Mitchell Branch and Sinco Gorge area waterfalls, Ouachita National Forest near Danville, Arkansas

5/19/2019 Sinco Gorge Falls, Mitchell Branch Falls, Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole, and Seed Forest Falls

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Park - Sinco Gorge Falls:  35.010638,-93.669900
  Sinco Gorge Fall:  35.010200,-93.670700
  Sinco UNF #1:  35.010306,-93.670508

  Park - Mitchell Branch Falls:  35.025616,-93.641169
  Mitchell Branch Falls:  35.023693,-93.641298
  Mitchell Branch  UNF #1:  35.024770,  -93.641079
  Mitchell Branch UNF #2:  35.024408,-93.641285
  Mitchell Branch UNF #3: 35.024249,-93.641532

  Park - Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole:  35.024929,  -93.629051
  Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole:  35.024634,  -93.628846

  Park - Seed Forest Falls:  35.026628,  -93.613453
  Seed Forest Falls:  35.031800,  -93.620400

  Park - Kirkwood Swimming Hole and Falls:  35.051774,  -93.578222,  422 ft.

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs should be okay off leash.  This is a somewhat rugged area, but each waterfall has access to the bluff above on one side or the other.  That access may be somewhat steep and slippery so some smaller dogs may struggle.  Boomer was okay navigating the bluffline break on the east side of Mitchell Branch Falls, but not the other side.  I had some difficulty on that one myself.

Hiking Statistics:  Today, Boomer and I went to five different locations for short hikes.  The elevation differences were only 100 to 200 feet, and the distance ranged from 100 feet (Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole) to about 1.8 miles (Seed Forest Falls).  Collectively, we got a little exercise in today, but individually none of these are all that strenuous.  All are bushwhacks except for our stop at Lower Kirkwood Falls and swimming hole, which is a drive up and park kind of place.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post
  Mitchell Branch area waypoints
  Mitchell Branch Falls GPS track
  Seed Forest Falls GPS track
  Sinco Gorge Falls GPS track

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:
  Kirkwood Swimming Hole and Waterfalls on Mill Creek

Unnamed Falls #2 at Mitchell Branch
- with Boomer and Rick

Boomer (our German Shepherd) was finally released from restricted duty, and he was itching to get back out there.  He had five tumors under his skin that our vet surgically removed (all benign!) and has been on a "no hiking" order ever since.  I had been wanting to check out a number of waterfalls in the Ouachitas that I had coordinates from the world waterfall index, but absolutely no other information.  Other than Mitchell Branch Falls, which is in Tim Ernst's Arkansas Waterfalls book, my diligent internet searching could turn up nothing on any of these others.  These were also on smaller, more rugged creeks that were highly unlikely to ever have been floated by kayakers, so I have no idea who identified them, named them, or anything.  If you know anything about these, please give me whatever backstory you can in the comments.  

Sinco Gorge Parking Location

Today, I wanted to limit Boomer to some short hikes with some varied ruggedness, just to see how he would do.  Bethany heard the keywords "bushwhack" and "unknown terrain" and opted out.  Smart girl.  I picked some that would be not too long, not too strenuous, and all along a route that I could park, hike, and move on to the next.  I'll give driving directions for going the way I went today, and completing the big loop starting and stopping in Danville.  You can pick which direction you want to go, or whether you just want to go to one of these five parking locations and back out the same way.  I'll start my directions in the center of Danville, where Hwy 27 intersects with Hwy 10 going east (8th street):

