any use for quite a while.  This trail will lead you around the top of a steep side drainage just downstream from Cub Creek Falls, and then take you down to a point that you can bushwhack down to Cub Creek upstream of the waterfall.  As you go downstream, there is a small but pretty waterfall, Falls #4.  Be careful at the top of Cub Creek Falls, and make sure you cross the creek to the east side before you get there.  The top of the waterfall slopes toward the drop and is slippery rock wherever it is wet.  On the east side of the waterfall (left as you go downstream), there is a bluffline break you can hike down and around to the base of the waterfall.

Cub Creek

For this hollow, my recommendation is to hike back out the way you hiked in.  There is a whole lot more to the hollow, and a lot of very pretty creek, but it is a lot of bushwhacking without a whole lot else to see.  I have friends that just like to get out, go where there are no trails, and go where others don't.  While there is a lot to be said for that, and I do that on a regular basis, the vast most hikers know there is plenty of equally pretty scenery in areas that are much easier hiking.  For today's hike, I started out parking at a turnout 1.2 miles further down FR-1253.  From there, I went down into the southwestern prong, which looked very promising from a topology view.

Cub Creek

I found Falls #1 in a smaller side drainage that actually had some decent flow in it, despite the extended drought we were in.  Today, however, the creek disappeared into the ground about 20 feet before the waterfall, with just a trickle going over Falls #1.  I listed coordinates for two bluffline breaks, both around the bluff to the right of Falls #1.  Going down below the bluff, I continued around to the right to get into that big southwestern prong.  Today, there was some flow in the creek there, but not much in the way of waterfalls.  Where the creek crossed the blufflines, they were all broken down into a jumble of rocks.  

Cub Creek Falls

Continuing down the southwestern prong and then turning up Cub Creek, this was pretty much the story for the rest of the hollow.  Until you get all the way up to Cub Creek Falls, high in the drainage, the blufflines are all broken down where the creek goes through them.  Cub Creek at this point is a year-round creek, not a wet weather tributary as is the case in the smaller prongs.  Cub Creek itself is beautiful down along the creek.  Don't get me wrong, it is still a bushwhack the whole way.  However, once you get down through the bluffs to the creek itself, it isn't too bad.  It is rock strewn, but the thick brush tends to be higher up on the sides of the hollow.  I have recorded coordinates for a couple of small waterfalls I found along the way.  

While I had a great time hiking today, I probably won't return except to take friends out to Cub Creek Falls.  There are still many, many areas I have not explored, and I only have one lifetime to try to get to as many of these as I can.  I would highly recommend, however, making the short hike from FR-1253 down to Cub Creek Falls.  It is a bushwhack, but I think most hikers of all ages will be able to make this hike.  

Cub Creek Area GPS Tracks
Orange - Cub Creek Falls
Yellow - Lonesome Hollow Falls
Red - Cub Hollow Polyfoss Falls
Blue - today's hike

Hole Creek, Arkansas Ozarks east of Hagerville

1/26/2018 - Hole Creek area; huge boulders and rock formations

GPS Coordinates: (Latitude, Longitude, Elevation)
  Parking #1:  35.61632   -93.27034
  Parking #2 (at trace road?):  35.61909   -93.27424
  Hole Creek Unnamed Falls #1:  35.61596   -93.27034
  Bear Crack:  35.61678   -93.26958

Pet Friendly: Yes, dogs on or off leash should be okay.  It is all a rough bushwhack, so taking a dog on a leash is going to make for a long day.

Motorcycle Friendly: No, this is several miles down a really rough dirt road.  

Hiking Statistics: The Hole Creek basin itself is about 1000 feet from top to the bottom, where it drains into Big Piney Creek.  For today's hike, we only hiked partially down into the most southwestern prong.  We hiked 1.75 miles, with a highest-to-lowest elevation change of 351 feet.  This was not a particularly long hike, but I would rate it a difficult bushwhack just for the steep terrain.

