Grey Squirrel Falls and Slick Rock Falls, Arkansas Ozarks north of Hector

4/4/2016 - Grey Squirrel Falls and Slick Rock Falls

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location:  35.55400   -92.91440,  705 ft
  Slick Rock Falls:  35.55405   -92.91440,  699 ft
  Flying Squirrel Falls:  35.55288   -92.91229,  747 ft
  Grey Squirrel Falls:  35.55127   -92.91160,  842 ft

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs on or off leash should be Okay.  

Motorcycle Friendly:  No. No, no, no, no.  I'll just leave it at that.

Hiking Statistics:  This is one of those short and simple hikes where the real trick is just getting to the point at which you start to hike.  It is only a little over a quarter mile each way to Grey Squirrel Falls, with an elevation gain of fewer than 200 feet.  There are no trails, but I would rate this an easy bushwhack.

GPS files (.gpx format) - Maps of the GPS track are at the bottom of this post.
  Grey Squirrel Falls track - hike out
  Grey Squirrel Falls track - return hike

Grey Squirrel Falls

My hiking companion today, Dan Frew, and I had already finished a hike in rugged Wolf Den Hollow of over seven miles.  We didn't have time to go attack a hollow we had wanted to explore further upstream off Hurricane Creek, but we did have time to stop off at Grey Squirrel Falls.  So we packed up in the Cruiser again and headed west on Lindsey Moutain Motorway.

To get to our parking location, we went directly to Lindsey Mountain Motorway from Hector.  A word of caution here; going this route requires crossing the East Fork of the Illinois Bayou, a good sized river.  I'll give directions below where you won't have to ford the river.  Go north from Hector on Highway 27 for 6.5 miles and turn right directly onto Lindsey Mountain Motorway (aka FR-1311).  Go another 1.4 miles on Lindsey Mountain Motorway and turn left onto the dirt Jeep road (at 35.53927, -92.91429).   Go another 1.4 miles to the East Fork Illinois Bayou ford, and park.  There is a campsite here on the right as well.  

Grey Squirrel Falls

Be warned - about a half mile after you turn off the pavement from Highway 27, you will come to a wide ford across the Illinois Bayou, then after the road turns away from the Bayou you will cross another ford across Hurricane Creek.  This section of Lindsey Mountain Motorway is also very rough.  The Forest Service has been working on it, but there are some deep mud holes and some very rough road.  I would not take anything but a 4WD with good ground clearance on this route.  Know the limits of your vehicle.  ALSO, once you turn off Lindsey Mountain Motorway, the dirt Jeep road itself is a little rough, but the real danger is some of the mud holes on this road.  They can be deep enough to swallow your vehicle whole.  One spot, in particular, you will have to pick your way around a number of mudholes to find a safe route.  If you don't know the road, get out and check out each mud hole.  If you aren't sure, park and hoof it from there.

Slick Rock Falls

To get to our parking location on roads that do not require fording a river and a large creek, it is a little more roundabout of a route, but not a whole lot longer.    But be warned - see the warning about mud holes in the paragraph above.  You will still need a good 4WD or a horse for this parking location.  Drive north from Hector on Highway 27.  Less than a mile from the Big Piney Ranger station in Hector, you cross over Dare Creek.  Immediately after crossing Dare Creek, turn right onto White Oak Mountain Road (aka FR-1301).  Go 11.4 miles on White Oak Mountain Road.  At 7.2 miles from Highway 27 be careful to bear left where the road branches at the 'Y' in the road.  After following White Oak Mountain Road for 11.4 miles, turn left onto Lindsey Mountain Motorway.  Go 4.7 miles, then turn right onto a dirt road (at 35.53927, -92.91429).  Go another 1.4 miles to another Illinois Bayou ford, and park.  There is a campsite here where the Jeep road comes down to the river.  

Flying Squirrel Falls

Whew!  Fortunately, getting to the East Fork Illinois Bayou parking location is the hardest part of this trek.  Slick Rock Falls was our first stop in this area.  I could have driven out in the river and have been almost right at the top of it.  From the parking location by the bayou, turn downstream and go a few yards, and there it is.  Not a huge waterfall, but it is pretty slick.  Going from there to Grey Squirrel Falls is almost as easy, but will take at least a little hiking.  We headed upstream on the short bench above the Bayou and soon came to the drainage containing Grey Squirrel Falls.

