Sis Hollow Waterfalls, Gulf Mountain WMA, Ozarks near Alread, Arkansas

1/28/2019 Sis Hollow Waterfalls

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Park - Sis Hollow:  35.595074,-92.705367
  Sis Hollow Falls #2:  35.595894,-92.710190
  Sis Hollow Falls #3:  35.593547,-92.708503
  Sis Hollow Falls #4:  35.588574,-92.701564
  Sis Hollow Falls #5:  35.594349,-92.697017
  Sis Hollow Falls #6:  35.594480,-92.696972
  Sis Hollow Falls #7:  35.595274,-92.696736
  Sis Hollow Falls #8:  35.596532,-92.696048
  Sis Hollow Falls #9:  35.597339,-92.695738
  Sis Hollow Falls #10:  35.597827,-92.695263
  Sis Hollow Falls #11:  35.598258,-92.695089
  Sis Hollow Falls #12:  35.598397,-92.695120,
  Curtain Falls:  35.598739,-92.695051
  Sis Hollow Falls #14:  35.596622,-92.698769
  Sis Hollow Falls #15:  35.597367,-92.699844
  old homestead:  35.562523,-92.740157

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs should be okay off leash.  Some of this hollow is a little rugged, but most dogs should be okay.  The primary hiking impediment here is briers and brambles, so your dog will probably do better than you do.

Hiking Statistics:  We logged 4.24 miles on today's hike, with a minimum-to-maximum elevation difference of 502 feet.  We took 3:48 (hh:mm) for the entire hike, with a 'time moving' of 1:40.  This is a bushwhack all the way through the hollow and is sometimes a little rugged and steep.   On the west prong and parts of the north prong, briers are a problem.  I have hike under worse conditions, but I would still rate this a difficult bushwhack.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post
  Hector-Smyrna Area waypoints
  Sis Hollow GPS track

Curtain Falls - with Dan, Rick, and Glen

To be honest, I had never even heard of Sis Hollow, so it wasn't on my radar or even on any of my many 'lists', such as my list of places with no information, just 'go explore' because it looked promising on a topo map.  My friend Dan Frew, who I frequently hike with, asked one evening if I wanted to go hike the next day, which I readily agreed to.  When we met up the next morning, we were joined by Glen Pagan.  Glen and I had communicated before, but this was the first time I had the pleasure of hiking with him.  Hopefully, we'll have many more opportunities to explore together.  It wasn't until we all piled in Dan's Jeep that I even asked: "where to?"  When Dan answered "Sis Hollow", I must have had a confused look on my face.  I was, in fact, confused.  "Up near Rex", he said.  Well, I still had no idea, but that's okay.  I'm up for exploring anywhere that won't kill me, and I knew there was some nice country up there.   I figure any day out in the woods is a good one, and this day proved me right.

Falls #11

Getting to the parking location was pretty straightforward: 

• From the junction of Highways 27 and 16 between Nogo and Tilly, go 9.2 miles east on Highway 16 and turn right onto a local road
• Follow this dirt road just 145 yards and turn left onto Brock Road.
• Go 1.4 miles on Brock Road and turn right onto Rex Road.
• Go 0.3 miles and turn bear right to stay on Rex Road.
• Go an additional 1.1 miles and turn left onto a Jeep road.
• Go approximately a half mile down the Jeep road and park.  If you don't have a 4WD vehicle, you might want to park on Rex Road and just hike in.  Use your own judgment.

If you come from the other direction near Clinton:

• From the junction of Highways 65 and Highway 16 near Clinton, go 20.9 miles west on Highway 16, and then turn left onto Rex Road.  
• Go 2.5 miles on Rex Road and turn left onto the Jeep road.  
• Go approximately a half mile down the Jeep road and park.  If you don't have a 4WD vehicle, you might want to park on Rex Road and just hike in.  Use your own judgment.

