2/28/2019 - North prong of Cow Creek waterfalls
GPS Coordinates: (Latitude, Longitude, Elevation)
North prong of Cow Creek
Park - North Prong Cow Creek #3(today's): 35.744255,-93.289655, 1459 ft.
Trace road intersects ATV trail: 35.745896,-93.293187, 1189 ft.
Falls #15: 35.746097,-93.293924, 1179 ft.
Hi Cow Falls: 35.745691,-93.294798,
Cow Tipping Falls: 35.745624,-93.295279, 1167 ft.
Achelous Falls: 35.745553,-93.295694
Yvonne Falls: 35.745311,-93.296907
Nandini Falls: 35.745958,-93.297011, 1022 ft.
Falls #21: 35.746397,-93.297133
Falls #22: 35.748052,-93.296934
Mooley Wooly Falls: 35.74909 -93.29723, 1310 ft.
Maudine Falls: 35.749350,-93.296445
Pauline Falls: 35.74788 -93.29817, 1465 ft.
Cow Creek UNF #12: 35.74907 -93.29737, 1324 ft.
Bessie Falls: 35.75230 -93.29744, 1460 ft.
Bluffline Break: 35.74954 -93.29808, 1392 ft.
Cow Creek UNF #10: 35.75257 -93.29733, 1454 ft.
Cow Creek UNF #9: 35.75292 -93.29613, 1521 ft.
Falls #24: 35.749528,-93.295171
Falls #25: 35.749414,-93.295048, 1206 ft.
Old Car Remains: 35.745049,-93.290528
Pet Friendly: Dogs off leash should be OK. If your dog needs to be on a leash, it will be highly inadvisable because of the steepness and ruggedness of the terrain. Boomer will have no problem with the bluffline breaks along this route, but other dogs may.
Hiking Statistics: The north prong of the Cow Creek basin is fairly large drainage in area, and is 918 feet from top to bottom. On my first hike here, I hiked a total of 5.56 miles, with a highest-to-lowest elevation change of 796 feet. Today's route, which visits all the major features of the north prong worthy of seeing, is only 3.86 miles long with a highest-to-lowest elevation change of 574 feet. Also, I hiked all the way down to the confluence with Cow Creek today. If you only hike to the lowest waterfalls in the north prong, you can cut a half mile and a hundred feet of elevation change off the hike. About a third of the hike is along an old road, but the rest is a complete bushwhack in some rough and rugged terrain. The stuff that bothers me most on bushwhacks, the undergrowth, was not all that bad but will be worse in the "leaves on" season. I would rate this as a moderately difficult bushwhack.
GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post
Cow Creek Basin Waypoints
North Prong Cow Creek GPS track (today's hike)
Road Track - Highway 123 to parking location #3
Links to blog posts for other sections of Cow Creek:
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| Nindini Falls - with Rick |
I had been to the north prong of Cow Creek a little over a year ago, in February of 2018. On that trip, I explored all of the upper reaches of this major prong to Cow Creek, which in itself is a major tributary of Big Piney Creek. On that trip, I covered a lot of territories and found relatively easy ways to get around, but the major water features were all on the main creek, and all were in about a half-mile span of the midsection of the north prong. About three months later, my friend Dan Frew made a trip to the north prong and found a number of other nice waterfalls in the big side drainage on the west side. I had explored the side drainages on the east side and found a few small waterfalls, but these were fairly large waterfalls that were really spectacular that day after a good rain. I put Dan's route on my "go explore" list and was finally getting around to doing just that. I remembered from my previous trip here that Boomer (our German Shepherd) had struggled a little with some of the steep bluffline breaks, so I decided to leave him at home with Bethany today while I scoped out this route.
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| Yvonne Falls |
Dan and I had actually set out to hike the north prong of Cow Creek three weeks ago when we had received a good deal of rain and figured the waterfalls would be really showing off. We were probably correct about that, but as sometimes happen, those plans changed. When we got out on Preston Ridge Road, there was a large oak tree across the road, and of course, I didn't bring a chain saw. Instead of hiking the north prong, we went to nearby Little Cow Creek and hiked through it. Today, I came back by myself, but I was well armed with a chain saw this time. Of course, now that I had it, I didn't need it. Someone else, maybe the Forest Service, had already cut the tree on both sides of the road and dragged the log off to the side. I continued on to the parking spot, parking location #3 for this area, and found the Jeep road still fairly wet, even though we had not had much rain in the last three weeks.
