Jacob's Stairway and Upstream Waterfalls, Ozarks near Jerusalem, Arkansas

1/5/2019 - Jacob's Stairway

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking location:  35.52964   -92.77109,  1331 ft.
  Falls #1:  35.53237   -92.77167
  Falls #2:  35.53288   -92.77152,  1199 ft.
  Falls #3:  35.53319   -92.77138
  Jacob's Stairway (base):  35.53397   -92.77086,  1022 ft.
  

Pet-Friendly: Dogs off leash should be OK.  The biggest impediment in this hollow is brier patches.  Your dog will do better navigating those than you will.  I took Boomer today and he managed just fine.

Hiking Statistics:  This hike is a bushwhack all the way, but we only hiked 1.3 miles round trip.  If you park at the road, it adds about 0.1 miles.  The minimum-to-maximum elevation difference was only 341 feet, but a good deal of that was in rough terrain.  I chose to climb to the top of the bluff to hike out, which was very steep, adding to the difficulty factor.  Boomer and I took 2:34 hrs on the hike, but our actual moving time was only 22 minutes.  The other 2 hours was all photo taking time.  I would say the bushwhacking conditions are difficult, but with the short length and small elevation change, I would rate it as a moderate bushwhack.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post
  Hector-Smyrna area waypoints
  Jacob's Stairway track
  

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:

  Schoolhouse Falls
  Lizard Log Falls 
  Ladderbucket and John Mountain Falls
  Brushy Fork waterfalls near Hatley Mountain

The lower half of Jacob's Stairway
with Rick and Boomer

Bethany and I had been on a road trip the last three days, and as usual, while we were gone it rained a lot.  This time, however, our timing was great; we got back home the day the rains stopped, so today was a great day for trekking in those places on my "wet weather go-to" list.  When I hike in the dryer months, any place that looks like it would be nice if you just add water goes on the list and eventually I go back and visit them with good flow in the creeks and waterfalls.  The other way that places end up on my wet weather list is if friends visit places I haven't been and show me photos with some 'wow' factor.  One such place was one that friends Dan Frew and Jacob Guiot had been to recently.  They had this beautiful waterfall Jacob's Stairway because the photo I had seen had Jacob on it and it looked like a huge waterfall-filled stairway.  It was in a small hollow next to one I had already hiked, so I was already familiar with the area.  After getting in late last night, I was looking for something that shouldn't be too strenuous, and this looked like the perfect candidate.  So Boomer (our German Shepherd) and I loaded up and headed toward Jerusalem.  

Sign at 'Y' in White Oak
Mountain Road - bear left

To get there, drive north from Hector on Highway 27.  Less than a mile from the Big Piney Ranger station in Hector, you cross over Dare Creek.  Look upstream on your right when you cross and you will see a nice little waterfall.  Immediately after crossing Dare Creek, turn right onto White Oak Mountain Road (aka FR-1301).  This is a gravel road but is a well-traveled and fairly well-maintained road.  Go 12.0 miles on White Oak Mountain Road.  Be careful about seven miles from Hector and bear left where the road branches at the 'Y' in the road.  See the sign at right - you want to stay on White Oak Mountain Road at this point.  After following it for 11.8 miles, turn right onto Wilderness Trail (aka FR-1307).  Go another 5.1 miles and turn left onto an old Jeep trail.  If you don't have a high clearance vehicle, just park here off Wilderness Trail.  If you do have a 4WD vehicle, you can go down the Jeep road about 200 yards to a small clearing where the road ends and goes down to more of an old trace trail, and park there.

Falls #1
When I said harsh sunlight, this is what I meant

After parking, I knew I needed to just go straight into the hollow and hike down it away from the road, toward where it flows into Brushy Creek.  The Jeep road we had taken to the parking location continued on as an overgrown trace road, not one I would drive the FJ on, but one that made for easy hiking.  Boomer and I followed it hoping it would turn down into the hollow.  When it became apparent that was not going to happen, we broke off from it and headed down into the hollow.  There was not a lot of undergrowth today, but what was there was small patches of brier, which I hate.  Still, the briers were not extensive enough that we couldn't easily go around the patches, so it wasn't that big a deal.  Getting down into the hollow, we immediately came to Falls #1, a nice little cascading waterfall.  By this time, the sun had come out in full force, making waterfall photography almost impossible.  The photos you see here are about the best I could do with the harsh light.

Jacob's Stairway - upper section

Continuing downstream, we came to Falls #2 and Falls #3 quickly, only a couple hundred feet separating each one.  The top of Jacob's Stairway is likewise only a couple hundred feet downstream of Falls #3.  I paused at each of the smaller waterfalls long enough to snap some photos.  All three have a unique geometry and are photogenic in their own right, but Jacob's Stairway is truly a pretty waterfall.  It is a little frustrating to photograph, because there is no way you can get the whole thing into one frame, so you have to shoot each section separately.  There is a distinct upper and lower section, with the upper section having a lower slope.  Both upper and lower sections have a vertical drop of about 20 feet each.  The upper section stretches out the run quite a bit more, and also splits and runs up each of the two major forks in this hollow.

Jacob's Stairway
Viewed from where the upper section ends.

Most of my time on this hike I wasn't really hiking, I was trying to figure out how to best shoot Jacob's Stairway.  I did the best I could, but I can definitely tell you that photos and videos don't really do it justice.  If you like what you see in these photos, just consider that being there is an experience with a much greater "WOW factor".   There was less flow today than in the photos Dan and Jacob had taken, especially in the right branch of the upper section (as you face upstream).  Even with the lower flow, it was still spectacular.  It is also quite slick as you walk on the 'stairs' in the waterfall.  I slipped and fell on my butt once in the middle of the upper section, and once while climbing up on the lower section to get myself in a timed photo.   The majority of my time on this hike was spent right here at Jacob's Stairway, trying to photograph every perspective I could think of and trying to make the bright sunlight as inconsequential as possible.   Boomer is a water dog, so he entertained himself by romping and swimming and splashing around on Jacob's Stairway.  

Falls #3

This hollow is fairly small, with only one major fork and no sizable side drainages.  It doesn't flow much more than a half mile from it's headwater to where it flows into Brushy Creek.  I only went downstream from Jacob's Stairway to the point where I could see the slope flatten out before flowing into Brushy Creek.  Since I encountered a lot of small patches of brier hiking down along the creek, I looked at the slope on the bluff above the creek to the west and decided it looked much less brushy.  If you look at the map below, you can see the track Boomer and I took on the climb out.  There was considerably less undergrowth that way, but it is a very steep slope.  I would highly recommend this, as Jacob's Stairway is somewhat unique.  I have seen many long cascades and slides, but I can't think of any quite this extensive and beautiful.  It is a relatively small drainage area, so will be very sensitive to rainfall.  Make sure you go after a really good soaking, preferably on an overcast day.  I plan to come back on a really wet day in the spring to get some greenery in my photos.  

Jacob's Stairway GPS track
Red - today's track
Blue - Jeep road