Falls #7

There was extensive signage to the effect that ATVs were prohibited throughout the entire area.  I have noticed most Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) now have a complete ban on ATVs.  Most of Sis Hollow is within the Gulf Mountain WMA, but where we parked is not.  There was a good deal of logging in progress in this area, so it was looking pretty ugly here.  We parked at the edge of where the logging activity stopped, and hiked west on the old road from there, almost immediately descending into the west prong of Sis Hollow.  Sis Hollow has two big prongs, running west and north, which combine and then flow into Cedar Creek.  No, not the Cedar Creek at Petit Jean Park, nor the one north of Hagerville, nor a dozen others.  This was yet another Cedar Creek that is a major tributary to the South Fork Little Red River.  Heading upstream in the first drainage, we soon came to Falls #1.  At this time, we were still in a somewhat dry period.  We had received some rain, enough to make the roads soggy and muddy, but not enough to soak in and get the creeks running well.  Falls #1 would look great with enough flow, but today there wasn't enough in this drainage to warrant going through the whole thing.

Falls #2

We headed west to the other fork in this drainage to check it out and found Falls #2 flowing off the same bluffline as Falls #1.  This fork had a bit more flow, enough to make Falls #2 at least photo-worthy.  We decided to stick to the bluffline and head around into the west-most fork in this prong but found it to be a little too lacking in flow as well.  Along the way, we did hear a waterfall in the middle fork that we had just left, so we doubled back up the main creek in this prong to check it out.  We found Falls #3 less than a quarter mile downstream from Falls #2 and didn't see anything else noteworthy to explore.  We headed downstream on the main creek in this prong to finish the exploration here and head up into the other main prong of Sis Hollow.  Along the way, we did find Falls #4, a pretty cool hidden waterfall in a small side drainage near the main creek.  Unfortunately, today it could have used some more flow as well.

Falls #5

Continuing on downstream in the west prong, the terrain was not too bad, but briers and brambles were in clumps everywhere, making us continually route around them as we trekked.  We got to the junction of the two prongs and headed upstream on the north prong.  Both prongs actually had a nice flow in the main creeks, but so far the only waterfalls we had found were either at the very top of the forks or in side drainages.  By the time we were halfway up the north fork, we were starting to think Sis Hollow was going to be a big bust.  Don't get me wrong, just being able to get out in the wilderness and hike in this beautiful country was fantastic.  We are just a little spoiled in that there are dozens of other hollows in the Ozarks that we can get the same fantastic scenery and some nice waterfalls, caves, and rock features to boot.  As often happens, as soon as we (okay, mostly me) start complaining about briers and mouthing phrases to the effect of "...no need to come back to this one...", nature seems to take an interest in leaving us with a better impression.  I've seen it a hundred times.  Thanks, Nature.

Falls #8

Well over halfway up the north prong, we found Falls #5 and Falls #6 close together on the main creek.  These are not huge; Falls #5 has a relatively small drop, and Falls #6 is a long cascade/water slide.  But just seeing some nice water features on the main creek was encouraging.  A hundred yards further upstream, we found Falls #7, a classic Ozark shelf waterfall.  A couple hundred yards upstream from that was Falls #8 and then Falls #9, #10, #11, #12, and #13 were one after another as we went upstream, all on the main creek in the north prong. The terrain in the upper part of this prong is considerably rougher and steeper than the rest of Sis Hollow, but that's the tradeoff; rugged terrain yields the best stuff to see.  We spent a good deal of time photographing these waterfalls, and a good deal of time climbing from one to another.  Above Falls #13, it seemed to flatten out quite a bit as we reached the top of the hollow, and no other big bluffs appeared to be above us.  