Getting to this parking location means going up and around the entire Cow
Creek basin since there are no roads that actually across it. Our road route will be from Highway 123 between Pelsor and Hagerville, up to the old Rosetta community area, and around the west and north sides of Cow Creek to where we park, which is actually between Big Piney Creek and Cow Creek. To get there;
- From the community of Pelsor (Sand Gap), go 16.2 miles south on Highway 123, then turn right onto FR-1003 (aka Johnson County CR-5741). This is 3.3 miles past the Haw Creek Campground. If you are coming from the other direction on Highway 123, this junction is 10.5 miles north of Hagerville
- Go north on CR-5741 for 5.7 miles, then turn left on Pine Ridge Road (aka CR-5680).
- Go 2.1 miles on Pine Ridge Road, and turn right on CR-5661 (aka Rosetta Road).
- Go 5.7 miles on CR-5661 (note that after 1.6 miles you enter Newton County and the road name becomes NC-7460), then turn right onto NC-7490 (aka Preston Ridge Road).
- IF you have a good 4WD vehicle, Go 2.3 miles on NC-7490 and park at the small clearing. This is parking location #3, the one I used today and the best location to hike the North Prong from.
NOTE - IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A GOOD 4WD vehicle with good clearance, Go 1.8 miles after you turn onto NC-7490 and park where you see a gate on the left. This is the parking location for Piney Bowl Falls. It is also as far as I would advise going if you don't have a good 4WD vehicle. After this point, it becomes a local Jeep road and a non-4WD vehicle will probably not do well. There is one large mudhole, in particular, to be aware of and be careful going through it. My FJ Cruiser did not have any problems getting through, but the mud in this hole came up over the top of the tires on the side down in the hole. The rest of this road downhill from the big mudhole is slippery, but with smaller mudholes. Know the limitations of your vehicle and use your best judgment. If you have doubts, just park at the Piney Bowl Falls parking location and hike the extra 0.5 miles along the Jeep road.
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| Yvonne Falls |
From the parking location, there is a faint trace road leading toward and down into the hollow. This trace road is overgrown in a couple of spots with young beech trees, but for the most part, is easily discernable and can be followed down to the top of the major side drainage on the east side. Since we hike down this drainage to get to the main creek in the north prong, I'll just refer to it as "the hike-down drainage". Just before the top of the hike-down drainage, the old trace road intersects an ATV trail. This ATV trail is in fairly good shape. On my first visit here, I found an ATV trail that cut around the bowl at the top of the north prong, at the very top of the forks. There was also an ATV trail cutting across those forks a little lower down, just above where the forks flowed together to form the main creek in the north prong. The main creek in the north prong doesn't have a name, but I'll just refer to it as "North Prong Creek" or "the main creek". I determined the ATV trail we had just hiked to was, in fact, that lower ATV trail I had found on my first visit. That will make the hike out much easier and simpler.
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| Falls #15 |
Turning right onto the ATV trail, it is a short distance to the top of the hike-down drainage. turning off the ATV trail at the drainage and following it downstream, I came to Falls #15 in less than a hundred yards from the ATV trail. I wish this waterfall had more flow today, but you can tell it will be a really nice one when it does. The water spills down about 18 feet into a gap, then flows sideways down the bluff to the south before continuing on down the mountain. By the way, I didn't name any of the waterfalls in the north prong, but on their trip here last April, Dan and Shelly named some of the larger ones. I'll be using their names and the rest will just be "Falls #xx for now. I had found 14 unnamed waterfalls in the Cow Creek area previously, so this was just the next one I came to. With literally hundreds of "photo-worthy" waterfalls I have visited in various Ozark hollows, this scheme helps me keep track of them all. When and if they do finally get a name, I can just come back to my documentation and substitute a name for the number. If you see numbers missing, it just means they have graduated to being named waterfalls.