We hiked first up to a smaller waterfall, one I refer to as Flying  Squirrel Falls.  The lower part of this drainage is very steep, and you have to enter it almost where it flows into the Illinois Bayou.  From there, we hiked upstream, very carefully.  The floor is solid rock, and can be very slick, so watch your step; you might go flying.  Flying Squirrel Falls is pretty cool in itself, but today the harsh sunlight made it almost impossible to shoot.

Grey Squirrel Falls

Backing out of the canyon with Flying Squirrel Falls and hiking upstream, we soon came to Grey Squirrel Falls.  This is a beautiful waterfall in a great setting.  I did the best I could, trying to find a way to photograph the waterfall in the bright sun.  My photos today were not that great, but it's an easy one to get to if you have a good 4WD, which I do.  I'll be back, bringing Bethany, my wife and the photographer in the family, with me.  I would highly recommend this hike.  It is very short and has a beautiful waterfall as a prize at the end.  But ONLY if you can get to the parking spot okay.

Red - Hiking Track to Grey Squirrel Falls
Brown - Driving Track from Lindsey Mountain Motorway to Parking

Green Grotto Falls, Hot Shot Falls, and other Wolf Den Hollow Waterfalls, Blue Hole SIA, Arkansas Ozarks north of Hector

4/4/2016 - Green Grotto Falls, Hot Shot Falls, and many, many others in Wolf Den Hollow 

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location:  35.53458   -92.86456,  1377 ft
  Green Grotto Falls:  35.52586   -92.86998,  1051 ft
  County Line Falls:  35.52404   -92.87042,  982 ft
  Falls #2:  35.52372   -92.86832,  1001 ft
  Hot Shot Falls:  35.52398   -92.86408,  1028 ft
  Falls #4:  35.52404   -92.86199,  1045 ft
  Falls #5:  35.52233   -92.86105,  1091 ft
  Falls #6:  35.51435   -92.85657,  1275 ft
  Falls #7:  35.51437   -92.85662,  1280 ft
  Falls #8:  35.51445   -92.85654,  1274 ft
  Falls #9:  35.51310   -92.85636,  1292 ft
  Falls #10:  35.51299   -92.85569,  1291 ft
  Falls #11:  35.51850   -92.85291,  1221 ft
  Falls #12:  35.52154   -92.85471,  1189 ft
  Falls #13:  35.52474   -92.85465,  1216 ft
  Falls #14:  35.52762   -92.85465,  1239 ft
  Falls #15:  35.52859   -92.85514,  1229 ft
  Falls #16:  35.52830   -92.85515,  1247 ft
  

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs off leash should be okay.  Dogs on leash will make it difficult to access many of these areas, but could be done.

Motorcycle Friendly:  No. Parking is off Lindsey Mountain Motorway.  This is a not-so-good dirt road many miles down other dirt roads.  Not recommended for street bikes and cruisers.

Hiking Statistics:  From top to bottom, the Blue Hole SIA is about 1000 feet of elevation change.  Today's hike in the Wolf Den Hollow portion was 7.28 miles with a "highest to lowest" elevation change of just under 500 feet.  This was all bushwhacking, although the very start of the hike and the very end of the hike were along ATV trails leading back to the parking location.  There were a couple of tough spots, but overall I would say hiking conditions were not bad for a bushwhack.  In most areas, there was very little undergrowth to trip you up.  I would still rate this a very difficult bushwhack just due to the number of miles of actual bushwhack.  We were hiking for 5 hours and 20 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.
  Wolf Den Hollow and Blue Hole SIA waypoints
  Wolf Den Hollow track

Hot Shot Falls

We had just been to the Blue Hole SIA (Special Interest Area) a few days ago; you can see that blog post here.  During that hike, on the way out I was sure I could hear more waterfalls in the drainage above Green Grotto Falls, and vowed to return and check it out.  My friend, Dan Frew, had also seen some photos taken just yesterday by fellow waterfall chaser David Priest in Wolf Den Hollow and was all fired up to go explore the rest of this hollow.  So Dan and I met in Dover this morning and headed back out to White Oak Mountain, north of 
Hector.

Falls #13 (26 ft) - How Rick refills his water bottle
Phot by Dan Frew

To get to our parking location, we went directly to Lindsey Mountain Motorway from Hector.  Now, a word of caution here; going this route requires crossing the Illinois Bayou, a good sized river.  I'll give directions below where you won't have to ford the river.  We tried going this route last week, but the Bayou was too high to cross.  Today, the water had receded quite a bit and it was no trouble for my FJ Cruiser.  Go north from Hector on Highway 27 for 6.5 miles and turn right directly onto Lindsey Mountain Motorway (aka FR-1311).  Go another 6.5 miles on Lindsey Mountain Motorway to the parking location on the right (south) side of the road.  There is a campsite here, right along the road that makes a great starting point for this hike.  

