Still Hollow Polyfoss - new route, Arkansas Ozarks near Freeman Springs

3/28/2016 - Still Hollow Polyfoss - new route and even more waterfalls

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location #2:  35.64255   -93.07780,  1808 ft.
  Parking Location #4:  35.64571   -93.08644,  1431 ft.
  Trace road to eastern prongs:  35.64520   -93.09152,  1234 ft.
  Wilburn Falls:  35.65027   -93.07432,  1284 ft.
  Falls #31:  35.65033   -93.07381,  1301 ft.
  Falls #32:  35.65063   -93.07289,  1371 ft.
  Falls #33:  35.65015   -93.07130,  1364 ft.
  Houston Falls: 35.65392   -93.07865,  1307 ft 
  Maggie Falls:  35.65300   -93.07912,  1259 ft.
  Falls #34:  35.65236   -93.07962,  1228 ft.
  Beckham Falls:  35.65211   -93.07972,  1207 ft.
  Rock Chute Falls:  35.65199   -93.07973,  1197 ft.
  Bluffline Break:  35.65160   -93.07972,  1170 ft.
  Uncle Kenneth Falls:  35.65150   -93.07994,  1162 ft.
  Falls #38:  35.65064   -93.08251,  1138 ft.
  Falls #39:  35.65044   -93.08332,  1089 ft.
  The Sidewalk (Slot):  35.64828,  -93.09065,  974 ft.
  Sally Lou Falls:  35.64801   -93.09163,  961 ft.
  Still Hollow Twin Falls:  35.64782   -93.09160,  961 ft.
  ATV trail:  35.64791   -93.09109,  976 ft.

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs off leash may be okay, but there are some areas they may have difficulty getting into and out of.  This is what I would call a difficult bushwhack.  If you think your dog needs to be on a leash, it will probably be okay, but you are in for a long day.  There is a lot of undergrowth and opportunity for entanglement on the knobs between hollows.  I did take Boomer today, but he is off leash and very well trained.

Motorcycle Friendly:  No, unless you don't mind a little extra hiking.  When you turn off Highway 7 onto Dare Mine Road, instead of going down the old Jeep road you could just park and hike in from there.  It will add about a half mile of hiking each way; that's approximately 1.5 miles to hike just to get to the bottom of Still Hollow, and the same hike coming back with a 1000 foot elevation gain.

Hiking Statistics:  From top to bottom, Still Hollow is over 1200 feet of elevation change.  Boomer and I ended up hiking 7.9 miles with a "highest to lowest" elevation change of about 900 feet.  We made several climbs of several hundred feet, as we went in and out of the various hollows in this drainage system.  Most of the hike we did is what I would call difficult bushwhacking conditions.  If you climb over the top of hollows when going from one prong to another, the knobs on top of the mountains are covered with thickets of young cherry and elm, with the briers, vines, and other attendant fauna of what I call "Arkansas jungle".  For the most part, we avoided this mess with today's routes.  We were hiking for 6 hours and 30 minutes on the tracks at the bottom of this post.

GPS files (.gpx format) - Maps of the GPS track are at the bottom of this post.

  Still Hollow, Elmer Page Hollow, and Gulf Hollow Waypoints
  Still Hollow GPS Track - Creek Route
  Still Hollow GPS Track - Bench Route

Houston Falls - with Boomer

Still Hollow is becoming somewhat of a fascination for me.  It is definitely what you would call a polyfoss area, with 39 significant waterfalls found there including the ones from today's trip.  By 'significant', I mean waterfalls that are big enough or otherwise picturesque enough to be deemed 'photo-worthy'.  If you have Tim Ernst's excellent guidebook, Arkansas Waterfalls, these would be the waterfalls that he has names for, marked a "W", or has marked as unnamed waterfalls with a black "w" on his maps.  If you like hiking and/or waterfalls enough to be reading this and you don't have his book, get it.  The book is cheap, is a fantastic resource, and if you order it online Tim will sign it.  At any rate, as a waterfall aficionado, you can see why Still Hollow fascinates me. 

Falls #34

The problem with Still Hollow is that it is extremely rugged and steep, somewhat like the Richland Wilderness areas in many ways.  Unlike Richland, it also has very dense thickets of brush, saplings, vines, briers, blackberries, and anything else hikers don't care for on the knobs between hollows.  I know people once lived all through these hollows in the Ozarks that are now public land.  If you look at the maps now, very little is in private hands, and those chunks of land typically are along the better back roads.  Back in the day, it was all open for settlement if you had the guts and grit to migrate out and make a home out of the wilderness.  Those settlers used mules and horses to get down into these hollows, and in later days, loggers cut roads into them.  Still Hollow was much more of a challenge to these folks, so there weren't that many trails cut into it in the first place.  Now that it is entirely public land, very few folks go there.