• From Hwy 27 and 8th street in Danville, go 1.0 mile south on Hwy 27 and turn right (west) on Hwy 80
• Go 18.0 miles west on Hwy 80 and turn right (north) on FS-18 (aka CR-28).
• Go 3.2 miles north on FS-18 to the parking location for Sinco Gorge Falls.  There is a sharp drop off on the left, so you just have to do the best you can, pulling over to the right and park where other vehicles can get around you.
• From the Sinco Gorge parking spot, continue north on FS-18 0.5 miles and turn right (east) on CR-519.
• Go 2.2 miles east on CR-519 and park in the turn-out on the left just after you cross over Mitchell Branch.  This is the parking location for Mitchell Branch Falls.
• From the Mitchell Branch Falls parking spot, continue east on CR-519 for 1.1 miles and pull off on the right.  This is the parking location for Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole.
• From the Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole, continue east on CR-519 for 1.3 miles, and turn into the Jeep road on the left and park.  This was my parking location today for Seed Forest Falls.
• From the Seed Forest Falls parking spot, continue east on CR-519 for 2.7 miles and bear right 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.  This is the parking location for the Kirkwood swimming hole and Lower Kirkwood Falls.
• From Kirkwood Falls, go back west the way you came on CR-518 for 0.3 miles and turn right onto CR-519.
• Go 2.3 miles northwest on CR-519 and keep straight onto Jack Creek Road (still CR-519).
• Go 0.8 miles on Jack Creek Road through some guy's pasture (it is still a county road!), and turn right onto Walnut Creek Road (aka CR-27).
• Go 4.7 miles on Walnut Creek Road (first east, then it turns north) and turn right on Hwy 10.
• Go east on Hwy 10 and you are back in the center of Danville where you started.

Sinco Gorge Falls

Whew!  That's a lot of driving directions, but remember, it is for five different parking locations and for getting in and out from two different directions.  Our first stop today was at Sinco Gorge.  As I mentioned in the driving directions, we had to just pull over as far as we could to the right and park.  There is still plenty of room for vehicles to get around, but we didn't see another soul on the road all day anyway.  Having absolutely no information on this waterfall, Boomer and I just found a good place to drop off the road and hike the very steep slope down to the creek.  We then hiked along the creek on the right side down to Sinco Gorge Falls and found a bluffline break on the right to get to the base of the waterfall.  There is another small waterfall on the way downstream.  Boomer, enjoying his newfound freedom after being cooped up for a month, had to go swimming in every pool we passed.  Today there was not as much flow as I had hoped for, but I could tell it would be a nice one with just a little more flow.  This is not the biggest or prettiest waterfall, but it's a quick hike just a hundred yards from where we parked, with only about 200 feet of elevation difference.

Unnamed Falls #1 at
Mitchell Branch

From Sinco Gorge Falls, we drove to the parking location for Mitchell Branch Falls.   This is the only one we visited today that we previous knowledge of.  it is well documented with photos and information in Tim's book, although for some reason few folks seem to visit it.  There are enough visitors to make a faint volunteer trail, however.  From the turn-out for parking, you can pick up a trail on the left side as you go downstream that will take you to Mitchell Branch Falls.  If you do this, however, you will miss out on three other waterfalls that are also pretty nice.  If you bushwhack down the right side of the creek, the first waterfall is about a hundred yards downstream.  Falls #1 is relatively small, maybe six feet tall.  Continuing downstream another hundred yards, you come to the top of Falls #2.  If you continue a few yards to the right, there is tributary drainage with Falls #3 spilling over the bluff very close to Falls #2.  Falls #2 and Falls #3 are almost close enough to be a twin waterfall, with each being in the 16 to 18-foot range.  Actually, with the flow conditions today Falls #2 was, in my opinion, the prettiest waterfall we saw today, so I'm glad we came via this route.

Unnamed Falls #3 at Mitchell Branch

 There is a bluffline break on each side of Falls #3, although both are somewhat difficult to see, especially with all the spring foliage.  After going down to the base of these waterfalls, I thought I would just stay on the right side of the creek as I went the last hundred yards downstream to Mitchell Branch Falls.  That turned out to be a bad decision, one I won't make in the future.  It is very rough and steep, and I had a difficult time coaxing Boomer into even trying to come down on this side.  If you do visit the other waterfalls along Mitchell Branch Falls instead of going there directly on the trail, it still behooves you to cross back over the creek at the top of the waterfall and descend through the bluffline break on the left side.  You need to go down all the way past the pool below the very bottom of Mitchell Branch Falls.  You could wrap around the bluff on the left side, but if you follow the bluff around you end up in a spot where there is a drop of a few feet to the bottom.  Going downstream past the pool below Mitchell Branch Falls gets you in a position where you can see the entire waterfall.  