GPS files:
    Dover-Pelsor-Hagerville area waypoints
    Hole Creek GPS track

Today, my friend Dan Frew and I went out to an area that Dan had already partially explored.  The Ozarks were still very dry, and waterfall areas just don't look that good without water.  Dan knew this area had some huge boulders and rock formations.  I just wanted to get out somewhere, so I jumped at the chance to go on a hike here.  This is a relatively short bushwhack, and I would rate it as difficult due to the steepness and ruggedness of the terrain.  For a place to just get out and do a quick hike and see some stuff no one else does, I would recommend this hike.  

From the Dover town square (junction of Hwy 7 and Hwy 27), go north on Highway 7 for 5.5 miles and turn left on Highway 164.  Go 7.6 miles on Highway 164 and turn right on FR-1800 (Pilot Rock Mountain Road or CR-3891).  This is just past the twin bridges over Big Piney Creek.  Stay on Pilot Rock Mtn Road for 5.5 miles as it changes to CR-3890, to CR-3861, to CR-4840, then bear left to stay on Pilot Rock Mtn Road.  Go an additional 4.2 miles and park alongside the road.  Pilot Rock Mountain Road (FR-1800), as the name implies, runs along the ridge of Pilot Rock Mountain, and circles around the west side of Hole Creek, eventually ending at a junction with Highway 123.  The parking #1 location we used today is closest to the huge boulders here. Parking location #2, an additional 0.2 miles down Pilot Rock Mtn Road, should be at an old logging road on my Forest Service maps that hopefully is a better way into the area.

Bear Crack - that's Dan at the bottom

From the parking location, we headed straight down towards the creek, following a side drainage until we came to a major bluffline where Falls #1 will spill over the bluff whenever we get some decent rain.  Today, there was barely a trickle.  From Falls #1, we followed the bluffline around to the left (east) for a short distance, to the biggest, deepest bear crack I think I have ever seen.  While I was still near the top of the bear crack, I waited for Dan to get to the bottom to snap a quick photo so you can get a feel for the size of it.  At the bottom of the bear crack, there is a fairly roomy shelter tucked up under the rock face.  There were clear signs this shelter had been used in the past for a still operation.  I have found that in virtually every hollow in the Arkansas Ozarks, you can count on finding a couple of things; waterfalls and sites where a still was during prohibition.

Old still site in shelter at bottom of the bear crack

Once down below this high bluff, we were still only roughly halfway down to the creek, with at least one more large bluffline below us.  That should be great for waterfalls hunting later, but for today, we just hiked through a maze of huge rock formations.  From the bottom of the bear crack, we continued on east along the bluff.  There is a veritable maze of huge rocks, cracks, shelters, and other formations where the massive layer of sandstone has broken off of the big bluff and eroded over the millennia.  This mass of rocks extends for about a third of a mile along this level in the hollow.  From there, we went through a break and started our climb out.  


The climb out is a little steep in places and has its share of briers and other growth, but it was not too difficult to pick our way through the more undergrowth-free areas.   The Forest Service maps show some old logging roads in the area we hiked out through, but we never did find one to help us on our way out.  Depending on how long it has been since the logging was done, they are sometimes grown over and difficult to locate, but usually, you can find where they were cut through the sides of the slope.  The grade is usually much more even and much easier hiking, so we try to utilize them where we can.  Today, as I said, we never did find one.  The climb out was still not all that bad.  This hike is definitely worth doing at least once.

Hole Creek GPS track

Pedestal Rocks Caves and Hoodoos, Ozarks near Ben Hur, Arkansas

1/19/2018 - Caves and Hoodoos "down under" at Pedestal Rocks

GPS Coordinates: (Latitude, Longitude, Elevation)
  Parking:  35.72376,  93.01567,  1877 feet
  PR Bluffline Break #1:  35.71095   -93.02263

  Vista Cave:  35.71125   -93.02293

  Cave #26:  35.71083   -93.02287

  Cave #25:  35.71095   -93.02261

  Red Heart Tunnel:  35.71063   -93.02247

  Elephant Cave:  35.71052   -93.02238
  The Big Room:  35.71043   -93.02222
  PR Bluffline Break #2:  35.71037   -93.02181