Maggie Falls

Today, Boomer (our German Shepherd) and I had a specific mission;  find routes into Still Hollow that at least weren't miserable hiking conditions.  There is not much we can do about the ruggedness of the terrain, but if we could, at least, avoid the dense thickets, we could maybe even come back for a visit during spring or summer months.  I did my due diligence on the topo maps, Google Earth, and old Forest Service maps.  I found very little, but there were some indications where old trace roads had been cut.  Boomer and I loaded up in the FJ Cruiser and headed north.  Today's hike was all focused on getting in and out of the prongs in the north and east parts of Still Hollow.  You can see the blog post from the initial hike into this area on 11/17/2015 here.  The big southern prong of Still Hollow also has scads of waterfalls; you can see the blog post for that hike here.

Still Hollow Twin Falls - November 2015

Still Hollow Twin Falls today; substantially less flow

than on my previous visit.

Driving directions are fairly simple.  From the Dover square (intersection of Highways 7 and 27), go north on Highway 7 for 21.2 miles.  This will take you to the small community of Freeman Springs.  Turn left (southwest) on Dare Mine Road (aka CR-1806).  Go down Dare Mine Road just a couple hundred yards and turn right onto an old Jeep road.  If you don't have a decent 4WD vehicle, you should probably park right there and hoof it the rest of the way.  This is a narrow "door scraper" trail.  If you have one of those show Jeeps and like to keep it pretty, you will not like this trail. We went about a half mile down this road with the Cruiser and parked at a food plot.  Not knowing what the rest of this road was like, I decided to play it safe and hike in from here.  This is Parking Location #2 in the GPS coordinates above.  As it turns out, I could have gone about a half mile (and 400-foot elevation drop) further.  I marked another location as Parking Location #4 at a point where I felt confident I could get the Cruiser in and out.  After that, there are some sizable hardwood saplings growing up that would have challenged the width of my vehicle.  An old Jeep Wrangler with a bull bar could probably make it somewhat further.

Falls #33

Boomer and I continued hiking down the trail, which I will call an ATV trail at this point because it gets iffy for a Jeep.  At a point on the bench still very high above the main creek, we found the trace road along the bench I was looking for.  This old trace road had obviously not been used as a road for many decades, as evidenced by the leaf buildup, the age of the fallen trees, and new growth on it.  It may not be usable as a road any longer, but at least, it is relatively flat, making for much easier hiking.  The trace road along the bench is pretty much on the level, which means as we hiked it going upstream, the creek level was getting higher and thus closer to our trail.  At one point, the trace road disappeared as it approached a drainage, but after cutting across the drainage we picked it up again on the bench about 300 yards from where we lost it.

Wilburn Falls

We lost our trace road again approaching the next drainage, but I have no doubt it continues on the other side of the drainage.  As it turns out, this was right above Wynona Falls, close to the mouth of the drainage on the north side that contains Houston Falls and Maggie Falls, two of the waterfalls Dan Frew and I had found in November that I wanted to re-visit.  So Boomer and I dropped down to the creek at that point, checked out access to that particular hollow, then decided to continue on upstream to explore the main creek further.  We had only gone as far as Wilburn Falls on our previous visit, and I wanted to explore a little more upstream.  

Falls #31

We found Falls #31, #32, and #33 further upstream on the prong that becomes the main creek flowing through Still Hollow.  Falls #32, about 12 feet high, is actually on a tributary creek that had too little flow.  Falls #33 is a nice little cascade in a beautiful little grotto.  At this point, we were starting to get into some of the undergrowth that I was trying to avoid, so we looked upstream as well as we could, saw nothing of interest, and starting hiking over to the drainage to the west.  A word about waterfall numbering;  since all of the waterfalls in Still Hollow were new finds and unnamed, I gave them numbers as we came to them.  In the previous two visits to Still Hollow, Dan and I found 30 significant waterfalls.  They get numbered in order of discovery, then when they get named I update the documentation to reflect the new name.  So far, few of them have been named.

Houston Falls

I also wanted to explore this next drainage much more than we did on our initial visit, so I tried to stay as high above the creek as I could.  That put us up higher on the knob and into the thickets there, but we managed to stay on the fringes of that area.  Boomer and I kept above the bluffline that Houston Falls is on, and were able to explore some upstream.  Interestingly, the creek above seems to have much less flow than what actually flows over Houston Falls.  I'm sure geologists have a good explanation, but at any rate, we found some smaller waterfalls and cascades, but nothing significant.  There is quite a bit of this drainage above where we stopped, but because the flow in the creek was somewhat low, we decided to stop and go downstream.

Maggie Falls

Making our way through a bluffline break, we hiked to the base of Houston Falls.  While flow was somewhat less than it had been in November, I was still surprised at how much there was, considering how dry and warm this winter and early spring has been.  The waterfall immediately downstream, Maggie Falls, also still had decent flow.  On our trip here in November, we didn't explore upstream or downstream from these two waterfalls.  Continuing downstream, Boomer and I found a few more waterfalls.

