Kirkwood Swimming Hole and Mill Creek Waterfalls, Ouachita National Forest near Havana, Arkansas

2/9/2019 Kirkwood Swimming Hole and Waterfalls

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location:  35.051774,  -93.578222,  422 ft.
  Middle Kirkwood Falls:  35.046000,  -93.580700
  Lower Kirkwood Falls:  35.051700,  -93.578100
  Upper Kirkwood Falls:  35.044426,  -93.581866,  540 ft.

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs should be okay off leash.  In the summer, the lower waterfall and pool will sometimes have folks enjoying the swimming hole, so make sure your dog is well behaved around people.  

Hiking Statistics:  On today's hike, Boomer and I only logged 1.6 miles round trip.  Our minimum-to-maximum elevation change was only 142 feet.  Our total track time on this hike was 1:44 (hh:mm), and only 31 minutes of that was actual "time moving".  Over an hour was "time playing with the new camera".  I would rate this an easy hike.  Even if you bushwhack along the creek as we did, it's not difficult bushwhacking territory and still gets an easy rating.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post
  Kirkwood and Mill Creek waypoints
  Kirkwood Waterfalls GPS track
  

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:
  Gum Creek Falls, Wildman Twin Falls, and Big Shoal Falls
  Clear Creek waterfalls and Hardy Falls

Lower Kirkwood Falls

Kirkwood Falls is well known to the locals in this area as the Kirkwood Swimming Hole, but let's face it, there just aren't that many locals around here.  The nearest town is Havana, Arkansas, several miles away, and there aren't a lot of locals there, either.  I guess you could say that about most of Arkansas outside of a handful of cities, and that is one of the things I love about living here.  We have a boatload of beautiful natural state scenery and not a whole lot of people to 'crowd it up'.  At one time, things were a lot busier around here.  Kirkwood Falls is named after the large timber company with that name, and this was once the site of the state's largest sawmill.  

Boomer doing what Magnificent Mountain Dogs do

Those boom days of the lumber industry are long gone, and today Boomer (the magnificent mountain dog) and I had the whole valley to ourselves.  I doubt that another vehicle even drove by on the road the entire time we were there.  I got a new camera yesterday, and I was looking for a quiet, short hike with some great scenery that was not too rough and rugged.  I wanted to be able to focus on (see what I did there?) experimenting with the new camera and seeing what it could do instead of wearing myself out on a hike.  Kirkwood Falls fits that bill nicely.  There are waterfalls here, some varied lighting with the way the sunlight glares on whitewater, and it was really easy hiking.  It's remote enough that I figured no one else would be around to distract me, and that was the case today.

Parking Location at Lower Kirkwood Falls

Getting there is not that difficult, but it will seem that way when I spell out the directions because there are a lot of twists and turns.  The easiest way, of course, is to plug the GPS coordinates (listed above) into your navigation unit or phone and let it do all the navigating for you.  If you can't do that, 

• To make it as simple as possible, go to the small town of Havana first.
• From the junction of highway 10 and Highway 309 (Main Street) in Havana, go west on Highway 10 for 1.1 miles and turn left (south) onto Walnut Grove Road (aka CR-27).  
• Go 1.6 miles on Walnut Grove Road and bear right to stay on Walnut Grove Road.  
• Go another 3.1 miles on Walnut Grove Road, going over the Petit Jean River bridge, and turn left (south) onto Jack Creek Road (aka CR-519).   After you turn onto Jack Creek Road, you go over a cattle guard and you think "Hey, I'm on some farmers driveway and now I'm driving through his pasture!"  Well, you are, but it is still CR-519, a county road, also.  
• Go 0.8 miles on CR-519 and you go over another cattle guard.  
• Right after you go over the second cattle guard, bear left to stay on CR-519.  You are now in the Ouachita National Forest.  
• Go another 2.3 miles on CR-519 and turn left (north) onto CR-518.  
• Go just 0.3 miles on CR-518 and turn left (north) onto a dirt road that will take you a few yards to the parking location.  This last turn is just before a nice, shiny, new bridge over Mill Creek.

Bridge over CR-518 and small waterfall
upstream of Lower Kirkwood Falls

So there you have it.  I told you it would sound complicated to go that 9.2 miles from downtown Havana to Kirkwood Falls, and it does sound that way, but it's easier than it seems.  Just remember to turn left when you go from one road to another.  When you bear right on Walnut Creek Road, you are staying on Walnut Creek Road.  If you find yourself back in the middle of Havana, it's because you forgot to stay on Walnut Creek Road and ended up making a big loop on Pumpkin Bridge Road.  Don't do that.