  Silhouette Room:  35.71002   -93.02155

  Leaning Tree Room:  35.70993   -93.02083

  The Uppers:  35.71000   -93.02073
  Pedestal Rock:  35.70998   -93.02060
  The Double:  35.71012   -93.02045
  Large Grotto:  35.71055   -93.02013
  PR Bluffline Break #3:  35.71112   -93.02014
  Pedestal #13:  35.71150   -93.01915
  Sundae Pedestal:  35.71157   -93.01910
  Wet Grotto:  35.71182   -93.01902

  PR Bluffline Break #4:  35.71189   -93.01863
  Cave Rock:  35.71355   -93.01728

  Arch Rock:  35.71395   -93.01693

  PR Bluffline Break #5:  35.71404   -93.01712

  Bear Crack Rock:  35.71447   -93.01545

  Thone Trees pointing to cave below bluff:  35.71050   -93.02467

  Twin Arched Pedestal:  35.71022   -93.02483

  Cave 38:  35.71610   -93.02668

  m waterfall and cave site:  35.71742   -93.02587

  n waterfall:  35.71527   -93.02587

  Midway Falls:  35.71727   -93.01405

  Double Spigot Falls:  35.71718   -93.01335

  Morris Ridge Falls:  35.71755   -93.01340

  Tripet Falls:  35.71540   -93.01332

  Pool Falls:  35.71283   -93.01408

  Pedestal Rock Falls:  35.71422   -93.01323

Pet Friendly: Yes.  Easy for dogs on or off leash.  I saw no signage to have dogs on a leash, so Boomer was free ranging today.  It should be noted this is a popular hiking location.  If your dog does not play well with strangers, it is best to keep it on a leash. 

Motorcycle Friendly: Yes! The parking area is right off Highway 16.  

Hiking Statistics: Although it doesn't look like it on the map at the bottom of this post, today's hike was about half on the Pedestal Rocks trail and half below the bluff.  Today we hiked about 4.54 miles in total with a highest-to-lowest difference of 487 feet.  About 2.2 miles was a bushwhack below the bluffline, and the rest was on the Pedestal Rocks trail.  The trail part is an easy hike and overall I would rate the bushwhack part of the hike a moderate bushwhack.

GPS files:
    King's Bluff and Pedestal Rocks area waypoints
    Pedestal Rocks Below Bluff Track
    Pedestal Rocks and King's Bluff Trails track

Related Blog posts:
    King's Bluff Caves and Hoodoos Down Under
    King's Bluff and Pedestal Rocks Trails

One of the Pedestal Rocks

A little over a week ago, Boomer (our German Shepherd) and I hiked the King's Bluff area below the bluff.  You can check out that hike here.   It didn't rain between then and now, so there is still no water in the waterfalls and we were still going out for hikes on the "no water needed" list.  Pedestal Rocks SIA (Special Interest Area) is situated right next to King's Bluff to the west. Just like King's Bluff, it has a loop trail that runs along the top of the bluff with views of some great vistas and fantastic rock formations.  Also just like King's Bluff, most of the really cool stuff is off the trail below the bluff, and most folks have no idea it is there.  Today, Boomer and I needed to get out somewhere, and the hike to King's Bluff was very enjoyable and still fresh in my mind, so I decided to head back out to the same area and hike the Pedestal Rocks side.

Inside the back room of The Uppers

The two hiking loops at King's Bluff and Pedestal Rocks are frequented by hikers of all ages, as the hiking trails are well maintained, right off the highway, and easy hikes.   For more information on this area, I highly recommend my friend Danny Hale's TAKAHIK book Hiking the Arkansas Ozarks.  Danny heads up the local TAKAHIK hiking group and has spent a great deal of time documenting this area.  He has already named a bazillion features in the area and charted coordinates for them, saving me a great deal of effort.  With his permission, I'll be using the same names and coordinates, except Danny uses "shelter" where I use "cave".

The Big Room

Boomer and I loaded up the FJ Cruiser and set out.  To get there, go north on Hwy 7 to Pelsor (aka Sand Gap), and turn right (east) on Hwy 16.  Go 5.9 miles and look for the National Forest sign for Pedestal Rocks on the left.  Take the short loop off Hwy 16 to the parking area.  There is plenty of parking and a primitive toilet there. There was no one else there when we arrived, and we had the place all to ourselves all afternoon.  Even when others are here, we rarely encounter them because there are two loops with several miles of trail, and most of our hiking time is off the trail anyway. 