Rock Chute Falls

We found Falls #34, a simple yet pretty waterfall in the seven-foot range, just downstream, then Beckham Falls just below that.  Beckham Falls is taller than it appears Between the two tiers, it is about 12 feet tall.  A big log was lodged in there, obscuring the top of the waterfall.  Below that, we almost missed Rock Chute Falls because you can't really see any visible waterfall.  It looks like the creek just flows through some rocks.  But looking downstream, you can see where there is a 20-foot drop in the creek level that can't be accounted for.  This is an odd one, such that it is difficult to get to even the top of it.  Once there I could see that the creek flowed into a box formed by large boulders on each side, that had fallen into place perfectly to form a hidden chute for this waterfall to flow into.  At the bottom, a gap below one of the boulders allows the water to flow out and downstream.  Rock Chute Falls is certainly one of the unique waterfalls I have seen.  There is no place to position a tripod, so I had to do the best I could standing in the rushing water at the top and holding my camera out over the waterfall.  Boomer whined a lot here; that's his way of telling me I'm doing something inherently stupid and unsafe.  

Beckham Falls

Finding a  way out from the top of Rock Chute Falls was also difficult.  We had to hike well up on the bluff again and found a break to descend through again.  The coordinates for this break are listed at the top of this post.  Uncle Kenneth Falls downstream was not as cool, just a nice slide/cascade type waterfall in the eight-foot range.  Arriving at the confluence with the main creek, we headed downstream.  From here, getting back on the south side of the creek and climbing to the old trace road on the bench would probably have been the easiest and quickest way back.  However, we wanted to check out the new route a little more thoroughly for access to the northwesternmost prong, which also has a plethora of really nice waterfalls.  Going downstream, we stayed as close to the creek as we could, only rising up on the bluff when we had to.  

The Sidewalk

Downstream of Falls #12, we found Falls #38, a long cascade, and Falls #39, a relatively short waterfall flowing around a large boulder.  On our previous visit, we were higher on the bluff going upstream and missed these.  Continuing downstream, we came to The Sidewalk, a slot that looks for all the world like it has sidewalks on each side.  Rains had swept away all the leaves that were here in November, and the flow was noticeably less.  We went downstream to Sally Lou Falls, at the mouth of another major tributary, and Still Hollow Twin Falls, where the creek from Sally Lou Falls and the main Still Hollow creek flow over twin waterfalls into the same pool.

Sally Lou Falls

Boomer and I were both getting worn out by this time.  I had injured my left foot yesterday while working on our fences, and for some reason thought that if I just got out in the woods hiking, it would start feeling better.  It did not.  Now I was looking at a dauntingly steep bluff for the climb out, but I still wanted to search for the other end of that ATV trail we had hiked on the way down.  As luck would have it, I found the end of that trail not 20 yards from Still Hollow Twin Falls.  At least, that gave me a decent trail to follow, but it was still a steep and tiring climb out.  There are only about 300 feet of elevation difference between the creek and where we had branched off on the bench trace road, but fatigue was setting in by this time and my sore foot was killing me.  That's just the initial steep part, too.  The total climb from the creek to where we had parked at the food plot was about 900 feet of altitude, over a mile of trail.  By the time we got back to the Cruiser, Boomer and I were both glad to call it a day.

Falls #39

Any section of Still Hollow can be a challenging hike, just due to the nature of the terrain.  But if you follow some simple rules, you can visit the water features without killing yourself.  Rules for Still Hollow:

• Stay off the knobs (see glossary/FAQ)!  The lower, steeper, reaches of Still Hollow are more inaccessible, which means not as easy to log.  Logging years ago on the higher areas of the knobs was done in such a way that dense undergrowth was allowed to basically take over.
• Be prepared to climb into and out of many of the waterfall basins to get to the base of a waterfall.  There are a lot of areas where it is just too dangerous to try to skirt along the bluffline from the top of a waterfall, looking for a break in the bluff.  You have to climb up to an area where the slope is manageable, then find a bluffline break.  Sometimes this conflicts with the first rule.  Oh, well.
• Use the old road through the food plot and the trace roads on the south bench where you can.  They don't cut into the hollows at all but will get you from one section of Still Hollow to another with decent hiking terrain.  The Forest Service track also cuts right through all the thickets on the big southeast knob.

I highly recommend Still Hollow, but ONLY if you are up for some fairly rough terrain.  This is not your Sunday stroll to a waterfall with the family.  This is like the hike from Hemmed-in Hollow back to the Compton trailhead, except most of it is a bushwhack instead of on a trail.  As tired as we were, I was a little surprised to see that the trip meter said it was only 7.85 miles.  I consider Still Hollow miles to be kind of like Richland Wilderness miles - you have to throw in a multiplying factor to compensate for the ruggedness of the terrain.  So we basically hiked a bazillion miles.  I'm looking forward to next time.

GPS Tracks - Norther Prongs of Still Hollow
Red - November 2015 trip
Blue - Bench Trace Road Route - March 2016 trip
Yellow - Creek Route - March 2016 trip

Spring Creek Waterfalls, Arkansas Ozarks north of Treat, Arkansas

3/25/2015 - Waterfalls in the Northwest prongs of Spring Creek

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location:  35.66278   -93.18465,  1716 ft.
  Park - Spring Creek South Prong:  35.65245   -93.15793,  1627 ft.
  Spring Creek Unnamed Falls #1:  35.65554   -93.18519,  1136 ft.
  Spring Creek Unnamed Falls #2:  35.66026   -93.17733,  1187 ft.
  Spring Creek Unnamed Falls #3:  35.66047   -93.17762,  1232 ft.
  Spring Creek Unnamed Falls #4:  35.65946   -93.17656,  1138 ft.
  Spring Creek Unnamed Falls #5:  35.66560   -93.17249,  1238 ft.
  Spring Creek Unnamed Falls #6:  35.66578   -93.17269,  1260 ft.
  Spring Creek Unnamed Falls #7:  35.66793   -93.17377,  1467 ft.

