12-15-2018 Bailey Cole Creek
GPS Coordinates: (Latitude, Longitude, Elevation)
Parking Location: 35.74158 -92.93337, 1258 ft.
Bailey Cole Creek Falls #1: 35.73691 -92.92531
Bailey Cole Creek Falls #2: 35.73690 -92.92516
Bailey Cole Creek Falls #3: 35.73664 -92.92459
Bailey Cole Creek Falls #4: 35.73848 -92.92303
Bailey Cole Creek Falls #5: 35.73868 -92.92486
Bailey Cole Creek Falls #6: 35.74086 -92.91884
Bailey Cole Creek Falls #7: 35.74076 -92.91837
Pet-Friendly: Dogs off leash should be OK. This is a bushwhack all the way and you have to cross Falling Water Creek, which can be fairly challenging after a good rain.
Hiking Statistics: This is another hike without a lot of elevation change. That being said, you do have to cross Falling Water Creek and will cross the creek in this drainage several times. It was 3.43 miles round trip, with a minimum-to-maximum elevation change of only 271 feet. I would rate this a moderate bushwhack. If the creek is as high as it was today you'll be hiking with wet feet, if that adds any difficulty factor for you.
Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:
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| Along Bailey Cole Creek |
We got a fair amount of rain over the last couple of days, and I figured I needed to get out someplace new. There are a couple of hollows north of Falling Water Falls that my friend Dan Frew hiked a few months ago that I have been meaning to hike ever since. I went to one of those, the unnamed hollow containing Bailey Falls, last month. Unfortunately, I had a little camera disaster and Boomer was unable to climb the rocks to get up through one of the bluffline breaks, so we made it to Bailey Falls but I called it a day after that and went back the way we had come. Today, I left Boomer at home to supervise Bethany doing all the Christmas decorating. Our house looks like a veritable Christmas explosion took place. I love it, but my decorating skills are severely limited, so I helped by getting out of the way.
The first of these hollows is the drainage containing Bailey Cole Creek, a fairly good sized hollow for this area. The second is an unnamed hollow with an unnamed creek but has a nice waterfall called Bailey Falls. So, to be clear, Bailey Falls is NOT on Bailey Cole Creek or even in the same drainage. Both drainages run adjacent to each other, draining into Falling Water Creek. To make things a little more confusing, there is another Bailey Cole Creek. The headwaters for the two creeks are less than a mile apart, with one flowing north of Highway 16 into Falling Water Creek and the other flowing south of Highway 16 into the Middle Fork Illinois Bayou. So, to be clear AGAIN, we are talking only about the Bailey (whoever that was) stuff in the Falling Water Creek area.
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| Parking Location |
Getting to today's parking location is easy. From Pelsor (Sand Gap), go 9.9 miles east on Highway 16, through the small community of Ben Hur, and turn left (north) on Falling Water Road. This is the first left after going through Ben Hur. You'll pass a sign for the Piney Creek WMA on the right, and there is a sign here that says "Garrison Falling Water Horse Camp". Go 4.5 miles on Falling Water Road and turn onto the dirt road on the right. It goes down to a campsite along Falling Water Creek. The road leading into the campsite is very rough, but it's also very short; I think most vehicles will be OK on it. Park at the campsite. This is midway between Falling Water Falls and the low water bridge downstream. It is about 2.2 miles past Falling Water Falls. No one was at Falling Water Falls when I went past it, so I stopped for the quick obligatory snapshot.
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| Along Bailey Cole Creek |
From the parking location, you can see where the dirt road you were on goes to a horse trail that crosses the creek here. Cross Falling Water Creek and get on the horse trail. That's easier said than done, today. The recent rains had brought the level up in Falling Water Creek and it was now running almost three feet at the deepest point here. Of course, it didn't look that deep and figured surely it wouldn't be deeper than the creek waders I had used just a month ago when going to Bailey Falls. Those waders only go up the crotch, so they were unfortunately just a tad short. I took on some water in both legs and scurried across as fast as I could. Not that easy to scurry when wearing waders. The good news is, for this hike, crossing Falling Water Creek is about the biggest challenge.