Upper Kirkwood Falls

So you made it to the parking location despite my confusing directions, and after you thank the Good Lord for getting you there in one piece, you look up and right there in front of you is Kirkwood Falls.  There are actually three waterfalls on this part of Mill Creek, and this one is Lower Kirkwood Falls, but I believe a lot of the locals just refer to it as the Kirkwood Swimming Hole or simply Kirkwood Falls.  I believe the big sawmill was built right next to this deep, beautiful pool.  From here, you'll be happy to know the directions are a lot easier;  you just go upstream.  If you go back along the short road you came in on, you will see a gated trail on the other side of CR-518.  That is an old trace road that takes you to Mill Creek just upstream of Middle Kirkwood Falls, then crosses the creek and goes upstream on the left side to Upper Kirkwood Falls.  That's really easy hiking if that's what you want. 

Middle Kirkwood Falls - with Boomer

Of course, Boomer and I are into easy hiking, but not at the expense of seeing the stuff we actually came out to see.   We just headed upstream along the creek, which is also easy.  Technically, it's bushwhacking since there is no trail, but it's mostly big pine forest, with little undergrowth or steep bluffs, so it's still easy.  This is a beautiful creek, and if you go on the old trace road, you'll miss that scenery.  There is a short waterfall just on the other side of the new bridge over Mill Creek on CR-518, and by the time I got my pack on and low-jack (InReach) turned on, Boomer was on the other side of it waiting for me to catch up.  It took just a few minutes to go the half mile or so upstream to Middle Kirkwood Falls, a relatively short but beautiful waterfall.

Upper Kirkwood Falls

Going upstream from Middle Kirkwood Falls, we crossed the old trace road and continued up the right side of Mill Creek.  I prefer the hike along the creek to the easier trek on the old road, but there was also the factor of high water in the creek today.  There were places I could cross the creek and probably keep my feet dry, but I saw no need to test that.  Upper Kirkwood Falls is less than a quarter mile upstream, and we reached it in no time.  There is a big bluff on the right side of the creek as we went upstream, but even with the relatively high water, we were able to hike up along the creek as we got close to the waterfall.  After snapping a few photos and trying a few things with the new camera, we crossed the creek and took a few more.  It was at this point that I went to put an ND filter on and realized I didn't have my filter pouch in the pack.  

Lower Kirkwood Falls and Swimming Hole

I took a few more shots with the CPL filter I had been experimenting with, and then we crossed back over the creek and retraced our steps.  I use the "lead' command with Boomer often, when I want him to find the best route, but today I told him "find" my filter pouch, and he put his nose to work as we went back downstream.  He found my filters right where the pouch had fallen out of the pack when I put it on at Middle Kirkwood Falls.  He sat there until I caught up with that "you owe me now" look on his face.  I suppose he is right about that, but it is a symbiotic relationship;  he gets free food and lodging for life, not to mention free medical benefits and lots of love.  But make no mistake about it, he pulls his weight and I'm happy to have him on these outings. Especially today, when he saved me the replacement cost of an expensive filter.  Good boy!

Jim's Swimming Pool
photo by Jim Fitsimones

Turning back downstream, we took the old road back to the parking location and took a few more photos around the pool.  I have not been swimming in this pool, but I can see how it would be a popular spot.  It's beautiful and has a waterfall flowing right into it.  My friend and frequent hiking partner Jim Fitsimones thought this was such a fantastic look for a swimming hole, he used it as a model for the swimming pool at his house near hot springs.  Working with a contractor friend, Jim used a photo he had taken here as the model for sculpted (fake) rocks forming Lower Kirkwood Falls around the end of his new pool.  Based on the flow I saw in Mill Creek today I think Jim needs to crank up the pumps on his pool, but they did a great job on recreating this scene with concrete.

Upper Kirkwood Falls

This was a short and easy hike, with not much effort, leaving me with plenty of time and energy to do a lot of field testing with my new camera.  So far, I'm extremely pleased with it.  I'm more of a hiker than a photographer, but I have some experience and plenty of friends that actually are photographers and who are good at their art.   I know that 90% to 95% of what you see in a photo is all the guy or gal behind the camera, and not the camera itself.  That being said, I'm working on my photography skills, and a camera like this makes it easy to be as good as I can be.  We sold all of the other camera systems we had accumulated over the years, keeping only this new Nikon  Z7, a Nikon D90, and all of our F-Mount lenses.  I'll let you know how it handles on future hikes.

GPS Track for Kirkwood Waterfalls