Pet Friendly:  Dogs off leash may be okay, but there are some areas they may have difficulty getting in and out of.  This is what I would call a very difficult bushwhack.  If you think your dog needs to be on leash, it will probably be okay, but you are in for a long day.  There is a lot of undergrowth and opportunity for entanglement.

Motorcycle Friendly:  Nope.  This is many miles on dirt roads, some of them not so good dirt roads.

Hiking Statistics:  From top to bottom, the valley containing Spring Creek is over 1200 feet of elevation change.  Dan and I ended up hiking 6.63 miles with a "highest to lowest" elevation change of about 950 feet.  We made several climbs of several hundred feet, as we went into and out of the various hollows in this drainage system.  Most of the hike we did is what I would call very difficult bushwhacking conditions.  A tornado that swept through the area several years ago left much of the area we hiked through a total mess of downed trees and the briers and undergrowth that have sprung up since.  We were hiking for 5 hours and 31 minutes on the track at the bottom of this post.

GPS files (.gpx format) - Maps of the GPS track are at the bottom of this post.

  Spring Creek Waypoints
  Spring Creek GPS track

Unnamed Falls #2

After almost a month of road trips (two to the Texas Hill Country and one to Ohio), I finally had the opportunity to get out and do some waterfall chasing.  My friend Dan Frew and I decided to give the vast Spring Creek area a look.  Dan had previously visited the big southern prong of Spring Creek and found a couple of really nice waterfalls, so we had high hopes for the rest of the area.  Spring Creek is a huge drainage, encompassing over 12 square miles.  Normally, the hollows in the Ozarks are named after the creeks running through them, or vice versa.  In this case, I can't find any name referenced for the individual hollows in all the many prongs off Spring Creek, nor for the larger Spring Creek drainage itself, so I'll just be referring to the entire area as Spring Creek.

Unnamed Falls #4 - with Dan

To get there, from Dover, go north on Highway 7 for 28.7 miles to Pelsor/Sand Gap.  Turn left (west) on Highway 123 for 4.7 miles, then turn left (south) onto Treat Road (aka FR-1802, CR-5991, or Meadows Knob Road).  Go 3.0 miles on Treat Road, then bear right onto CR-5991.  Go another 1.2 miles and turn left (south) onto a local Jeep road.  You can go down this road as far as you feel comfortable to park.  We parked just 0.1 mile down the Jeep road, since we were unfamiliar with it and wanted to take no chances until we checked it out.  As it turned out, this old road was in fairly decent shape well down the mountain.  A good 4WD vehicle should have no trouble going another half mile or so down the mountain.

Unnamed Falls #1 - with Rick
Photo by Dan Frew

We started hiking down the Jeep road, then leaving the trail to the right and bushwhacking over to the first prong we wanted to explore.  We were fairly high in the hollow, and saw no signs of waterfalls as far as we could see upstream, so we headed downstream.  We only found our first waterfall of the day, Unnamed Falls #1, midway down this drainage.  It was a nice smaller waterfall in the six to eight foot range.  Continuing on downstream, we found no other waterfalls on this tributary creek.  The creek itself went underground for about a hundred yards, reemerging in a big spring further down the hollow.

Unnamed Falls #2 - From inside Cave

After following the first feeder creek all the way down to where it flowed into Spring Creek, we explored a little downstream and a short distance up the large south prong.  The slope at these points is extremely low, and the odds of finding some water features appeared low, so we decided to head upstream to the steeper parts of the Spring Creek system.    This is where we first encountered a major impediment to hiking in this area.  Several years ago, a tornado came right up the Spring Creek valley and into the upper prongs.  Unfortunately, it cut a swath a couple of hundred feet wide right through the area we wanted to hike through.  The downed trees, along with the dense undergrowth, briers, and other vines that grow when the large tree canopy is suddenly gone made for extremely rough hiking.  This was awful to try to pick our way through today; in the late spring or summer it would be impossible.

Cave at Falls #2
wide angle photo by Dan Frew

We eventually made our way north into the next tributary and found Falls #2, which also had a deceptively large cave next to it.  The cave opening was low, almost unnoticable behind the berm of stone and dirt in front of it.  Once inside, we could see that it extended along the bluff and quite deep into the hillside.  Falls #3 was a short distance upstream, but instead of going further upstream we decided to go downstream, where we found Falls #4.  From there, the undergrowth and briers forced us into a route over the bluff into the next hollow instead of downstream as we would have preferred.  