Falls #16

Be warned - about a half mile after you turn off the pavement from Highway 27, you will come to a wide ford across the Illinois Bayou, then after the road turns away from the Bayou you will cross another ford across Hurricane Creek.  This section of Lindsey Mountain Motorway is also very rough.  The Forest Service has been working on it, but there are some deep mud holes and very rough road.  I would not take anything but a 4WD with good ground clearance on this route.  Know the limits of your vehicle.

Falls #15

To get to our parking location on much better roads that do not require fording a river and a large creek, it is a little more roundabout of a route, but not a whole lot longer.    Drive north from Hector on Highway 27.  Less than a mile from the Big Piney Ranger station in Hector, you cross over Dare Creek.  Immediately after crossing Dare Creek, turn right onto White Oak Mountain Road (aka FR-1301).  Go 11.4 miles on White Oak Mountain Road.  At 7.2 miles from Highway 27, be careful to bear left where the road branches at the 'Y' in the road.  After following White Oak Mountain Road for 11.4 miles, turn left onto Lindsey Mountain Motorway.  Go 1.0 miles, then turn into the campsite on the left along the road and park.  

The campsite at our parking location has two ATV trails leading out of it.  We started hiking down the one on the right; this one is closer to the road.  In only about a quarter mile, this ATV trail brought us to the upper part of the drainage that contains Green Grotto Falls.  Exploring this particular drainage was high on my list of objectives for today, so we dropped down to the creek and started following it downstream.  The woods in this area were relatively free of undergrowth, making bushwhacking down the creek not difficult at all.  Unfortunately, we didn't find any big waterfalls the entire way down to Green Grotto Falls.  I don't know what I heard on our previous trip, but that wasn't it.  We did find a couple of nice waterfalls in the 3-5 foot range, but nothing bigger.  

Green Grotto Falls

Green Grotto Falls itself is down near the bottom of this drainage, just a short distance upstream from the confluence with Wolf Den Hollow's main creek.  This is a stunning waterfall in a great setting and is itself worth the hike in.  We managed to get a couple of photos before the bright sun started to light up the grotto, then moved on downstream.  Green Grotto Falls is in Tim Ernst's guidebook Arkansas Waterfalls, the rest of the ones we found today are not.  We found the first of the new waterfalls on the opposite side of Wolf Den Hollow Creek, directly across from where Green Grotto's creek flows into it.  This is one of David Priest's finds from yesterday, that he named County Line Falls because the area is close to the Van Buren and Pope County lines.

Hot Shot Falls

Heading upstream, we found another waterfall, Falls #2, in a side drainage on the right.  These waterfalls on the tributary creeks looked like they would be much prettier with a little more flow.  The entire area was very dry, particularly for this time of year.  The next waterfall was upstream on the main creek running through the hollow, about a third of a mile upstream from Green Grotto's creek.  This was the other waterfall David Priest had seen and given a name to, Hot Shot Falls.  It is an awesome looking waterfall in a really nice setting.  Most waterfalls do not look good when photographed from the top; Hot Shot Falls certainly is one of the few that does.  Hot Shot Falls runs down a steep slide, to gush into a large, deep pool.  We didn't test the depth of the pool today, but with the volume and velocity of the water, as well as the direction it enters the pool, I'm betting it's more than deep enough to be a good swimming hole.

Falls #4

Continuing upstream from Hot Shot Falls, we found Falls #4, another of the few waterfalls on the main creek itself.  While not as tall as Hot Shot Falls, this one is still beautiful, with cascades that remind me of the Blue Hole Falls.  This one was also, thankfully, in the shade, so I could get a decent shot of it without the sun glare completely blowing out the photo.  On this bright sunny day, that is a problem we had all day.   Upstream, Falls #5 was in another side drainage on the right.  The topo maps do not show much of a depression in this small hollow, but Falls #5 still had decent flow.  If conditions were as wet as April should be in Arkansas, this would be a great looking waterfall.  There are probably more above this one, but we did not take the time to search above it today.

Falls #5

Upstream from Falls #5, the creek branched into two major prongs.  We followed the prong on the right, heading upstream in a southeasterly direction.  The creek here has very little slope, rising only a couple of hundred feet over almost a mile.  Finally, the creek branched once more just before getting to the large, sheer bluffline surrounding this large hollow.  Taking the branch to the right, we found Falls #6 and Falls #8 spilling over that big bluffline cliff.   From Falls #8, we climbed to the top of that bluffline, then followed the top of it around to where the creek from the other branch flowed over it.  Then we had to find a way below the bluff again.  