Old rock wall above still site near Falls #15

We decided to go around the bluff and check out one of the few side drainages of any size on the north prong of Sis Hollow.  We did find a couple of waterfalls, Falls #14, which will probably look good with more water, and Falls #15, a small waterfall near an overhang with an old still site under it.  We seem to find an old still site in just about every hollow we visit in the Ozarks.  Our pioneer ancestors must have been some happy folks!  Continuing on up out of the hollow, we had very little climbing left to do, having gained most of the elevation we needed by climbing between waterfalls in the north prong.  There were signs of old stacked-rock walls and an old homestead site at the top of the drainage a short distance above Falls #15.  Close to that, we found an old trace road leading back to where we parked and more signage on that saying no ATVs were allowed, and only authorized vehicles were allowed.  You could probably drive a good 4WD back to this point, but that would be as far as you could take it.  I think in the future, I might revisit the very tops of the forks in the west prong, but concentrate more on hiking the upper part of the north prong.  With just a mile of hiking each way, you could see all of the really nice waterfalls we found. 

Old Homestead, Koone Hollow

Getting back to Dan's Jeep, we piled in and headed back.  On the way back, we took the scenic route, going down Rex Road to FR-1342 (Koone Hollow Road), and turning left toward the Little Red River.  There are the remains of an old homestead down near the mouth of Koone Hollow, with the old stacked-rock fireplace and chimney in remarkably good condition.  We forded Koone Creek, and the South Fork and Brushy Forks of the Little Red River to eventually get to Persons Road, then back to Hector over White Oak Mountain.  It takes longer, but the scenery and history can't be beaten.  We polished off the day by stopping by at the Devil's Playground, a unique feature high on White Oak Mountain with some amazing crevices. sinkholes and other features.  All-in-all, another great day in the woods.  It's always a pleasure hiking with Dan, and an equal pleasure getting to meet Glen finally and do a hike with him.  We found some nice waterfalls, a good sized cave, and enjoyed another day in great Arkansas outdoors.  Ka-ching!

Teapot Hollow waterfalls - concentrated polyfoss area along Big Piney Creek, Ozarks near Fort Douglas, Arkansas

1/23/2019 Teapot Hollow Waterfalls

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location:  35.650609,-93.227392, 516 ft.
  Falls #1:  35.650994,-93.228957, 643 ft.
  Falls #2:  35.650936,-93.229155, 694 ft.
  Falls #3:  35.650936,-93.229155, 700 ft.
  Falls #4:  35.651036,-93.229333, 734 ft.
  Falls #5:  35.650951,-93.229745, 801 ft.
  Teapot Hollow Water Slide:  35.651158,-93.230291, 893 ft.
  Falls #6:  35.651176,-93.230782, 818 ft.
  Falls #7:  35.651289,-93.231207, 865 ft.
  Hourglass Falls:  35.651276,-93.231596, 936 ft.
  Salem Falls:  35.651442,-93.232547, 1131 ft.
  Bluffline Break:  35.651853,-93.228863, 731 ft.

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs should be okay off leash.  This is a fairly rugged area, but each waterfall has access to the bluff above on one side or the other.  That access may be somewhat steep and slippery so some smaller dogs may struggle.

Hiking Statistics:  On today's hike, we logged one mile total round trip.  Distance-wise, it is certainly a short hike.  Over that half mile of the creek, however, there is a 625-foot minimum-to-maximum elevation gain.  Add to that the fact that you have to hike down steep bluff banks to access some waterfalls, and then climb back out.  Our total track time on this hike was 2:27 (hh:mm), but most of that was time taking photos and milling about various water features, which is not seen as "time moving".  Our moving time was only 16 minutes for this hike.  Despite the short distance, due to the ruggedness of the terrain and steep climb in, I would rate it as a moderate to difficult bushwhack.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post
  Teapot Hollow waypoints
  Teapot GPS track
  

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:
  Pam's Grotto Falls 
  Haw Creek Falls and Highway 123 Falls
  Bear Creek waterfalls

Falls #1

First off, the hollow this hike takes you through is unnamed, just a small side drainage that flows directly into Big Piney Creek.  However, the good folks that read this blog gave me feedback long ago that discussing "Unnamed Falls #12 in an unnamed hollow"  was just not going to work because there are many "unnamed hollows" in the Ozarks, and they couldn't differentiate Falls #12 in one unnamed hollow from Falls #12 in the next unnamed hollow.  Ever since getting those comments, I have put a name on the hollows I write about, whether it is official or not.  Bethany, my wife, is much more creative than I am and therefore is my 'inventor of names' for waterfalls and hollows.  Bethany came up with the name Teapot Hollow after I described it as being short, but quite steep.  She had to explain this one to me; teapots are "short and stout", and they are also used to steep tea.  Get it?  <heavy sigh>.  Therefore, Teapot Hollow it is.  