Unnamed Falls #4

Getting into the next prong to the north was not too difficult, but once there, we ran into the tornado damaged area again.  It seemed almost as if the tornado had somehow figured out the routes we would have wanted to hike, and had followed the same route just to wreak havoc with our hiking.  At any rate, we eventually got down to creek level in this prong, and made our way upstream.  This was what I would call something beyond a "difficult bushwhack", this was more like a "painfully difficult bushwhack".  It was very slow going, but we persevered and eventually made it upstream to where we found Falls #5 and Falls #6 in close proximity.  

Unnamed Falls #3

Continuing upstream, we did find a rock glacier to hike along.  Normally, rock hopping up something like this is less than desirable, but it was much easier than the dense undergrowth around it.  By the time we made it up this prong to where we found Falls #7, a small five foot double waterfall, we also had made it to the edge of the tornado damaged area.  We started back to where we had left the vehicle  and fortunately most of the hike back was through a more normal area for the Ozarks.  It was still rugged and steep terrain, but at least with no more than a normal amount of undergrowth.

Unnamed Falls #6

I had wanted a good cardio workout after spending so much time driving and sitting on those road trips, and I certainly got that today.  We ended up covering a big portion of the northeast section of the Spring Creek basin.  While it is always good to get out in the woods, this is not a part of the Ozarks I would recommend.  There are only a few waterfalls, none of them particularly large or impressive.  Add to that the difficulties of the hiking conditions, and my opinion is that this juice is just not worth the squeeze.  You can get a much better payoff for much shorter and easier hikes.  On the other hand, if you like a challenge and don't mind aggravating hiking conditions, go out and get yourself some of this.

GPS Track - Spring Creek Northwest Section

Kings River Natural Area, Arkansas Ozarks near Boston

3/2/2016 -  Kings River Falls 

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location:  35.89422,  -93.58457,  1731 ft.
  Kings River Falls:  35.90186,  -93.57443,  1697 ft.
  Falls #1:  35.90184,  -93.57477,  1716 ft.
  Falls #2:  35.90178,  -93.57515,  1744 ft.
  Falls #3:  35.90200,  -93.57521,  1752 ft.
  Falls #4:  35.90233,  -93.57573,  1789 ft. 
  Falls #5:  35.90248,  -93.57601,  1802 ft.
  Falls #6:  35.90266,  -93.57613,  1809 ft.
  

Pet Friendly: Yes; dogs on or off leash should be fine.  

Hiking Statistics:  This is an easy hike, with a trail all the way to Kings River Falls.  It is just under a mile (4,958 feet by my GPS track) directly from the parking location to Kings River Falls.  The only elevation change is the natural slope of the river, and the trail runs right alongside the river.  We ended up logging right at three miles on the GPS trip meter with some detours to explore a side drainage.

* NOTE: An updated blog post for this area from 4/27/2019 can be seen here

Kings River Falls (10 ft.)

Super Tuesday was yesterday, so we were looking for a little relief from the political jibber-jabber.  Where to hike for a little mental relief?  We did get a little rain the night before last, but emphasis is on "a little", which is much less than we need to really get the creeks flowing after this long winter drought.  Kings River is, after all, a river.  It is much smaller than creeks like Big Piney Creek, but still generally has some decent flow and does have a waterfall right on it.  None of the other "rivers" around here can claim that.  It is also a great little area, with a nice drive through some magnificent country to get there.  My wife Bethany, our German Shepherd Boomer, and I loaded up in the FJ Cruiser and headed that way.

Unnamed Falls #4

To get there, go north of Clarksville on highway 21, and turn east on highway 16.  Go 16.3 miles down highway 16 to the small town of Boston.  At Boston, turn right (north) on CR-3175 (Madison County Road).  In 2.0 miles on CR-3175, keep right onto CR-3415.  Continue down CR-3415 for 2.3 miles and turn left on CR-3500.  After you turn onto CR-3500, in less than a quarter mile you will see a parking area on the right just before the bridge over Mitchell Branch.  Park here; there is an actual parking area established for visitors to the Kings River Natural Area.  

Parking location

As with most places in the Ozarks, there is more than one way to get there and we travelled a different way home.  Going in on CR-3175, the road seemed fairly rough and we actually had to maneuver around a cow in the road.  On highway 16, when you get to the little town of Red Star, you can turn north on CR-3605.  Go down CR-3605 for 1 mile and bear left onto CR-3500.  You can stay on CR-3500 for another 4.2 miles and arrive at the parking location.  This route was still barely what I call a 'one lane plus' road, but it was better maintained than the other route.  You should have no trouble taking either route in a normal vehicle, no 4WD is needed.  

One of several smaller waterfalls/cascades on Kings River

We crossed the bridge and easily found the trail right along Mitchell Branch.  If you keep Mitchell Branch to your right, it soon flows into Kings River and the trail continues along the west side of Kings River.  From the parking area, it is less than a mile to Kings River Falls.  That is, if you don't get distracted.  We detoured to check out some smaller waterfalls and cascades along Kings River, and some side drainages that just didn't have much flow today.  This is a relatively short hike, and while the trail is somewhat rocky and has areas that always seem to be under a couple of inches of water, it is flat and easy hiking.  The river itself had plenty of flow to make the main attraction look spectacular today.  

