Thursday, February 14, 2019

Road 299 Falls, Glory B Falls, and Eagle's Nest Falls, Madison WMA, near Forum, Arkansas

2/12/2019 Road 299 Falls, Glory B Falls, and Eagle's Nest Falls

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Park - Road 299 Falls:  36.256421,-93.657374
  Road 299 Falls:  36.256707,-93.656746
  Park - Glory B Falls:  36.196011,-93.691862
  Glory B Falls:  36.196883,-93.690102
  Park - Eagle Nest Falls:  36.224055,-93.655668
  Leave the trail for Eagle's Nest Falls:  36.224607,-93.653464
  Eagles Nest Falls:  36.224100,-93.653200

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs should be okay off leash.  At Eagle's Nest Falls, be careful near the top of the falls and along the bluff around it.    

Hiking Statistics:  Road 299 Falls and Glory B Falls are literally right next to the road.  For Glory B Falls, you need to park about 0.1 miles down the road, but I'll not even count that as a hike.  Both are easy to access the top and bottom of the waterfalls.  Eagles Nest Falls is a little hiking, at least.  Today I hiked just under one mile, 0.95 miles to be exact, on the round-trip hike.  The minimum-to-maximum elevation difference was only 104 feet.  The hike to the bottom of the waterfall is a little tricky, but I would still rate it as an easy hike/bushwhack.

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:
  Tea Kettle Falls and Reynolds Hollow Falls
Glory B Falls

 After finishing my hike at Tea Kettle Falls, it was already 2:00pm, but I still had three waterfalls in the Madison Wildlife Management Area (WMA) that I wanted to make sure I hit today.  It's such a long drive up here for me, I intended to visit them all and get the best payload for my road time.  The other three waterfalls I wanted to visit were all that I call "drive-by roadside falls", and these three are the trifecta of drive-by waterfalls for the Madison WMA.  I'll discuss them in the order that I saw them today, but this order was primarily because I was closest to Road 299 Falls, but I wanted to save Eagle's Nest Falls for last and hoped that the sun would be low enough to put most of it in the shade.  Road 299 Falls and Eagle's Nest Falls are relatively close to each other so you might consider visiting them consecutively.  One note; I noticed my directions were a little different on some than what Tim Ernst has in his Arkansas Waterfalls guidebook.  I have learned from experience that Tim knows what he is talking about.  I think either route gets you there, but I highly recommend taking Tim's book with you also.  If you don't have the book, order it online and he will sign it for you.  You'll thank me later.

 Road 299 Falls
Road 299 Falls
The roads throughout the Madison WMA are generally good, as much as gravel roads can be, but they wind all through this part of the WMA in a virtual maze that is hard to keep track of.  Your navigation unit or phone will probably know these roads since they are mostly Madison County maintained named roads, so plugging the GPS coordinates for the parking location in may just do the trick for you, but I would keep an eye on it.  To get to Road 299 Falls, start at the small community of Forum, north of Huntsville on Highway 23.
  • From the sharp turn on Highway 23 in the middle of Forum, go 3.5 miles north on Highway 23 and turn right onto CR-1235.  
  • Go 0.2 Miles on CR-1235 and bear right onto CR-1250.
  • Go 0.7 miles and bear right to stay on CR-1250.
  • Go an additional 1.6 miles on CR-1250 and bear left onto CR-1425
  • Go 2.5 miles on CR-1425 and turn right onto CR-299.  This junction is kind of a 3-way 'Y', and CR-299 is the far right road.
  • Go 0.6 miles on CR-299 and there is a small clearing on the left to park at.  This is the CR-299 Falls parking location.
Road 299 Falls
Road 299 Falls is just downstream a few yards from the parking spot.  There is a volunteer trail down to the top of the waterfall, but don't take that because you can't see much from that viewpoint.  Go to the back of the clearing on the right and there is another volunteer trail that goes a short distance around the top of the bluff on the right, then down to the base of Road 299 Falls.  This is a beautiful little (21 feet tall) waterfall, and the creek is that same small aggregate of limestone that you see throughout the Madison WMA, making the water crystal clear.  For this waterfall, navigating the maze of roads is the hard part.  The short hike down to the base of the waterfall is super short and very easy.  

 Glory B Falls
Glory B Falls
I debated on whether I should just go knock out Eagle's Nest Falls, but in the end, decided to go ahead on over to Glory B Falls and save what I consider the best of the three for last when the harsh sun might be a little more favorable.  You can actually cut over to Glory B Falls from either of the other two, but I'll give directions as if you were going to this one directly.  I included a track for going from Glory B Falls to Eagle's Nest Falls in the links above.  To get to Glory B Falls, start once again from the small community of Forum. 
  • From the sharp turn on Highway 23 in the middle of Forum, go 1.4 miles north on Highway 23 and turn right onto CR-1230 (aka CR-407).  
  • Go 1.3 miles on CR-1230, and bear right to stay on CR-1230.
  • Go another 0.7 miles on CR-1230 and park at the big Madison WMA sign.
Glory B Falls
You actually drove right by Glory B Falls about a tenth of a mile before you parked at the WMA sign, but the road there is narrow and there really isn't any place to park without blocking the road.  From the parking location, hike back down the road for that tenth of a mile.  You can see the creek and hear Glory B Falls before you get to it.  There is an easy way down to the base of the waterfall just to the left.  This is the shortest of the waterfalls I visited today, at only 16 feet tall, and the sun was harshly brilliant and in just the wrong place to get a decent shot of the waterfall.  As it turns out, the photos I took here are some of my favorites from the day's hikes. 