Falls #5

Today, I was hiking with friend and frequent hiking partner Dan Frew.  Dan has now started a Vlog to use video to document the kind of stuff I write about in my blog.  You should check out his YouTube channel Adventures in Dan-Land.  We had already stopped by nearby Pam's Grotto, and this was our second hike of the day.  We had both been to this hollow, as well as the one directly across Big Piney Creek and the one right next to it on the south, but they all had very low flow at the time.  We had a pretty good rain last night, and on the drive out the creeks and waterfalls along Highway 123 were running well, so we had high hopes of catching this one with a good deal of water.  As it turned out, the recent rain had provided just the right amount of flow for the waterfalls here to look their best.  

Hourglass Falls

Everything is simple and easy for this one, including the driving directions.  Just pop the GPS coordinates for the parking location in your navigation system and go.  There is only one road to it.  
   (1) If you can't do that, from Hagerville, go north on Highway 123 for 15.3 miles and turn right on FR-1002 (aka CR-5861).  Go 2.5 miles down FR-1002 and park off the road at the end of the clearing here.  
   (2) If you are coming from the other direction, from Pelsor (Sand Gap), go south-west on Highway 123 for 11.3 miles, then turn left (south) on FR-1002.  Go 2.5 miles down FR-1002 and park off the road at the end of the clearing here. 
   Today, it was easy to see where we should park.  It was winter and therefore 'leaves off' season, and with the rain last night, the lowest waterfall was clearly visible from the road.  One note about this parking location;  everything on this hike is on public land.  That being said, the patches of flat, cleared, grassy land along Big Piney Creek is usually leased by the Forest Service to folks in the area for grazing or cutting hay.  You could drive across the field to be a little closer to the mouth of the hollow, but please just park there along the road.  A few extra yards on flat land won't kill you.

Falls #6

As simple as the driving directions are, the hiking directions are just as simple.  We hiked directly for the first waterfall, spent some time there taking photos, and climbed up around the grotto on the left, and there was Falls #2.  The base of Falls #2 was literally just a few feet from the top of Falls #1.  Likewise, the base of Falls #3 was only a few feet from the top of Falls #2.  I only gave numbers to the waterfalls that were large enough and/or otherwise 'photo-worthy'.  Those ten water features in this little hollow obviously were not all as close together as the first three.   In between the larger water features was a continuous parade of smaller waterfalls, water slides, and cascades, all very nice and all photogenic in their own way.  The highest in this string of water features is the beautiful Salem Falls, named for my niece Kate's son. Salem Moorehead.

Salem Falls

The entire way up the hollow, you can see the next water feature from the previous one, so planning a good route from one to the next is fairly simple.  From the parking location to the highest waterfall, Salem Falls, is only a half mile hiking distance, including the random lateral movements in and out of the creek area.  The more passable route on the way up seemed to be along the left side.  The right side of the creek had the occasional sheer bluff that required crossing the creek or climbing higher on the bluff.  We paused at each of the photo-worthy waterfalls and spent quite a bit of the hike just taking photos.  Coming back down the hollow, we climbed up on the ridge of the bluff on the left side (as you face downstream), and hiked down well above the rock jumble along the creek.  I marked coordinates (listed above) for a bluffline break to come down through on the final steep bluff above Big Piney.  See the map below for that detail.