Unnamed Falls #4 - with Boomer

Just before you get to the top of Kings River Falls, look to your left, up the small creek that flows into the river.  Today, it had fairly decent flow, so I hiked up it to check out the waterfalls.  I like the big, tall, waterfalls with lots of flow just like everyone else.  But I'm a sucker for the small waterfalls I find along creeks in the Ozarks.  I have found literally hundreds of these unnamed waterfalls and never cease to be amazed at the beauty and tranquility they provide.  This was the only bushwhacking done on today's hike, but I just couldn't resist at least checking out the waterfalls I could see ahead.  

Unnamed Falls #5

This little creek has, at least, six unnamed waterfalls, one after another.  I don't doubt there is more higher in the drainage, but today we set out for a short family hike and I was trying not to make this an extended exploration expedition.  Above Unnamed Falls #6, it appeared that the creek leveled out for a distance, so I turned around and made my way back to the river.  If anyone knows of more significant waterfalls above these, please let me know and I'll be sure to check them out next time.

Unnamed Falls #2

After relaxing and enjoying the views back at Kings River Falls, we made our way back down the trail to where we had parked.  This was a great hike to just get away and enjoy some Natural State beauty.  Kings River is a popular area, since it is easily accessible by most vehicles and is an easy enough hike to take children along.  Today we had the whole area to ourselves, and there were no tracks since the rain two days ago.  This is highly recommended for anyone, even novice hikers.  

* NOTE: An updated blog post for this area from 4/27/2019 can be seen here

GPS Track - Kings River Falls

Blanchard Springs Cavern Dripstone Trail and area hiking, Arkansas Ozarks near Fifty-six, Arkansas

2/18/2016 -  Blanchard Springs Cavern, Waterfall, and Mirror Lake 

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Park for Blanchard Springs:  35.95889,  -92.17539,  439 ft.
  Blanchard Springs:  35.95860,  -92.17740,  483 ft.
  Mirror Lake:  35.96349,  -92.17094,  416 ft.
  

Pet Friendly: Yes; dogs on or off leash should be fine.  Just not in the cave.

Motorcycle Friendly: Yes; there are good paved roads right to the visitor center, as well as parking locations for Mirror Lake and Blanchard Springs.

Hiking Statistics:  We did a number of short hikes today, all of them easy, and on some of the best trails you will find anywhere.  The upper cavern hike is only half a mile, and hikes to either Blanchard Spings or the base of Mirror Lake  are only about a quarter mile each.  There are some ups and downs in the cave but easily managed.  If you go when the lower cave is open (summer), that trail is about 1.2 miles long and somewhat more strenuous, but still not bad.  Read the info at the visitor center before you go.

'Main room' in the upper cavern
about 90 feet from floor to ceiling

No rain, no waterfalls.  At least, that's a common knowledge.  We had a huge rainfall New Year's weekend, but basically nothing in the six weeks since.  Fortunately, there are those places that defy common knowledge.  We went to Big Creek Cave Falls a couple of weeks ago, and today Bethany and I decided to go to Blanchard Springs, another cave waterfall.  The main event at Blanchard Springs, however, is the cavern.  We left Boomer at home since we were going through the cave system, and we were pretty sure dogs weren't allowed.  I never did see a sign to that effect, though.

Mirror Lake

We took the adventurous route out and took a lot of back road detours in our trip to Blanchard Springs, ending up on many one-lane dirt roads and eventually making our way there.   Unless you really want to exercise your 4WD vehicle, you don't need to do that.  The turnoff to Blanchard Springs is right off Highway 14, so this is one of those rare hiking trips in which you can stay on the pavement for the entire drive.  The turnoff is well marked with a sign, 1.1 miles east of the small town of Fifty-six, Arkansas.  After you make the turn, there are signs on the paved access road to the visitor center, Mirror Lake, and Blanchard Springs.

Blanchard Springs Cavern - with Bethany

Our first stop was the visitor center, where you can get a walking tour of the cave.  We wanted to go through the cave and had no idea of when the tours were scheduled.  At this time of year, you can only get a tour of the upper cave, since the lower cave has a bazillion bats hibernating this time of year. Well, Okay, our guide said 420,000 bats, but I don't think they count every one.  The 'Dripstone Tour' of the upper cavern system is awesome, and highly recommended for all.  There are some steps, but they can be bypassed and the Forest Service folks will accommodate wheelchairs on request.  Today, we got lucky.  After our 4WD adventure on the back Forest Service roads, we got to the visitor center at 1:25 pm and a tour was starting at 1:30 pm.  Score for the guy (me) that hates waiting for anything!  Not only that, but winter weekdays are very slow.  We only had a few folks go with us and the guide gave us some bonus guiding.  It should be a one hour tour, and we took closer to two hours.

Blanchard Springs Cavern

The caverns are very restricted, and you are only permitted in on a scheduled tour.  I would rather roam around on my own, but our tour guide was very knowledgeable, very patient as we went through the cave, and willing to let us do anything short of touching the cave.  The trail through the cave is very well constructed, going within view of all the many, many, formations while keeping the impact to the cave itself to a minimum.  It took 10 years to construct this trail, the elevator systems, and the two sets of bleachers at each end.  The bleachers are used for "caroling in the cavern" every Christmas.  Google it.