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| Nandini Falls |
Downstream from Falls #15, there were four more nice sized waterfalls, spaced out less than a hundred yards from each other all the way down to the main creek. The first was Hi Cow Falls, a tall, classic, Ozark waterfall that I would estimate to be in the 32-36 foot range, spilling over a tall bluffline. Below that, about 30 yards was a set of two waterfalls. Cow Tipping Falls has an initial drop of about four feet, then goes into a wide, steep, cascade. Dan's photo of this from last spring was spectacular. The sloped part of this waterfall barely ends when it spills over another bluffline to form Achelous Falls. You can get a good view of Cow Tipping Falls from the bluff on the right side (as you go downstream), but I believe the best view will be from below it, between it and Achelous Falls. Getting into this hidden grotto is a little tricky, but you can go on the left side at the top and there is a break there to climb down and around the small bluff to get into the area between the two waterfalls. The only way back out is to climb back up the way you climbed into the hidden grotto.
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| Nandini Falls |
Continuing downstream, I went back over the top of Cow Tipping Falls and down the right side, finding a way down a few yards around the bluff on the right. There are bluffline breaks on both sides of the grotto for Achelous Falls, but if you go down the left side, make sure you go around the large boulder at the top of the bluff. The slope is very steep on the inside and falls off a long way down into the creek bed below. This time of year, you can get a decent view of both Cow Tipping Falls and Achelous Falls from below, but much of Cow Tipping Falls will be obscured by foliage in the "leaves on" season. I still think the best view of Cow Tipping Falls will be at its base, just above the top of Achelous Falls. Following the hike-down drainage a little over a hundred yards further downstream, I came to Yvonne Falls. It falls over the last bluffline above the main creek, and I walked a lot of this bluffline looking for a way down before I finally decided to go upstream on North Prong Creek to Nandini Falls, which was clearly visible on the way down the lower end of the hike-down drainage to Yvonne Falls.
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Huge bluff with North Prong Creek on the left
and Yvonne Falls on the right |
There is a break just downstream of Nandini Falls allowing access to the base of the waterfall. This is on the main creek, as I mentioned, and is a really nice one, about 20+ feet tall. Even with today's less than optimal water conditions, it looked great. Hiking down the creek, it is not very far to Yvonne Falls, but there are some side-to-side pools in the creek here and I preferred to at least try to keep my feet dry inside my boots. I hiked up the bluff on the other (west) side to go downstream, and I found a bluffline break exactly opposite of Yvonne Falls. I think Boomer could have managed this access point, but I did find another one a short distance downstream as well that is more easily managed. From the vantage point of the bluffline break I used, the bluff on the other side is very impressive. North Prong Creek winds around it from the left, then around the front, then on down toward Cow Creek, and on the right side is Yvonne Falls. This will be a fantastic photo composition in the spring or fall with more water.
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Hiking conditions along North Prong Creek
"leaves off" season |
There are a couple of other waterfalls on North Prong Creek here, one just upstream of where Yvonne Falls flows into the creek, the other just downstream. I followed North Prong Creek downstream all the way to its confluence with Cow Creek. While I didn't find any other water features or side drainages of any size, the creek itself is a nice hike, with little undergrowth, and there are some huge bluffs on the west side of the creek. I saw some small caves in the bluffs but didn't spend any time exploring further as I wanted to make sure I had time to finish my loop of the larger waterfalls in the north prong. Heading back upstream, I soon covered the quarter mile hike back upstream to Nandini Falls. I continued upstream on the left side above Nandini Falls. When I was here last year, I hiked down along the main creek, then climbed the bluff to the west to hike out.
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| Falls #22 |
This trip, I decided to hike alongside North Prong Creek again, sliding and stumbling down the steep bluff above Nandini Falls to get to the creek level. That is doable, but it is pretty rough hiking. I managed to slip into a pool amongst the many creek crossing this route required and got soaked almost waist high. With temperatures in the mid-30s, it was a little chilly until I got dried out a little. In retrospect, it would be much easier just staying up on the bench above the creek and walking the top of the bluff about a quarter mile upstream to Mooley Wooly Falls, a beautiful, long cascade on the main creek. There are a couple of small waterfalls on the main creek, Falls #21 and Falls #22, that are picturesque now but maybe less so with the full flow on North Prong Creek. There must be a lot of karst formation in the area because much of the flow seems to go underground in the quarter mile between Mooley Wooly Falls and Nandini Falls. The photos I took of Falls #21 and Falls #22 are on the main creek but show only a small fraction of the flow in either Mooley Wooly Falls or Nandini Falls. Next trip, I'll just hike up along the bluff above the creek.