Falls #4

Make no mistake about it, this is a wet weather polyfoss.  I really don't know how much rain the area actually got.  We had received about an inch of rain the night before at our house north of Dover, and I saw about the same reported at Pelsor.  It could have been a lot more locally, but I doubt it was much more.  It looks like it doesn't take a whole lot to make it look good.  I think today, it had just the right amount of flow to make it look it's best.  At any rate, know that it will need some wet weather.  Since the drainage area for this hollow is not very large, it will go away pretty quickly after a good rain as well.  It's easy enough to get to and check out so I would recommend doing that after a rain.  If it doesn't look all that good on the lowest waterfall, you can go elsewhere and not waste any time.  This little hollow has a whole lot of beautiful scenery, a very large payload for very little effort.  If you can catch it on a wet day and don't mind a steep bushwhack, I would highly recommend this one. 

Falls #1

Falls #2

From the top of Falls #2
The top of Falls #1 is at the edge of the visible water
The parking location is at the right side of the clearing in the background
Big Piney Creek is immediately behind the clearing

Falls #3

Falls #4

Falls #5

Falls #6

Falls #6

Falls #7

Hourglass Falls

Salem Falls

GPS Track - Teapot Hollow Polyfoss

White Rock Creek waterfalls, Ozarks near Fern, Arkansas

1/16/2019 - White Rock Creek waterfalls and bluffs

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location #1 (today's):  35.64503   -93.96658,  
  Parking Location #2:  35.68084   -93.96452
  Old trail branch:  35.65769   -93.97131
  Second Chance Falls:  35.66530    -93.96570
  White Rock Creek Cascade:  35.67111   -93.96820
  Falls #7:  35.67164   -93.96848
  White Rock Creek Falls:  35.67330   -93.97110
  Falls #4:  35.67341   -93.97392
  Falls #5:  35.67353   -93.97493
  Hesitation Falls:  35.67389   -93.97500
  Trail crossing near Parking location #2:  35.68067   -93.96430

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs will be fine, either on-leash or off.  This is a hike with a well-defined trail, and should not be challenging for any dog.  It is not a very rugged area or hike, except for the bushwhack down to Second Chance Falls.

Hiking Statistics:  The out-and-back hike today was a total of 6.2 miles.  Most of that was on the Shores Lake-White Rock loop trail.  There was some bushwhacking involved in going to Second Chance Falls and everything upstream of White Rock Creek Falls.  The minimum-to-maximum elevation difference was only 341 feet, but there are many climbs where the trail dips down off the bluff to cross side drainages, or when the trail has to climb the bluff due to restrictions on the creek bank.  The round trip time was 4:27 (hh:mm), but the actual hiking time was right at 2:00 hours.  Hiking the trail is easy, but with the limited bushwhacks involved, I would rate this a moderate hike.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post
  Mulberry River Area waypoints
  White Rock Creek GPS tracks
  

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:
  Sixty Foot Falls

  Devil's Den Loop Trail

  Jack White Falls and Phipps Branch Falls

Second Chance Falls

On my visit to Jack White Falls a few days ago, I was reminded how much I have back-burnered hiking trips to the western Ozarks, and also reminded what a great area this is.  I vowed to spend more time in this part of the Ozarks, and today was an opportunity to do just that.  When I was thinking of where to go last night, I researched the White Rock Creek area because Boomer (our German shepherd) was feeling kind of gimpy and I thought this would be a fairly low-impact area for him.  Usually, when I start getting ready to go out hiking, he is all over it, bounding around hanging out near the back door of the FJ to make sure he doesn't get left behind.  He is normally just as happy as a pig in poop to get out in the woods because that is his happy time, his favorite thing to do.  Today, he was still limping a little and showed absolutely no interest in getting out in the woods, just laying on the couch with a "not today" look.  My wife, Bethany, decided he was staying home.  She also declined to go hiking today, saying something about "the rest of the Christmas stuff won't put itself away."  So I took that as my cue to get out while I could and set out solo today.