Red Heart Tunnel

The King's Bluff trail and Pedestal Rocks trail are two separate loop trails, both starting out from this trailhead.  We went over the little rock bridge at the parking area and kept straight to go counter-clockwise around the Pedestal Rocks loop.  You could hike this in either direction, but Boomer had the lead and he just happened to go this direction, so counter-clockwise it was.  At the intersection of the two loop trails, we went straight to stay on the Pedestal Rocks Trail.  A little less than a mile from the parking lot the trail turns to the right, and soon makes a hairpin turn to the left to lead out along the top of the bluff.  

The Silhouette Room

We broke away from the trail at the hairpin curve and proceeded down at the top of the drainage there to get below the bluffline.  Today, I just wanted to get off the trail and get out in the woods, but I wouldn't recommend breaking off the trail here.  There was a good deal of briers that have grown up along the creek, and there isn't really much to see until you get to Uno Pedestal and Vista Rock anyway.  I have marked Bluffline Break #1 in the list of coordinates above, about 150 yards from the hairpin curve in the trail.  This break will allow you to get below the bluff just before Vista Cave and then you can hike around the base of the bluff.  This is a very tall and precipitous bluff, so if you have children with you, be careful and keep an eye on them.  I marked five different locations where you can get from the path down to the base of the bluff.

Inside Vista Cave - small side window

Vista Cave is a small cave with two entrances, unfortunately, neither of which is very easy to get into.  The front entrance is right under the crag that tops the rock the cave is inside of and faces out over the bluff.  This requires a little climbing on some steep rock to get into, with a very thin ledge below and a big drop-off below that.  The other entrance is more of a window in the north side, which would be difficult for most of us to get into or out of as it is small and about five feet above the floor of the cave.  It is only about 15 to 20 feet deep so it is not much of a cave.  The "vista" can be better seen from the ledge below at any rate, so other than being a cool cave I'm not sure it is worth the climb up to it and inside.

Cave #25
For scale, that black blob in the back is Boomer

Near Vista cave, as you make your way around the base of the bluff is one of the famous Pedestal Rocks the area is named for.  There are a couple of caves close together, Cave #26 is about 20 feet deep, and Cave #25 is about 35 feet deep.  Neither has any real distinguishing features, which is probably why Danny never gave them a name.  Just around the bluff from the entrance to Cave #25 is a double arch called Red Heart Tunnel.  It was here that I had a little problem with Boomer.  He couldn't get up to climb through either of the arches and below it is a rather steep section of rock with a high drop off just below it.  Boomer wisely refused to go this route.  I scooched around below the arches, but Boomer wouldn't do it.  He's not at all afraid of heights, as I am, but he is very smart about knowing what is safe and what isn't.  I ended up going up through Bluffline Break #2, where there are some old steps off the trail, coming back to the break before Vista Cave and calling him to come back to that point and up on the trail.  Then we went back down Bluffline Break #2 and around the bluff to the south side of Red Heart Tunnel.  When you hike this, that would certainly be the safest route to take.  Be like Boomer, not like Rick.

The Elephant Room

Just past Red Heart Tunnel is a cave called The Elephant Room.  It's a small cave with an entrance you can easily hike up and into, and a large window on one side of the entrance.  Around the bluff further east is The Big Room, which is more of a big tunnel-like area with open arches you can wander through.  Just east of this is where Bluffline Break #2 is, the one with the old steps off the trail.  On the other side of the break, the bluff rises again with the west entrance to The Silhouette Room high on the cliff face.  The Silhouette Room and Leaning Tree Room are part of the same cave system, with a couple more entrances to The Silhouette Room around the bluff to the east, and the entrance to The Leaning Tree Room next to that.  There is a large pillar between them at the entrances.  If you are confused about which cave is which, The Leaning Tree Room is the one with the big tree leaning up to the top of the bluff.  Someday, that big old tree will be gone and our great-grandkids will really be confused.  