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| Horse Trail Junction |
After getting to the other side, I took the waders off and assessed the damage. One foot was still remarkably dry, but the other boot was pretty much full of water. I drained the boot, put a dry sock on my left foot, and stashed the creek waders behind a tree for my return trip back across Falling Water Creek. From here, just follow the horse trail. It will lead to a junction, where the horse camp folks have kindly put up signs to point to Purdy Hollow or to Bailey Falls. I have never heard of Purdy Hollow, and it doesn't make sense they would call it that when Bailey Cole Creek is the name of the creek running through the hollow. Although this could be just another thing the map makers have screwed up, which would also explain why there are two "Bailey Cole Creeks" so close to each other. In any case, we'll hike over to Bailey Falls later. To get to the Bailey Cole Creek drainage, go toward "Purdy Hollow".
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| Falls #2 |
The horse trail runs close to Bailey Cole Creek, and with normal water levels would be a really pleasant hike through a part of the area most folks don't ever see. Today, the creek was running pretty clear, but fast and deep for what you might expect in a hollow like this. There are quite a few places the trail crosses the creek. Since I wanted to explore the whole area, I broke away from the trail anyway and headed up into the first side drainage with decent flow. Falls #1 and Falls #2 were a little over a quarter mile up this drainage, and above Falls #2 a short distance was Falls #3. By now, this drainage was getting to the point where any waterfalls I found above wouldn't have much flow anyway, so I moved on and climbed up on the bluff alongside it.
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| Falls #4 |
I looked at the topo map on my phone and noted that the next drainage should have a decent amount of water. Instead of going all the way down this drainage and then up the next one, I opted to just cut across to the upper part of the bluff separating them and hike down the next one. This drainage had only a couple of small waterfalls I considered photo-worthy, but you just never know what will be in one of these hollows until you check it out. Getting back to Bailey Cole Creek, I headed on upstream. This is where I needed to cross the main creek several times, which was a little tricky with the water being so high. I did the rock-hopping thing as well as I could, trying to keep in water below the top of my boots. It was, however, much deeper and much faster than it looked. I ended up slipping on rocks a couple of times and going face down into the creek a couple of times and finally gave up. One of the advantages of hiking alone is that no one sees you when you act like a complete idiot.
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| Falls #7 |
At any rate, as much as I hate hiking with water sloshing in my boots, I finally accepted that it was going to be a wet feet kind of day and it was much easier after that. My feet were cold, but at least now I could stick to the horse trail and just wade across where the trail crossed. At the next side drainage, you could see the beautiful series of cascades that I called Falls #6 from the main creek, and Falls #7 was visible above it, pouring off a bluff into a pool behind a large boulder. Climbing up along the cascading creek, I noticed that the large boulder had broken off the bluff above and had landed right over a small waterfall. You could see and hear the waterfall through a gap in the rock. Above this boulder was Falls #7, a classic Ozarks waterfall spilling off the bluff into a pool before feeding the waterfall under the boulder.
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| Falls #6 |
From Falls #6 and #7, I went upstream along the main creek for a way but stopped short of the major fork for Bailey Cole Creek. The creek was still flowing well at this point, and the Forest Service maps show it as a year-round creek much further up into the drainage. But it was already mid-afternoon, and I did want to hike the horse trail up to Bailey Falls today. So at this point, I turned back and followed the horse trail all the way back down to the junction that takes you over to the small hollow containing Bailey Falls. It was a fairly quick hike since I didn't concern myself with keeping my boots dry. I'll come back and explore the rest of this hollow. The lower half of this hollow didn't contain a whole lot of waterfalls, nor any that were particularly notable, but it was a really scenic chunk of wilderness that isn't often seen. I'll come back and check out the upper part of this hollow. For now, I was heading over to Bailey Falls via the horse trail.
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Orange - Bailey Cole Creek track
Red - Bailey Hollow track from Falling Water Creek
Blue - Bailey Hollow track from horse trail |
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