White Rock Creek Cascade

There is an actual trail running along White Rock Creek, something I don't have on most hikes. It is actually part of the White Rock Mountain and Shores Lake Loop Trail, which spurs off the Ozark Highlands Trail (OHT) and connects the two recreation areas.  The entire loop is over 12 miles long, and frankly, I was only interested in the much more scenic west side of the loop.  You could hike this from the White Rock Mountain Side or the Shores Lake side, but since I was doing an "out-and-back" hike instead of the whole loop, I choose to start at the Shores Lake end.  It's a longer hike to get up to all the waterfalls, but you avoid the big climb out at the upper end.  There are still a lot of ups-and-downs going and coming this way, probably just as much overall climbing, but it is spaced out over the full length instead of one big climb at the end.  I listed coordinates for parking locations on both ends above, as well as where to find the trail from parking location #2 if you choose to hike down from the top.  It is only about 100 feet ahead from where you park.  As I mentioned, I prefer hiking up from the Shores Lake end of the trail.

White Rock Creek Falls

Getting to the White Rock Creek area is easy and straightforward, and has a paved road almost all the way to the parking location.  Take exit 24 from I-40 and head north on Highway 215.  Go 12.6 miles north on Highway 215, through the small town of Fern, and turn left (north) on Bliss Ridge Road (aka CR-75).  Go 1.5 miles on Bliss Ridge Road, past the Shores Lake campground, and park at the pull-off in the sharp right turn there.  This is parking location #1, where I started today's hike from.  To get to parking location #2, keep going an additional 3.7 miles on Bliss Ridge Road and turn left (west) on White Rock Mountain Road.  Go 0.6 miles west on White Rock Mountain Road and turn left onto a Jeep road.  Go about 200 yards down the Jeep road to where it to loops around on itself and park.  This is Parking Location #2.  If you had gone straight on the original trace road instead of the circular loop, the trail is about 100 feet down that trace road.  Go right (west) on that trail and you will be hiking down the mountain to White Rock Creek.  

From parking location #1, my starting point for today's hike, you'll notice that there is a logging road straight ahead on the large pull-out area, but nothing that looks like a trail.  The trail actually comes up from the Shores Lake campground and crosses the road immediately to the right of the parking pullout.  You can go out to the road and get right on the trail and start hiking north.  Or, you can go down that logging road.  It runs for almost a half mile north along Hurricane Creek, parallelling a little below the actual trail.  I didn't see any signs of recent logging activity, although there was an old sign on the trail that indicated it was being logged.  The old logging road has some areas along it you could pull a vehicle into and park if you have a 4WD or high clearance vehicle.  My FJ would easily make it down this logging road, but I left it parked at Bliss Ridge Road because I intended to take that initial half mile on the trail itself either coming or going, just to check it out.  

Falls #4

I took the old logging road on the way out, just for a little variation in scenery. 

 In less than a half mile, it goes from a couple of ruts down to just a single trail and merges seamlessly with the Shores Lake-White Rock Mountain spur trail.  This first part of the trail runs along Hurricane Creek, a large creek that feeds Shores Lake.   While the logging road is closer to it than the trail, you still can't see much of Hurricane Creek, even in the winter.  What is it with the way we name creeks here, anyway?  There is another Hurricane Creek that runs through the Hurricane Creek Wilderness Area near Pelsor, and yet another a few miles east of that off White Oak Mountain northeast of Hector. We don't even get hurricanes as far inland as Arkansas.  We get lots of tornados, but I don't know of any creeks named Tornado Creek.  Anyway, I digress.  Back to the hike!

Bluffs upstream of
White Rock Creek Falls

The trail soon comes down to where it crosses the creek at Bliss Spring Hollow. 