Falls #8

As it turned out, it wasn't even that far.  The smarter thing would have been to simply stay below the bluff and follow it around to the left, which would have taken us right to the base of Falls #9, another large waterfall spilling off that sheer bluff.  This waterfall has a stepped portion, then spills over the big bluff for a total of about 26 feet.  From where we came back through the bluffline to Falls #9, we could see Falls #10 on the opposite side of the hollow where yet another creek flowed over the bluffline.  Leaving Falls #9, we followed the base of the bluff to the left, then across the hollow to Falls #10.  

Falls #11

From Falls #10, we climbed to the top of the bluff once again.  We knew from our hike in on the creek in this prong that there were few tributary creeks.  We also knew that with the steep bluff above the valley in this prong, any waterfalls we were likely to find would be close to the top of this bluffline.  Hiking along the bench above this bluff was fairly easy as bushwhacks go.  The forest here is primarily larger trees, with a minimal amount of undergrowth.  We did find Falls #11 in one of these creases high on the bluff.  Falls #11 is one of the smaller waterfalls we found today, in the eight-foot range, but has a unique geometry and just looked cool.  This is one I want to see with a lot more water.

Falls #9 (29 ft)

Climbing back up to the bench above the bluff, we continued on downstream and found Falls #12 before turning up into the north prong of Wolf Den Hollow.  Falls #12 is another that is larger than it looks in photos.  Using a photo of me next to the waterfall, I was able to scale the lower part of the waterfall at a little over 28 feet.  It also has about four feet of stepped waterfall above that, making this one approximately 32 feet tall.  From Falls #12, we continued around the bluff into the northern prong.  

We descended all the way down to the creek in this prong to avoid what I call "Arkansas jungle" impediments, then saw Falls #13 on the bluff back to our right and went back up the bluff to investigate that one.  Falls #13 is another good sized waterfall, with a drop of about 26 feet.  Coming out of the canyon containing Falls #13, we stuck to the base of the bluffline as well as we could and soon came to Falls #14.  Staying on the base of the bluffline still, Falls #15 was at the top of the drainage for this prong, and Falls #16 was just a short distance further.  

Hoo-doo high above Wolf Den Hollow

From Falls #16, we climbed back up to the bench above the bluffline and started hiking back, mostly on the level on that bench.  We did find one spot looking out over the whole of Wolf Den Hollow, with a couple of neat hoo-doos framing the location.  We hiked toward our parking location, but staying below the knob and keeping at our elevation.  We came across an ATV trail, and since it seemed to be going our way, we hiked our way back on it.  This was the second ATV trail leading out of the campsite we parked at, and soon we were back at the Cruiser.

If you look at the elevations of all these waterfalls around the upper end of Wolf Den Hollow, you will see they are all where the feeder creeks fall over the major bluffline for Wolf Den Hollow.  Look at the map below, and you can see where they are all located around the upper ends of both prongs.  Looking back at the hike, and laying it all out on the topo maps, we know now that there are a couple of really nice falls on the main creek, and a few close to where tributaries flow into that creek.  But most of the large waterfalls are all on the upper rim on the two major prongs.  You can stay below that bluffline and see all in one prong, then get up on the bench and hike to the upper end of the other prong and do the same thing.

Falls #12 (32 ft)

There are a lot of nice waterfalls in Wolf Den Hollow that hardly anyone knows of, including several that are very large.  While conditions were very dry for our hike, they still had flow, just not as much as I would have liked.  I would highly recommend going to these waterfalls if you are up for a lengthy bushwhack, but would wait for a normal wet spring or winter hike.  This will be doable in the summer since there is not a lot of undergrowth for the most part.  But again, it should be in a wetter period.  If all you want to do is go down to Green Grotto and the waterfalls on the main creek, those seem to have good flow even in a dry spring like our current one.  This is another area now on my list of "go back to when it is wetter".  

GPS Track - Wolf Den Hollow

Lilly Falls, Hidden Falls, and Ripple Slide Falls, Arkansas Ozarks near Falling Water Road.