The Double

Around the bluff from The Leaning Tree Room is a huge rock leaning against the bluff overhang that Danny called The Leaner.  A short distance around the bluff is The Uppers, another fairly large cave that has another tall Pedestal Rock right outside the entrance.  Further around the bluff is The Double, which to get into you have to stick close to the base of the bluff and climb up a path of sorts to the entrance.  From this entrance, there is a roomy, open cave to the left with some big windows at the end looking out over the valley.  To the right of the entrance is a narrow tunnel, connecting to the other big room and the north entrance of this cave system.  It's dark in this tunnel, and at the end, there is a big drop off into the north room, so be very careful if you venture through it.   

Pedestal #13 seen from under Sundae Pedestal

Going back out the entrance of The Double and continuing, the bluff turns north and rises to a much taller cliff.  Going along the base of this awesome towering bluff, you pass through Large Grotto and come to a point where the large cliff gives way to a slope; this is Bluffline Break #3, and you can climb here up to the trail.  Above you at this point is a large slab of rock at the top of the cliff with a railing around it that is barely visible from the base of the bluff below.  Continuing on, Boomer and I came to a couple of other pedestals.  Sundae Pedestal is attached to the corner of the bluff, and Pedestal #13 is a few yards from the bluff right in front of it.  Further down the bluff is Wet Grotto, and just past that is another access up to the trail at Bluffline Break #4.

Boomer at west entrance to Cave Rock
The larger east entrance is about 20 feet behind him

Whether you go up along the trail from this point to Bluffline Break #5 or stay below the bluff and bushwhack, you can't help but notice a huge rock separated by a few yards from the bluff.  This is Cave Rock, so named, of course, because it has a cave in the middle of it with entrances on both sides of the rock.  On the bluff side of Cave Rock, the ground rises up to just below the west entrance, and you can climb inside it here.  On the downhill side, the ground falls away quite a bit and the entrance is a good 20 to 25 feet above the ground.  This is the much larger opening and is a sharp drop, so be careful!  Boomer was able to jump up and right inside the west entrance, but unfortunately, the floor of the cave is about a three-foot drop from this small opening.  Once inside, he wasn't able to jump up into the opening and I had to climb back in and give him a boost up.  He doesn't care for that much, and believe me, I could do without trying to lift a 105-pound dog up to a small opening as well.  He seemed pretty embarrassed, so I'm sure he'll remember this for our next visit and refuse to go in.

Arch Rock

Less than a hundred yards north along the bluff from Cave Rock is Arch Rock, and Bluffline Break #5 is also at this point.  Arch rock, as you might suspect is a big rock with an arch through the middle of it.  It is big enough to drive a small vehicle through, or more appropriately a wagon pulled by horses or mules.  If you go through the arch and look going down into the hollow to the right, you can see the contour of an old trace road going down the bank of the slope to the south.  We have a million acres or so of public lands in this section of the Ozarks now, but at one time people lived all through these hollows.  These people were of some pretty hardy stock.  My hats' off to the pioneers that made a living in these hollows a century and a half or so ago.

Entrance to Silhouette Room (left)
and Leaning Tree Room (right)

From Arch Rock, Boomer and I got on the trail and took it back to the parking area.  There are a couple of wet weather waterfalls next to the trail on the way out, but today they had nothing but a lot of ice.  Today they were winterfalls, not waterfalls.  There are also some waterfalls in the hollow below that are worth checking out, but not today.  I have not written a blog post for those yet, so perhaps I'll make a loop of the drainages on both sides of Pedestal Rocks and Kings Bluff when the creeks start flowing again.  This is a nice hike that you can do in just a couple three hours and see some awesome stuff.  Highly recommended for all, but be very careful with children around the high cliffs.