Eagle's Nest Falls

Eagle's Nest Falls
Eagle's Nest Falls is located right below the parking area for the trail out to the King's River Overlook.  There are signs on turns, pointing to this overlook, and that will tell you that you are on the right track.  I actually went from Glory B Falls to Eagle's Nest Falls by cutting across on CR-1425, and I included a track for that in the links above and on the map below.  For a stand-alone approach to Eagle's Nest Falls, I'll start again from the small town of Forum:
  • From the sharp turn on Highway 23 in the middle of Forum, go 3.5 miles north on Highway 23 and turn right onto CR-1235.  
  • Go 0.2 Miles on CR-1235 and bear right onto CR-1250.  
  • Go 0.7 miles and bear right to stay on CR-1250.  
  • Go an additional 1.6 miles on CR-1250 and bear left onto CR-1425
  • Go 0.8 miles on CR-1425 and make two right turns to round an intersection onto CR-1230.
  • Go 1.0 miles on CR-1230 and bear right onto CR-1254.
  • Go 0.2 miles and turn left to stay on CR-1254.
  • Go an additional 0.5 miles on CR-1254 and turn left onto WMA-19 (aka Road 447-19).
  • Go down WMA-19 a quarter mile and turn to your right at the gate and sign, then park in the parking area there.  
Eagle's Nest Falls
I still consider this a roadside waterfall, it just takes a lot of different roads to finally get to it.  From the parking location, head down the old trace road behind the gate and sign you passed going into the parking area.  Follow this trail downhill, across a small creek, then back uphill slightly on the bluff above this creek.  You'll cross two more creeks and come to a spot where there is a small clearing on the left and a volunteer trail on the right.  To the left, there is a bluff at the end of the clearing with a small cave in the bottom.  The creek you just crossed used to spring from this cave.  That spring is now a few yards further downstream, leaving the small cave high and dry.  Go back down and cross the trail onto the volunteer trail; it winds down from the bluff to the top of Eagle's Nest Falls.  Like many waterfalls in the Ozarks, it is easy to get to the top, but you can't really see much of it from the top.

Eagle's Nest Falls
The top of this waterfall is somewhat unique.  You can see a shaft formed in the rock from a large slab that fell over the top of the waterfall at some point.  Most of the creek flows over the right side of the waterfall, but some flows down that shaft and comes out at an angle to the rest of the waterfall.  You can see this from the base of the falls when you are over near the right side of the shelter cave there.  To get to the base, go upstream a few yards and cross the creek.  There is a faint volunteer trail, but if you can't find it, just head across the creek and up to the base of the bluff above the creek there.  Follow along the base of the bluff downstream.  The trail goes under an old barb-wire fence, which is now pinned up for you.  As you come around the top of the grotto for Eagle's Nest Falls, there is a creek flowing over that upper bluff, making a small waterfall.  Where that creek flows down, you can follow it around the edge of the bluff and then follow the base of the bluff down to the base of Eagle's Nest Falls.

Eagle's Nest Falls
It was getting late, but I still had plenty of daylight to take some photos and look around.  This is simply one of the most beautiful waterfalls that I have ever seen.  I have not seen any photos that really do it justice in the setting it is in.  You descend along the base of a soaring bluff to a waterfall with a gorgeous geometry, and behind you on the right side of the waterfall extends a very large shelter cave.  The cave is quite extensive for a shelter cave and looks like it was formed by the creek eons ago when the creek ran about 30 feet or so higher than it does now.  As the creek eroded a new channel on its way downstream to King's River, it dug a new channel and moved away from the cave.  I wandered around quite a bit, just taking in the scenery, then started back the way I had hiked down.  

Glory B Falls
It was just under a mile round trip, and the climb down to the bottom and back up to the parking area is only about 100 feet of elevation change, so it is a fairly easy hike.  Where you come down the creek around the edge of the bluff can be a little tricky, so watch your step there.  I would highly recommend all three of these waterfalls.  They are basically roadside waterfalls so you won't get much exercise, but you will get a whole lot of great waterfall chasing in a very short period of time.  I suppose you can always go up to Tea Kettle Falls to stretch your legs.  I would recommend these for anyone, but if you are a little unstable or have children with you, be very cautious along the top of the bluff at Eagle's Nest.  It is very steep and slippery near the edge of the bluff, and it is a long way down.  Be safe, and enjoy!
Road Tracks to Waterfalls in the Madison WMA
Red - Hiking Tracks
Orange - Tea Kettle Falls
Blue - Glory B Falls
Yellow - Road 299 Falls
Yellow/Green - Eagle's Nest Falls from Hwy 23
Green - Glory B Falls to Eagle's Nest Falls
Eagle's Nest Falls Hike GPS Track

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