4/3/2016 - Hidden Falls, Lilly Falls, Ripple Slide Falls, and others

GPS Coordinates: (Latitude, Longitude, Elevation)
  Parking:  35.77353  -92.93273,  1149 ft.
  Falls #1:  35.77646  -92.92977,  1409 ft.
  Lilly Falls:  35.77661  -92.92932,  1426 ft.
  Old trace road:  35.77599  -92.92851,  1510 ft.
  Falls #3:  35.77310  -92.92620,  1516 ft.
  Falls #4:  35.77287  -92.92807,  1450 ft.
  Hidden Falls:  35.77302  -92.92835,  1428 ft.
  Falls #5:  35.77295  -92.92857,  1422 ft.
  Ripple Slide Falls:  35.77596   -92.92919,  1420 ft.
  Bluffline Break:  35.77595   -92.92932,  1407 ft.

Pet Friendly:  Okay for dogs off leash, but there are a few spots that might be a little tough.  Dogs on a leash would be a nightmare due to the dense undergrowth in some areas.

Motorcycle Friendly:  No.  The road is definitely too rough.  You see horses on Falling Water Road often, but never a cruiser or street bike.

Hiking Statistics:  Hidden Falls is only a little over a quarter mile from the road and an elevation gain of about 280 feet.  Boomer and I ended up hiking 1.74 miles and an elevation gain of over 400 feet, with several big climbs.  The climb to the bench above Hidden Falls and Lilly Falls, as well as the descent back down, are very difficult bushwhacking conditions.  It is very steep, soft, and slippery.  Hiking from the road to the base of the waterfalls is a moderate bushwhack.

GPS files (.gpx format) - Topo map of GPS track is at bottom of post:
   Hidden Falls GPS track

    Falling Water Polyfoss Waypoints

Lilly Falls

I had not been back to Lilly Falls since I found it last July.  I don't know what possessed me then to embark on an exploration hike that I knew would be a tough bushwhack in the middle of July, but you can see the blog post for that hike here.  Today, I was actually just looking for an excuse to get out somewhere in the woods.  That being said, I did have a couple of objectives.  I wanted to see what this hollow was like in the winter (leaves off) season.  It was a veritable jungle when I hiked through it in summer.  I also wanted to try to find my tripod; I had lost it somewhere between Hidden Falls and Falling Water Road on my last visit.  Boomer (our German Shepherd) and I loaded up in the FJ Cruiser and headed for the Richland area.

Falls #1

Hidden Falls and Lilly Falls are among the many waterfalls in the Falling Water Creek polyfoss area.  There are a bunch of others in this area you can get details on from this Falling Water Creek blog entry.  To get there, go north on Hwy 7 to Pelsor (Sand Gap) and turn east on Hwy 16.  Go nine miles on Hwy 16 and turn left (north) on Upper Falling Water Road.  This is the first left after you pass through the little community of Ben Hur.  It has no road sign, but there is a big sign for the Falling Water Horse Camp.  Go down Falling Water Road, bearing left where roads merge from the right.  You will pass Falling Water Falls on the right, then at 5.3 miles go over the low water bridge.  About 1.6 miles after the bridge, you pass over the creek that Hidden Falls feeds.  There is an area to park right where the creek passes under the road.

Much cleaner ground after burn

Today, I reversed my course from the last visit.  I went directly from the parking location to Hidden Falls, trying as best I could to retrace my track.  Try as I might, I could not find my lost tripod.  The area had changed dramatically since last summer.  Sometime since last fall, either a forest fire or a controlled burn had swept through the entire area.  The burn did a good job of cleaning the forest floor of combustibles; virtually all the leaf cover was gone, and most of the smaller, older, fallen debris from trees.  However, it looked like a few more big trees had been brought down by storms.  Removing all the clutter from the ground did make hiking easier.

Hidden Falls

I'm afraid my waterfall photography from today's hike is all very sub-par.  The sun was extremely bright, and I was in the area smack in the middle of the day.  I had a hard time even finding a perspective such that the glare was not blinding.  Boomer and I made the hike up the creek to Hidden Falls without a lot of effort.  But the climb from the base of Hidden Falls up to the bench, where I knew the old trace road was, was a little tricky.  It is very steep here, and the underlying rock is a loose shale that crumbles and does not provide very good footing.

Ripple Slide Falls

Up on the bench trace road, the going was pretty easy.  The burn had removed all the little stuff and all we had to do was navigate around the big trunks from fallen trees.  I found a bluffline break to come down below the bluff at a small drainage between the ones containing Hidden Falls and Lilly Falls.  On my previous visit, I had skipped right over this, but Danny Hale had subsequently hiked up into this drainage and found a nice waterfall he named Ripple Slide Falls.  I marked the bluffline break and listed it above;  in this area, those can be hard to find.