 Some kindred soul that also hates hiking with boots full of water has graciously put large rocks across the creek to help with that crossing.  A short distance after that, about 1.1 miles down the trail from the parking area, you finally come to White Rock Creek where it flows into Hurricane Creek.  The hike to this point is not all that scenic, but from here on the trail follows along one of the prettiest creeks in the Ozarks.  To this point, there are a lot of dense thickets of brier along both sides of the trail, and if I were bushwhacking instead of having the trail available, I probably wouldn't venture up this creek very far.  As it is, though, the trail is actually a pretty good one.  It has been modified from the original trail blazed to improve the route.  If you look at the old National Forest Service (FS) maps, you can see where the original trail crossed the creek, runs down the west side, then crosses again.  They now have routed the trail up on the bluff on the east (right as you go upstream) side, and those two crossings are eliminated.  I have marked the location the old trail branched off and listed those coordinates above if you want to head upstream that way.

Second Chance Falls

White Rock Creek is a good sized creek, and I'm always going to try to get out here when the water is high, so I don't mind at all that the trail keeps me on one side.  The downside of this route is that it is easy to miss one of the beautiful waterfalls on White Rock Creek.  Going downstream, you are very likely to miss it, and going upstream there is only one spot that you can catch a glimpse of it if you are paying attention to the creek instead of watching where your next step is.   Second Chance Falls is a beautiful, broad, waterfall running across the breadth of White Rock Creek.  It is now about a hundred yards off the trail, so it requires some bushwhacking down to it.  Instead of trying to locate the old trail and backtracking along it, there is a crease, a steep drainage, just downstream of the waterfall that I climbed down and back up.  

Second Chance Falls - with Spring/early Summer Foliage
photo by John Moore, June 16, 2008

This waterfall was named by John Moore.  John is kind of a legendary figure in that, like Tim Ernst, he spent a good deal of his life hiking through the Ozarks and documenting his treks with some stunning photography.  He always tried to get out and spend some time in the woods with his sons on Father's Day and had missed that opportunity in 2008.  After a big thunderstorm rolled through that night knocking out power where he worked, John had an opportunity the next day for a "second chance" to get out with his sons and came to this waterfall.  When I come across waterfalls that aren't documented, I always try to search every resource I can to see it has a name.  Getting the back story from John on the history behind the name is an extra bonus.  One thing I wanted to point out is the difference some foliage can make.  John gave me permission to include a photo (see above) from that day in the blog so you can compare this one to the ones I took today.  This tells me I need to pick a good day in the other three seasons to come back and get some photos that illustrate the natural beauty of this area much better. 

White Rock Creek Cascade

Climbing back up to the trail, I continued upstream.  A little over two miles up the trail, it crosses Dry Fork, which like most creeks named "Dry" is actually anything but dry.   It had pretty good flow today, and I seriously considered doing a little exploring up it today but decided to defer that decision until the trip back to see how much time I had.  White Rock Creek Cascade is less than a half mile upstream from Second Chance Falls, not far from the Dry Fork crossing.  It was 2.5 miles on my GPS trip meter today, but remember that includes a little side trip to Second Chance Falls.  This is a spectacular waterfall, with enough flow and whitewater you can easily see it on satellite imagery and is the one you most often see photographed on White Rock Creek.  At this point, we have another 'old trail, new trail' story.  The old FS maps show the trail staying on the east side, and there is a path to the right that climbs up the steep embankment to the top of the waterfall.  But the blue trail markers (blue because this is just a spur of the OHT) follow the new route on the west (left) side of the creek upstream.  I went across the creek and up the newer trail on the way up and stayed on the east side on the way back.  Both are fine, but the old trail is less distinct and a little overgrown and has that tricky descent from the top of White Rock Creek Cascade.