Pedestal Rocks GPS Tracks
Red - Pedestal Rocks Trail
Yellow - Below the Bluff bushwhack

Pedestal Rocks and King's Bluff GPS Tracks
Red - Loop Trails
Yellow - Below Pedestal Rocks bushwhack
Orange - Below King's Bluff bushwhack
Blue - Sporadic Exploration

King's Bluff caves and hoodoos, Ozarks near Ben Hur, Arkansas

1/12/2018 - Caves and Hoodoos "down under" at King's Bluff

GPS Coordinates: (Latitude, Longitude, Elevation)
  Parking:  35.72376,  93.01567,  1877 feet
  King's Bluff Falls:  35.72480, -93.02510,  1559 feet (at base)
  Bluffline Break #1:  35.72303   -93.02527  
  Bluffline Break #2    35.72144   -93.02072
  KB Cave 1:  35.72196  -93.02564
  KB Railing Cave:  35.72162   -93.02522
  KB Cave 3:  35.72134   -93.02485
  KB Tall Cave:  35.72110   -93.02453
  KB Spring Cave:  35.72083   -93.02453
  KB Lake Cave:  35.72083   -93.02323
  KB Cave 7:  35.72121  -93.02165

Pet Friendly: Yes.  Easy for dogs on or off leash.  I saw no signage to have dogs on a leash, so Boomer was free ranging today.  It should be noted this is a popular hiking location.  If your dog does not play well with strangers, it is best to keep it on a leash. 

Motorcycle Friendly: Yes! The parking area is right off Highway 16.  

Hiking Statistics: For today's hike we did not go all the way around either of the two loop trails, just halfway around the King's Bluff trail, then down below the bluff.  Today we hiked about 2.89 miles with a highest-to-lowest difference of only 381 feet.  We hiked less than half of the King's Bluff trail, and all the rest was a bushwhack below the bluffline.  The trail part is an easy hike and overall, I would rate the bushwhack part of the hike a moderate bushwhack.

GPS files:
    King's Bluff and Pedestal Rocks area waypoints
    King's Bluff below the bluffline track
    Pedestal Rocks and King's Bluff Trails track

Related Blog posts:
    King's Bluff and Pedestal Rocks

Spring Cave

After our cool, wet, summer we seem to have gone straight into a drought-stricken fall and winter.  We managed to get a little rain this past week, but not nearly enough to get the creeks and streams moving enough to make the waterfalls looks good.  That being said, I still need to get out hiking for the sake of both my physical and mental well-being.  Most all of the areas on my "to be explored list" are hollows and valleys that look good for waterfalls, and you can't really tell much about waterfalls you find without some water flowing over them.   But there are quite a few places I have been that never get old.  I was looking back at old blog posts and photos and realized that it has been almost four years since I went to the King's Bluff and Pedestal Rocks area, which certainly fits into the "never gets old" category.  For more information on this area, I highly recommend Danny Hale's TAKAHIK book Hiking the Arkansas Ozarks.  Danny has documented GPS coordinates for many more features than I have marked above.

These two hiking loops are frequented by hikers of all age, as the hiking trails are well maintained, right off the highway, and easy for hikers of all ages.  However, the vast majority of those hikers have no idea that the real beauty of this area can only be experienced by getting off the trail.  Most have no idea that the trail they are on is literally walking over numerous caves, or that many of the hoodoos and other spectacular rock features cannot even be seen from the trail on top of the bluffline.  So today, Boomer (our German Shepherd) and I needed a little wilderness time, and we decided to visit King's Bluff and spend some time poking around the cave and taking our time enjoying the scenery.  I had written a blog post for King's Bluff four years ago but had not yet written one for the 'down under' hiking.  

Boomer and I loaded up and set out.  To get there, go north on Hwy 7 to Pelsor (Sand Gap), and turn right (east) on Hwy 16.  Go 5.9 miles and look for the National Forest sign for Pedestal Rocks on the left.  Take the short loop off Hwy 16 to the parking area.  There is plenty of parking and a primitive toilet there. 
There were already a couple of vehicles there today.  This is a popular hiking location, so this was not unusual.  We did not, however, encounter anyone else on our hike today.  This is also not so unusual because there are two loop trails here with several miles of trail, plus most of our hiking is off the trail. 

The King's Bluff trail and Pedestal Rocks trail are two separate loop trails, both starting out from this trailhead.  We went over the little rock bridge at the parking area and kept straight to go clockwise around the King's Bluff loop.  King's Bluff Falls is about halfway around the 1.9 mile loop.  The trail has a lot of switchbacks but stays pretty much on the level.  At the trail crossing, we turned right to go down the trail along the top of King's Bluff.  This trail goes very close to the edge of a very tall bluff, so if you have small children, keep a close eye on them.  