Lilly Falls

Leaving Ripple Slide Falls, Boomer and I simply stuck to the base of the bluffline and followed it around to Lilly Falls.  Even though this should be the wettest time of the year here, the flow was much less than it had been last July, which is typically one of the driest parts of the year.  Lilly Falls was still pretty nice, but it is one of those waterfalls that definitely looks better with some green foliage.  Up in this part of the Ozarks, the redbuds are barely starting to bloom and trees are just starting to think about leaving out.

Small waterfall at junction of creeks

We headed back to the Cruiser, stopping just long enough to photograph the small (~5 foot) waterfall at the junction of the two prongs in this hollow.  The hike back was easy compared to getting up to and down from the bench.  If all you do is hike up the three creeks in this drainage to the waterfalls, then hike back down and up to the next, it will make for a little longer hike but much easier than going up that steep bluffline.  

GPS Track - Hidden Falls, Ripple Slide Falls, Lilly Falls

Grapevine Shelter, Blue Hole, and Green Grotto Falls, Arkansas Ozarks north of Hector

3/31/2016 - Grapevine Shelter Falls, and Blue Hole SIA waterfalls

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location:  35.53732   -92.87910,  1479 ft.
  Falls #1:  35.53247   -92.88207, 1140 ft
  Falls #2:  35.53264   -92.88230,  1168 ft
  Grapevine Shelter Falls:  35.53197   -92.88488,  1165 ft
  Falls #4:  35.53180   -92.88478,  1147 ft
  Falls #5:  35.53064   -92.88563,  1145 ft
  Falls #6:  35.53057   -92.88554,  1134 ft
  Falls #7:  35.53027   -92.88443,  1053 ft
  Falls #8:  35.53060  -92.88441,  1053 ft
  Falls #9:  35.52804   -92.88410,  972 ft
  Blue Hole North Falls:  35.53132   -92.87904,  922 ft
  Blue Hole South Falls Falls #11:  35.51973   -92.88014,  926 ft
  Falls #12:  35.52427   -92.87287,  1007 ft
  Green Grotto Falls:  35.52586   -92.86998,  1051 ft

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs off leash should be Okay.  Dogs on leash will make it difficult to access many of these areas, but could be done.

Motorcycle Friendly:  No. Parking is off Lindsey Mountain Motorway.  This is a not-so-good dirt road many miles down other dirt roads.  Not recommended for street bikes and cruisers.

Hiking Statistics:  From top to bottom, the Blue Hole SIA is about 1000 feet of elevation change.  Jeremy, Dan, and I hiked 5.7 miles with a "highest to lowest" elevation change of a little over 600 feet.  Some of the hiking was along ATV trails, old trace roads, and Jeep roads, which is fairly easy.  Probably half was what I would call a moderately difficult bushwhack.  We were hiking for 4 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.
    Blue Hole SIA Waypoints (Grapevine Shelter, Blue Hole, Sand Cave,etc)
    Blue Hole, Grapevine Shelter, and Green Grotto Falls GPS track

Blue Hole South Falls - with (l-r) Rick, Jeremy, and Dan
Photo by Dan Frew

The Blue Hole SIA is what is called a "Special Interest Area" (SIA).  There are a plethora of Land Management "area" designations, and this one is supposed to be for areas that have some special characteristic that gives it unusual scientific or recreational value.  No one ever seems to know what that "special characteristic" is, or how it is determined.  I am curious, so if any of you blog readers know the answers, please let me know.  In any case, what it means is that these areas get some variable protection of natural heritage elements, so it stays nice for hikers like me.  

Grapevine Shelter Falls (46ft)
with Dan (foreground) and Jeremy

My hiking companions today were Dan Frew and Jeremy Walter.  I met Dan in Dover, and we picked up Jeremy in Hector, then headed up White Oak Mountain.  Today, we wanted to go back and check out a huge shelter type cave with an equally huge waterfall on Grapevine Mountain, so we factored that into our trip.  To get to the parking location, drive north from Hector on Highway 27.  Less than a mile from the Big Piney Ranger station in Hector, you cross over Dare Creek.  Immediately after crossing Dare Creek, turn right onto White Oak Mountain Road (aka FR-1301).  This is a gravel road but is a well traveled and fairly well-maintained road.  Go 11.4 miles on White Oak Mountain Road.  Be careful 7.2 miles from Highway 27 and bear left where the road branches at the 'Y' in the road.  After following White Oak Mountain Road for 11.4 miles, turn left onto Lindsey Mountain Motorway.  Go 1.8 miles, then turn down the Jeep road on the left and park.  