Reflections on the Lake
in the Blanchard Springs Upper Cavern

The extent of the cave itself was not even known to exist until 1960.  The entrance to the lower cave was known, about a half mile from Blanchard Springs, but was so hard to descend into that it wasn't done until 1960.  It was known as "half mile cave" for quite a while.  Once a couple of locals managed to descend into the cavern, they found a massive cave system with huge rooms, columns, curtains, stalagmites and stalagtites, and all that other cave stuff.  Over 10 miles of passages have been mapped out in this cave system.  They also eventually found a vertical

wall of rock 60 feet high that had gravel washed down from above.  In 1963, two local teenagers made it to the top of the wall, squeezed through a tight passage, and discovered the upper cavern, the one we toured today.  This upper cavern may be smaller, but it is still huge.  There is a small fee for the tour, but well worth it.  Entrance to the cave is via an elevator, so no gymnastics are needed like the first explorers had to endure.   Air locks protect the cave environment itself, and disinfectant pads at the exits keep visitors from spreading White Nose Syndrome out of the cave on their shoes.  So far, the efforts at this cave in that regard have kept it exempt from the five year ban on cave entry in effect in the rest of the Ozarks.

Blanchard Springs (10 ft)

After our cave tour, we got back in the Explorer and drove down to the trailhead for Blanchard Springs.  It doesn't seem right even calling it a "trailhead"  This is the nicest hiking trail in existence, a wide, pebblestone paved trail that you can literally take a wheelchair down, all the way to where the spring can be viewed.  The paved part ends there, but you can descend some short steps and explore the rock-strewn valley here.  Access to the cave that Blanchard Springs spills out of is prohibited, but you can roam around the rest of the area.  Blanchard Springs itself flows out of the cave in a waterfall about ten feet high.  Like many cave waterfalls, it seems to keep a pretty good flow through dry times.

Mirror Lake

Leaving Blanchard Springs, we went down to Mirror Lake, which we had just passed on the way to the spring.  There is parking next to the road at the spillway for Mirror Lake, and from there you can walk down a long boardwalk to the handicap parking.  It would be nice if you could park here, but it's for handicapped folks.  There is an area next to it for dumpsters, but it has a "no parking" sign.  So we park at the spillway, go all the way down the boardwalk to the handicap parking, and from there you can hike at creek level. 

Mirror Lake Falls seen through
the windows of old grist mill

Going back upstream toward the spillway, you pass the ruins of an old grist mill, operated up until 1928 when the original owner sold the property to the Forest Service.  Mirror Lake itself is formed by a masonry dam created to supply the water head to power this mill.  Since Blanchard Springs feeds the creek that flows into the impoundment, this one also has good flow even in dry times.  It may be a man-made waterfall, but the Mirror Lake spillway forms one of the prettiest two-tiered waterfalls anywhere.  Having the remains of the old mill there as well makes for a photographer's dream setting.  I'm really surprised I don't see professional layouts done here.  

Blanchard Springs Cavern

This area is about a two hour drive from our house, closer to three hours takingthe torturous route we took on the way there.  During wetter weather, there are many more great hiking areas much closer to home.  That being said, there are many wonderous areas like this in Arkansas that we have yet to visit.  Blanchard Springs is in a corner of the state a good distance from most of the population, but is well worth a little driving time.  I have never been in the lower cave system, and look forward to hiking through it in the summer months.

Big Creek Cave Falls, Arkansas Ozarks north of Cowell

2/6/2016 - Big Creek Cave Falls and Wolf Creek Cave Falls

GPS Coordinates:  Latitude/Longitude/Elevation
  Parking:  35.87684, -93.16071,  1162 feet
  Big Creek Cave Falls:  35.86318, -93.15447,  1294 feet
  Wolf Creek Cave Falls:  35.86063,  -93.15244,  1297 feet
  Underground Falls:  35.86074,  -93.15257,  1281 feet
  Cave Creek Cascade:  35.86384,  -93.15439,  1267 feet
  Mine shaft:  35.85954,  -93.15322,  1309 feet
  Unnamed Cave Falls:  35.85954,  -93.15350,  1300 feet
  Unnamed Wolf Creek Falls #1:  35.86265,  -93.15121,  1292 feet
  Turn off trail to Cave Creek Cascade:  35.86472,  -93.15319,  1239 feet
  Rock Peninsula Falls:  35.86666,  -93.15417,  1214 feet
  Turn off trail to Rock Peninsula Falls area:  35.86736,  -93.15412, 1223 feet
  Old homestead with antique car bodies:  35.86826,  -93.15399, 1260 feet

Pet friendly:  Yes, we took Boomer with us on today's trip.  One word of caution - if your dog needs to stay on leash, it should be OK unless you venture off trail and do any significant bushwhacking.  There are a lot of briers and underbrush in this area.

Motorcycle friendly:  Not really.  It is 2.8 miles down a marginal gravel road.  I wouldn't take mine on it, but I know a lot of you riders don't see that as a challenge at all.  As one of my nephews puts it, "my driveway is longer and rougher than that."