There are a couple of bluffline breaks to get to the bottom of the bluffline.  Today, we went down the trail along the top of the bluffline to King's Bluff first, so that we could see the scenery from the top first.  You come to King's Bluff at about one mile going either way around the loop.  King's Bluff is a giant slab of rock about the size of a football field, with a drop off of well over a hundred feet, then a steep slope of even more.  There is a great view of a large expanse of the Ozarks from here, as you might imagine.  King's Bluff Falls spills over the north edge of this rock bluff; the right side as you look out over the bluff.  When it has water to spill over, that is.  Today it was kind of pitiful.  Just down the bluffline from the railing, there is a volunteer trail that will take you down to the bottom of King's Bluff Falls, and past another small waterfall just below the railing at the trail.  There is another bluffline break I have marked coordinates for above that will take you from the trail to the bottom of the bluff just west of all the caves and hoodoos.  Today, since we were here, we took this trail down and around the bottom of the bluffline.  

The caves I have marked in the GPS coordinates list are all fairly tall, open caves that I wouldn't expect to find anything in.  Boomer found a small cave that looked just about the right size for a bear to be snoozing in this time of year.  No bear today, though, thankfully.  I actually like seeing them in the wild, I just don't want Boomer and some cranky bear getting into a fight.  My experience with bears and cougars is that they have always run away from me instead of toward me, but I do carry my LCP just in case.  We continued on around the bluff to the first cave entrance.  Most of these caves are fairly wide and high at the entrance, but not that deep, maybe 50 feet or so at most.  All along the bluff, between and around the caves, are some of the most fantastic looking rock features imaginable.  There are hoodoos and crags everywhere, both freestanding and attached to other rock features.  Even a rock bridge coming out and back to the top of the bluff.  You can see it as you go along the trail at the top, but it looks much more impressive from below.

Lake Cave

Some have features that help me remember which is which, and while not officially named, they help me keep them straight in my mind.  The second cave along the bluff going east I called Railing Cave because if you look high up above the entrance, you can see the railing at the edge of the bluff next to the trail.  The Forest Service put up a low stone-and-wood railing along the trail anywhere it went right next to a high cliff.  In Danny Hale's book, I noticed he only put names on two of these caves.  We both called cave #6 Lake Cave, but he named cave #4 "Fern Shelter".  There were no ferns today, but this cave has a very high ceiling in the back room, so I referred to it as Tall Cave. 

Entrance to Railing Cave
note the railing above the cave

I called Cave #5 Spring Cave because it actually has enough drainage into it for a small spring to form a creek with a little flow out of the cave.  I was a little surprised to see that in these dry times.  It is a little more difficult to get up into than most of the King's Bluff caves.  You have to climb up a steep embankment about six or eight feet to get to the cave entrance.  Lake Cave (Cave #6) also is a little difficult to get into for the same reason and is hard to see from the base of the bluff, due to a fallen tree and some briers at the cave entrance.  Once you climb up to the entrance, it is easy to see why we call it Lake Cave.  These caves all have somewhat flat floors, but this one has a small natural berm at the entrance, and enough drainage to keep a couple of inches of water all over the floor.  It stays about two inches or less deep all the way to the very back of the cave, where it gets deep enough that I stop instead of taking a change of getting water over the top of my waterproof hiking boots.  

Cave entrance with "bridge" overhead

After Lake Cave, there is only one other cave that I know of, then the base of the bluff goes up into a crease between the bluff and the creek, rising gradually until you are back at the King's Bluff loop trail.  
While half of the hike is a bushwhack, it isn't that bad this time of year.  With the summer heat, insects, and vegetation, it is a lot worse.  In the winter, you have to deal with the occasional brier patch and rough terrain, but as bushwhacks go I would rate it a moderate bushwhack.  The half of the hike along the trail is very easy.  There are quite a few places in the Ozarks that don't need water to be nice hikes, including next door to King's Bluff at the Pedestal Rocks area.  I'll be hitting that one again soon.

King's Bluff and Pedestal Rocks GPS tracks
Red - King's Bluff and Pedestal Rocks loop trails
Orange - track for hiking along the base of King's Bluff