Falls #1

We started our hike down the Jeep road, but only for a short distance.  As soon as we neared the top of the drainage to our left, we veered off the road to the left (south) and bushwhacked down into the drainage.  We found Falls #1 and Falls #2 as soon as we hiked down to the creek in this drainage.  From there, instead of following the creek downstream, we followed the bluff around to our right (west) for a little less than a quarter mile.   Grapevine Shelter is about the same elevation as those first two waterfalls we found, in a small side drainage to the west.  This is a large shelter type cave that Dan had found in an earlier hike in the area.  This one happens to have a unique crag over the top that also guides a very tall waterfall flowing right over the front of the mouth of the cave.  This cave was apparently used by someone in the past.  There is a rock with something the dirt dobbers have covered up and the date "September 1922".

Grapevine Shelter Falls - looking out during the storm

We spent over an hour at Grapevine Shelter.  Not just because it is awesome, which it is, but we actually used it as a shelter.  As it turns out, our timing today was impeccable.  Just as we were approaching Grapevine Shelter, a storm blew in.  We barely had time to take a few photos before scrambling inside the cave as the thunderstorm brought pouring rain crashing down outside.  Had the storm come at any other time during our hike, we would have been soaked.  I did a little scaling with a photo of Grapevine Shelter Falls and found it to be 46 feet tall.  Just downstream, the creek seems to run right into some large boulders.  There is actually another small cave here, with Falls #4 falling right inside it.  The pool Falls #4 falls into takes most of the room inside, and the creek runs out under the rocks in the back.

Falls #4
Photo by Dan Frew

Leaving Grapevine Shelter (still completely dry!), we headed downstream.  This little drainage on the side of Grapevine Mountain has scads of nice waterfalls.  Falls #5, #6, #7, and #8 are all approximately a couple hundred yards downstream of Grapevine Shelter.  Further downstream, we found Falls #9.  Here, we stopped chasing this creek downstream and cut across to Wolf Den Hollow.  Staying above Hurricane Creek, with the creek on our right, we soon came to the Blue Hole North Falls.  This is a beautiful waterfall, but easier and better photographed from the other side of the creek.

Blue Hole North Falls

You have to cross either this creek or Hurricane Creek to get to the Blue Hole South Falls anyway, and this was the smaller creek.  We had to go upstream a bit to even find a decent place to cross the creek.   I still managed to get water over the tops of my waterproof boots.  Dan and Jeremy were smart enough to take their boots and socks off and wade across.  Fortunately, I do keep a spare pair of socks in my pack for such an emergency.  From the Blue Hole North Falls, it is a short hike due south along an old ATV trail to the Blue Hole South Falls on Hurricane Creek.  This is yet another spectacularly beautiful waterfall.  Tim Ernst calls these the "Blue Hole Cascades" in his guidebook, Arkansas Waterfalls.  Whether you call waterfalls or cascades, everyone agrees they are worth making the hike here to see.

Blue Hole South Falls

Leaving the Blue Hole South Falls, we headed back upstream on Wolf Den Hollow Creek.  Interestingly enough, we found a place not far upstream where I managed to cross without getting water inside my boots.  On the way upstream to Green Grotto we found Falls #12 in a side drainage.   This waterfall was up on the bench above the creek where we had decided to hike.   Continuing on upstream, we came to the drainage on the left that Green Grotto Falls is in.  This is an impressive waterfall in a beautiful grotto, another one that is well worth the trip.  This waterfall will also look a lot better with some green foliage, so it's another that I'll need to come back to in the late spring or early summer.

Green Grotto Falls (21 ft)

We left Green Grotto and started the hike back toward where we had parked.  On the left side (west) of the grotto, there is an old trace road.  The trace road goes up and away from the drainage containing Green Grotto, and as we climbed I would swear I heard yet more waterfalls higher up in this drainage.  Looking at this on the topo maps, I'm guessing there probably are some more nice waterfalls there.  On my next trip, I will have to check that out.  We followed the old trace road up the bluff until we came to a road leading back towark Lindsey Mountain Motorway, and we hiked that back around to where we had parked.  

Falls #9

This is a great area, highly recommended.  The area has great waterfalls and offers great hiking.  The bushwhacking parts are somewhat rugged terrain, but the area does not have a lot of the undergrowth that makes bushwhacking so difficult in other areas.  We weren't ready to call it a day just yet.  From here, Jeremy, Dan, and I went to the other side of Grapevine Mountain.  See the next blog post for that hike.

