Stave Mill Falls and Little Oak Falls at Moccasin Gap, Arkansas Ozarks north of Dover

1/9/2018 - Stave Mill Falls and Little Oak Falls, Moccasin Gap Area

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location #1:  35.56992  -93.06891,  1432 ft.
  Parking Location #2:  35.56935  -93.07976,  1174 ft.
  Stave Mill Falls:  35.57152  -93.08429,  1001 ft.
  Little Oak Falls:  35.57318  -93.08289,  996 ft.

Pet Friendly: Yes.  Pets of all kinds, not just dogs.  You'll see horses and riders in this area quite often.  

Motorcycle Friendly:  Not great, but definitely doable.  The road from Hwy 7 is a gravel road and is fairly well maintained.  You can ride a big bike as far as parking location #1.  Anything after that is definitely a no.  But speaking of bikes, if you happen to be a mountain bike enthusiast, the trails in this area are about perfect for you.

Hiking Statistics:  From parking location #1 to both waterfalls and back is 3.27 miles.  The maximum-to-minimum elevation difference is 436 feet.  The entire area is covered with horse/ATV/mountain bike/Jeep roads, and you can take them directly to both waterfalls.  This is a moderately easy hike.

Still a little Icy out there today...

We got a little rain yesterday, and Boomer and I both needed to get out and get a little exercise, so we decided to just head up Highway 7 from our house and do a little hiking at Moccasin Gap.  This area has been recently revamped by the Forest Service, with improvements made to trails, campground, and parking areas.  The road from Highway 7 to the campground is called Moccasin Gap Horse Camp Road, so that tells you a little about some of the primary uses for the area.  There are rules about which trails can be used for motorized vehicles, so read the bulletin boards to be sure.  Today, we took an old logging road into the area and didn't even go past the campground.  This is an area with a day use and camping fee, or a senior pass should be good since it is a National Forest Service area.

Entrance to Moccasin Gap from Highway 7

Getting there is straightforward, and if you have ever driven on north Highway 7, you have no doubt seen the sign for the Moccasin Gap recreation area on the west side of the highway.  From the Dover town square (intersection of Hwy 7 and Hwy 27), go 15.6 miles north on Highway 7 and turn left (west) at the Moccasin Gap sign.  The road goes uphill to the left.  Keep bearing to the left to go past the campground, and continue on to a parking area off the road on the left.  The road turns right here, but you will be going straight ahead on the much more rough trail.  

Campground to the left,
old logging road to the right of the gate

This trail winds downhill to parking location #2, which is where we parked today.  When you turn off the highway and go left up to the campground area, there is a closed gate directly in front of you and an old logging road taking off to the right of the gate.  That is how we entered the area today.  I don't recommend this even if you do have a good 4WD with good clearance.  We made it just fine today, but the road is very rough and narrow.  Between the Arkansas jungle, downed trees, and washed out areas around large rocks, we picked up some more "Arkansas pin-striping" and a couple of dents in the FJ Cruiser today.  Someday, she will deserve a paint job, but as long as I keep going down places like this, why bother?  There is a branch of this logging road that goes higher in the hollow and is probably in better shape, but today we picked the lower route.  

Little Oak Falls

All in all, it's only about a mile of hiking between the two parking locations, all on a well-maintained trail.  I was in an exploring mood today, so just kept driving.  I set out today to get some exercise in the great outdoors, and kind of failed by driving on the part that would have been a really nice hike.  We made up for it by wandering around quite a bit along the two creeks.  From where we parked, there is a sign pointing down Trail G, which is where you want to go.  That is at the junction of this old logging road we drove in on and the trail in from the campground and is actually a much better road than the route we drove to it on.  At the bottom of the hill, the trail forks off to the right and goes right to Little Oak Falls.  

Stave Mill Falls

Today, it was nice to see Little Oak Creek getting some flow again.  It is still far below normal, but at least the smaller creeks in the Ozarks are starting to get some water flow again.  The fork on Trail G to the left goes right to the top of Stave Mill Falls.  Boomer and I bushwhacked the short distance, about a quarter mile, down to the junction of Little Oak Creek and Stave Mill Creek, then upstream to Stave Mill Falls.  Stave Mill Falls is a larger waterfall and generally has much more flow than Little Oak Creek.  Today it was still largely frozen, with not much water flowing.

Trail 'G' goes to both waterfalls

After looking around the area, Boomer and I headed back out.  This whole area has a number of multi-use trails, from the NFS information over 31 miles of them.  Even if you count the old logging roads and the roads that come into the area from Treat Road, which runs west of Moccasin Gap, it doesn't seem like it would add up to that much, but that's their claim.  If you prefer hiking on open trails to bushwhacking, this is a beautiful area to just wander around on really good trails

and enjoy the scenery.  Today, we had the place all to ourselves, but that is not always the case.  All in all, I would classify hiking in this area as moderately easy.

Moccasin Gap recreation area GPS tracks
Red - today's hike to Little Oak Falls and Stave Mill Falls
Blue - parking area to junction with old logging road