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!