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| Mooley Wooly Falls |
You can descend back to creek level on either side of North Prong Creek, but you probably want to end up on the right side (as you head upstream). Just to the right of Mooley Wooly Falls is another side drainage with Pauline Falls spilling over the bluff just a few feet from the main creek. Above Pauline Falls on this side drainage is Maudine Falls, less than a hundred yards up the side drainage at the next bluffline. Coming around the bluffline from Maudine Falls, there is a small but cool cave at the base of the bluff. Across North Prong Creek, slightly upstream of Mooley Wooly Falls, is another side drainage coming in from that side. Where that one flows over the creekside bluff you will find Falls #12. This is a slightly larger drainage, so with any kind of good water, it should look pretty good.
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| Bessie Falls |
Continuing upstream from Mooley Wooly Falls, it is approximately another quarter mile upstream to Bessie Falls. North Prong Creek flows through a canyon of sorts here, with sheer bluffs above the banks on each side. Again, there are no other waterfalls in between and no bluffline breaks on either side of that quarter mile of the canyon. You could hike along the creek or up on top of the bluff. If you choose to stay below the bluff, by far the easiest hiking will be along the base of the bluff. Just a few yards downstream of Bessie Falls, you will find the only bluffline break on the right (as you face upstream). If you are above the bluffline, you can hike down through the break here, and hook around to go under the large overhang and get to the base of Bessie Falls.
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| Falls #10 |
Ascending through the bluffline break, above Bessie Falls there is another relatively short but beautiful waterfall, Falls #10, a few yards upstream. Speaking of the wonders that karst formations bring to the geology of the Ozarks, when I was here a year ago, the flow in the creek was so low that there was no water coming over the top of Falls #10, and North Prong Creek was dry upstream of it. There was a stream of water springing out of the middle of the face of Falls #10, constituting the entire headwaters of North Prong Creek. Upstream on the right is a fork of the main creek with Falls #9 about a hundred yards upstream on that fork. Last year, there was some flow going over Falls #9, but all of that water disappeared underground, only to come out downstream in that spring in the middle of Falls #10. Today, at least we had enough water upstream to provide some flow over Falls #10.
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| Falls #25 |
That ATV trail I hit just above the hike-down drainage crosses the fork just above the top of Falls #9. I found the ATV trail and turned right on it to head back to the parking spot. I could find no recent tracks on this old ATV trail, so I have no idea how long it has been since it has been used. It is in pretty good condition and is easy hiking back around the east side of the north prong. Along the way, it crosses over another small drainage, the one that feeds Maudine Falls and Pauline Falls. There are a couple of small waterfalls, Falls #24 and Falls #25, just below the ATV trail, and you should be able to hear them if there is much flow at all. Today, Falls #24 wasn't much to look at but Falls #25 is in a really pretty setting. Even with the sub-par flow in the creek today, it was still worth swinging off the trail a little to check it out.
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| A Relic of the Past |
Further down the trail, after you cross over the top of the hike-down drainage, you need to be on the lookout for that old trace road you hiked down from the parking location. The ATV trail is so well defined that if you tend to daydream as you hike, as I often do, it's easy to miss the turnoff and continue on down the ATV trail. The old trace road climbs gradually back up the slope to the parking location. Off to the left (north) of the trace road as you hike back is a silent reminder that at one time folks lived out in areas like this. A couple hundred yards from the parking spot are the front end and one door of an old car. All of the area of the north prong and almost all of the entire Cow Creek basin are now public land. There is still a little privately owned land at the lower end of Cow Creek where it flows into Big Piney, but many decades ago, people lived all over this area. I'm just grateful now to have this big, wonderful playground to get out and enjoy. This hike isn't for everyone, but if you are capable of a bushwhack in some rugged country for a couple of miles, I would highly recommend this hike, preferably in wetter times.
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Red - Today's GPS track
Blue - GPS track from previous exploration |
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The Cow Creek Basin
Red/Blue/Yellow - Hiking GPS tracks
Orange - Road Routes
Green - Off road 4WD tracks |
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