Mitchell Branch Falls

in his Arkansas Waterfalls book, Tim Ernst describes Mitchell Branch Falls as one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the Ouachitas.  It certainly is beautiful, IF there is enough flow.  Mitchell Branch actually has two major prongs, and the one Mitchell Branch Falls is in is decidedly the smaller of those prongs.  The Mitchell Branch swimming Hole and Seed Forest Falls are in the longer prong with much more drainage area.  Mitchell Branch Falls, therefore, is one you will want to visit when conditions are fairly wet.  After taking some photos as best I could for today's conditions, Boomer and I hiked back to the FJ, this time being careful to ascend via the bluffline break on the right as you face upstream, and following the trail all the way back to where we parked.  The hike along the volunteer trail to Mitchell Branch Falls is less than a quarter mile from the road and less than 200 feet elevation difference.

Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole

After getting back to the FJ, we continued eastward on CR-519 to our next stop, the Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole.  I feel I should note some documentation inconsistencies here.  In the world waterfall database, what we know as Mitchell Branch Falls is called Mitchell Creek Falls, and the one I am now calling the Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole is called Mitchell Branch Falls.  Perhaps they called it that because it is definitely on the larger prong of Mitchell Branch, but I'm sticking with the naming in Tim Ernst's book.  Firstly, because he is Tim, and his book is the de facto bible of waterfall chasers in Arkansas, and secondly because Mitchell Branch Falls is by far the biggest and best waterfall on all of Mitchell Branch, and deserves that distinction.  After parking, we hiked downstream on the right side of the creek.  There is a faint trail here, but you really don't need it.  The waterfall and swimming hole are only about a hundred feet from the road, and there is very little in the way of undergrowth here.  The waterfall here is only about 4 feet high.  It has such a nice pool, one that looks like a natural swimming hole, I decided I would call it Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole to prevent any confusion with Mitchell Branch Falls.

Seed Forest Falls

From Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole, we continued on down CR-519 a short way to the parking location for Seed Forest Falls.  This is another one I was visiting for the first time today, so I had no idea what to expect in the way of terrain and hiking conditions.  I parked the FJ near the road after turning onto the Jeep road.  Not knowing what the old road would be like, I decided to just hike down it instead of driving into unknown space.  As it turns out, this is a relatively good Jeep road and I could have easily driven down it all the way to where I turned off for the bushwhack to Seed Forest Falls.    We hiked down the old road a half mile until we were about at the same elevation as Seed Forest Falls, then turned left off the road and bushwhacked about 1/3 mile laterally over to the waterfall.  I found a bluffline break that allowed me to get to a point about halfway down the bluff, overlooking the waterfall.  This will be a nice waterfall in the 18-foot range when there is better flow.   I bushwhacked downstream some on the way back before cutting over to the Jeep road but didn't find a better route.  I did NOT find the old road that one of my maps indicated should be there.

Kirkwood Swimming Hole and
Lower Kirkwood Falls

After hiking back to where we parked, both Boomer and I were starting to feel the heat of the day and it was starting to get a little late in the afternoon.  We had one more stop, however.  Kirkwood Falls was almost right on our driving route back, and there is no hike involved for the lower waterfall and swimming hole, so we stopped by to check it out.  A family was already there, enjoying the beautiful mid-May day and cooling off in the swimming hole.  After chatting a while and letting Boomer make some new friends, we loaded up and headed for home.  I have previously documented all the waterfalls along Mill Creek, including this one.  You can check them out in this blog post.  The driving directions I provided above take you all the way around a big loop, starting and stopping in Danville.  We headed north for home instead of going back into Danville.  All in all, it was a very enjoyable day in the woods.  Boomer got to get out and do his favorite thing, hiking with Dad, and I got to go explore some new waterfalls and visit some old ones.

Unnamed Falls #2 at Mitchell Branch

Mitchell Branch Falls Parking Location

Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole Parking Location

GPS Track - Mitchell Branch Falls

GPS Tracks for Seed Forest Falls (right) and
Mitchell Branch Swimming Hole (lower left)