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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 |
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 |
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| Entrance to Railing Cave note the railing above the cave |
 |
| Cave entrance with "bridge" overhead |
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.
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| 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 |
Does your dog enjoy hoodoos?
ReplyDeleteNo fire hydrants around, so yeah, he does...
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