White Rock Creek Falls and Grotto

White Rock Creek Falls is in a side drainage approximately a quarter-mile upstream from White Rock Creek Cascade.  The trail actually goes up above the top of the waterfall.  There is a fork with a faint trail leading off toward the creek.  That leads down to the creek, and one of the nicest camping sites I have seen.  Just upstream on the right is the grotto containing White Rock Creek Falls.  Today, it was pretty, but not that impressive due to low flow.  This is in a side drainage, and if you look at it on a topo map you will see that there is not a lot of drainage area above the waterfall.  That will make it very sensitive to the amount of recent rain, and is a good reason to make this trip shortly after a good rain.  The grotto itself is very nice and opens up right where it flows into White Rock Creek.  After spending a little time here, I headed upstream for the last of the bushwhack part of today's adventure.  The part of the creek upstream is what I consider to be the prettiest part of a very pretty creek, but since it is off the loop trail, not many people venture up this far.

Falls #4

To go very far upstream, you will need to cross the creek due to the spectacular,
 tall bluffs running along the east side of White Rock Creek.  Fortunately, there is a huge downed tree right there that you can walk across, and after going upstream on the west (left) side, there is another big tree down across the creek just downstream of Falls #4 to help you get across the creek to the east side again.  Falls #4 is a nice little six-foot waterfall on the main creek that has a slot up at the top and a huge pool below that it flows into.  I only had an 11-16mm wide lens with me, so without going swimming, I couldn't take any closeup shots of this one.  Climbing the bluff on the east (right) side, I hiked upstream around the bend in White Rock Creek and found Falls #5, a nice waterfall in very wet weather, in a side drainage on the other side.

Hesitation Falls

Less than 200 yards upstream from Falls #4 on White Rock Creek is Hesitation Falls.  This is one of those relatively short waterfalls that is still quite picturesque, or in Rick-speak "photo worthy", so if it didn't have a name already I would at least have given it a number.  I found the name Hesitation Falls in an old database of waterfalls, with no mention of where the name came from, who found it or named it, or any photos.  I have never seen any other photos of it, but this is one that spans the creek in a couple of drops and can also be clearly seen on satellite imagery.  The database had the correct GPS coordinates associated with the name Hesitation Falls, so that's the name I'll stick with going forward.  If any of you blog readers out there have more information on it, please let me know.  I always find the stories behind these features interesting.  Update - one of my readers tells me that Hesitation Falls was named by Steve Robertson on the first known kayak run on White Rock Creek in 1998.

White Rock Creek downstream of Falls #4

Hesitation Falls was as far as I had planned on venturing today, but I was still 
thinking about stopping by Dry Fork on the way back and following it upstream for a way.  Making my way alongside the creek on the way back downstream, I did pick up a faint trace trail between Falls #4 and White Rock Creek Falls.  This section of the creek has huge bluffs and cool rock features, and the creek runs along the base of the tallest cliffs on the creek.  I walked across the log to get back on the east side (left going downstream), and stayed on the east side on the old trail going back to White Rock Creek Cascade.  I stopped at the top of the cascade to get some shots from that perspective and discovered the tripod mounting plate (actually a quick release ball on my Manfrotto mini tripod) was missing from the camera bottom.  It wasn't on the tripod, either.  I had it on the tripod at Hesitation Falls, so I have no idea how it could have got unscrewed and lost.  If you go this way, please keep your eye out for it.  

White Rock Creek Cascade

I did the best I could holding the camera by hand and keeping exposure to just one second, then moved on.  But without the tripod, I wasn't about to hike all the way up Dry Fork without the camera gear I needed if I did find something worth shooting, so I decided to nix that little exploration side trip for today.  I paused to take some quick photos a couple of times, but other than that, the hike back to the parking location was non-stop and went fairly quickly.  I took the trail on the way back instead of the old logging road.  It's rougher, narrower, and rockier, but it is still a trail and is pretty easy hiking.    It took less than an hour to hike from Hesitation Falls back to where I parked the FJ out of almost four and a half hours on the trail, so that tells you a little about how much time I spend photo taking and looking around.  All in all, this is a very pleasant hike in a very beautiful locale.  It was 6.2 miles round trip, so just about right for a day hike.  I was out on the trail all day and never saw another person, but that will probably be different on a weekend.  If you have not yet hiked this area, I would highly recommend it.

GPS Track - White Rock Creek