Hiking Statistics:  We logged 6.07 miles round trip on the GPS trip meter today.  Part of that was meandering around while we explored, part of it because we overshot our creek crossing on the return.  You should count on about 5.0 miles round trip, at least.  Most of the hiking was at, or near, creek level, with only one steep climb to Big Creek Cave Falls.

GPS files (.gpx format) - Maps of the GPS track are at the bottom of this post.
  Big Creek Cave area waypoints
  

Big Creek Cave Falls (29 ft)
with Tom and Jeannette Henry

My brother, Tom and his wife Jeannette, had come to visit, and wanted to "go see some waterfalls."  Since we have had little to no rain the last four weeks, my first thought was that they were going to be a little disappointed by the flow in the waterfalls this weekend.  When Tom followed up with "and maybe some caves" comment, my second thought was "Big Creek Cave."  Of course!  Not only is this an awesome area with some uniquely cool stuff to see, it had both caves and waterfalls.  Having been to Big Creek Cave Falls during dry times before, I knew it to be one of those waterfalls that seemed to maintain a decent amount of flow all year long, wet times, and dry.  So we made it a family fun day; my wife Bethany, our German Shepherd Boomer, Tom, Jeannette, and I ate a big breakfast and headed north.

Wolf Creek Cave Falls
with Rick and Bethany

On a previous blog post, I detailed complete driving directions as well as step-by-step hiking directions to the various features in this area.  I even included photos of the area at each major turn and section of the hike.  I won't reiterate all that mass of detail, I'll just direct you to them at the link here. That's an awful lot of detail to copy and would just needlessly clutter this blog post.  Today, those hiking directions were good as gold, except for one thing.  One note here on my directions; this is one of the few hikes where I deviate from the route in Tim Ernst's Arkansas Waterfalls book.  This excellent book has been my hiking bible and was my guidance for my first visit to the area.  I have since used a much easier route that utilized the old trace roads in the area.

Wolf Creek Cave

We hiked straight through to Cove Branch and chose to bypass Wolf Creek and Unnamed Falls #1 as there was not much flow at all on that tributary.  Underground Falls and Wolf Creek Cave Falls were also much less flow than they typically have in wetter times, but still looked good today.  There seems to be much more bright green moss all through all the small creeks in the area, lending a big splash of color to the water features.  Leaving Wolf Creek Cave, we went upstream about a hundred yards to the old mine and another cave waterfall high on the bluff above it.  Today, there was just a trickle of water coming from Unnamed Cave Falls.

Cave Creek

We made our way to Big Creek Cave Falls and found it to be flowing quite well.  As I mentioned previously, this one is fairly consistent and never disappoints.  I did lead my guests on a little extra  bushwhacking, however.  I failed to go back and read my own directions and did not remember exactly where to go uphill toward Big Creek Cave.  We headed uphill a little too early and had to cut back down into the drainage and up on the right side.  Remember to wait until you get to the bottom of the drainage for Big Creek Cave Falls and go up the right bank to save yourself a little extra climbing in some steep and rough terrain.

Rock Peninsula Falls at low flow

From Big Creek Cave Falls, we cut around the bench to Cave Creek.  Erosion had made the descent down the front of the bluffline here a little more steep, slick, and treacherous than on previous visits, so watch your step here.  Following Cave Creek down to Cove Branch, we crossed the creek and found our old road for the return trip.  After a short trip down to Rock Peninsula Falls, we headed back.   

Boomer - crossing Cave Creek

This time, we put a little twist in our return trip and did a little exploring.  I have often said, "you don't really know what's there until you go look."  On the way out, Tom had spotted an old, old, truck body in the woods on the left (east).  Intrigued, we decided to detour and take the high road back.  Going back to the cattle guard we had just crossed, we took a hard left and started down the other road back.  I had always assumed this road went back to where a road branched off way back at the first field after crossing Left Fork.  However, I had never actually verified that.  Today, we did.

Vintage Cars near old Homestead

We soon saw not only the old panel truck on the left of this higher trace road but a number of other old 1930's and 1940's vintage vehicles on the right of the trail.  Looking around the area, we stumbled on an old homestead site.  As with many such sites I have found deep in the Ozarks, all that was left was the fireplace and chimney.  The remaining rocks indicate this was a very small cabin with a "hidey-hole" type false bottom under the floor directly in front of the fireplace.  You never know what you will find until you go look.  

Old Homestead Site

We continued on down the high trace road and sure enough, it does end up back at creek level where that road branches off.  This is a viable route going in or out, but it is obviously rarely traveled by man or beast and is a little more overgrown than the lower route.  We were enjoying each other's company maybe a little too much and didn't even notice when we passed the long rock fence along the creek where we should have crossed, let alone notice that we were on the wrong side of that wall and ended up overshooting our crossing point by a half mile.  Not a big deal, since it was an enjoyable hike and we did have plenty of time.  We made our way back, crossed Left Fork, and hiked back up to the vehicle.  This was just about a perfect day for a hike; great weather, great company, and great sites to see.  This area is one of my favorites and is always highly recommended.

GPS Track - Big Creek Cave Falls and Wolf Creek Cave Falls