GPS Track - Grapevine Shelter, Blue Hole, Green Grotto

Sand Cave Hollow Waterfalls, Blue Hole SIA, Arkansas Ozarks north of Hector

3/31/2016 - Sand Cave Falls and other new waterfalls in Sand Cave Hollow

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location (Sand Cave):  35.54491   -92.90199,  1100 ft
  Parking Location (Waterfalls):  35.54849   -92.89378,  1279 ft
  Sand Cave:  35.54430,  -92.90148,  1059 ft
  Falls #1:  35.54135   -92.90110,  881 ft.
  Falls #2:  35.54208   -92.89472,  1032 ft.
  Sand Cave Falls:  35.54114   -92.89268,  1126 ft.
  Falls #4:  35.54131   -92.89254,  1142 ft.
  Sand Cave Quintuple Falls:  35.54121   -92.89229,  1202 ft.
  Falls #10:  35.54677   -92.89185,  1195 ft.

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs off leash should be Okay.  Dogs on leash will make it difficult to access many of these areas, but could be done.

Motorcycle Friendly:  No. Parking is off Lindsey Mountain Motorway.  This is a not-so-good dirt road many miles down other dirt roads.  Not recommended for street bikes and cruisers.

Hiking Statistics:  From top to bottom, the Blue Hole SIA is about 1000 feet of elevation change.  Jeremy, Dan, and I hiked 3.34 miles with a "highest to lowest" elevation change of about 500 feet.  This was all bushwhacking, although at one point we found an old trace road we could follow a short distance.  There were a couple of tough spots, but overall I would call this a moderately difficult bushwhack.  We were hiking for 2 hours and 37 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.

  Blue Hole SIA and Sand Cave Hollow Waypoints

  Sand Cave Hollow Waterfalls GPS track

Sand Cave Hollow Falls - with Jeremy and Rick
Photo by Dan Frew

After a great morning of hiking in the Blue Hole SIA (Special Interest Area), my hiking companions, Jeremy Walter, Dan Frew, and I, were not ready to call it a day just yet.  We decided to head just over Grapevine Mountain to a small hollow that also drained to Hurricane Creek.  I don't think this hollow even has a name, and I couldn't find anything on any of my various maps and other documentation.  I have been here before, however; this contains a pretty cool cave the locals call Sand Cave.  You can see the blog post for that here, but today we wanted to explore the rest of the hollow to see what it has.  Since this hollow has Sand Cave in it as it's only distinguishing characteristic (until now), I call it Sand Cave Hollow.  See how original we are?

Sand Cave Quintuple Falls
Center Lower Waterfall

For our hike today, we just needed to go a short 2.2 miles further west from our parking location for Grapevine Shelter and Blue Hole.  For getting there otherwise, drive north from Hector on Highway 27.  Less than a mile from the Big Piney Ranger station in Hector, you cross over Dare Creek.  Immediately after crossing Dare Creek, turn right onto White Oak Mountain Road (aka FR-1301).  This is a gravel road but is a well traveled and fairly well-maintained road.  Go 11.4 miles on White Oak Mountain Road.  Be careful 7.2 miles from Highway 27 and bear left where the road branches at the 'Y' in the road.  After following White Oak Mountain Road for 11.4 miles, turn left onto Lindsey Mountain Motorway.  Go 4.0 miles and park on the left.  

Falls #2

Sand Cave is right below where we parked, only about 50 yards off the road on the south side.  We went there first, because heck - if you are this close, why not stop and see something cool like this?  Also, Jeremy had never been there, so it was new for him.  We had chosen this location to park because on the topo maps, it appeared that downstream from this point the main creek flattened out considerably in its slope.  The best terrain for waterfalls appeared to be in the upper reaches of this hollow, which has two prongs in the upper (east) end.  We dropped on down to the creek at the bottom of the hollow and went downstream about a quarter mile to make sure we weren't missing anything.  There were a number of smaller waterfalls, including Falls #1, which was pretty enough to be photographed, but nothing of any real size.  

Sand Cave Hollow Falls (32 ft)

Turning upstream, we turned into the right (southern) prong since it appeared to have more flow, and went over a half mile before finding Falls #2.  Continuing on upstream, the flow in the creek was dwindling, and with no waterfalls in sight, it was starting to look like this hollow was going to be a bust.  One of my most used phrases on these hikes is "you know, you just never know until you check it out."  And in this case, Dan pressed on just a little longer and proved that phrase absolutely correct.   Where the creek came over a  huge sandstone bluff, it created a beautiful 32-foot waterfall.  Somehow, this waterfall, with a smaller one to its left side, seem to have about ten times the water flow of the creek downstream.  There is probably some geological science or magic that explains this, but I have become accustomed to oddities like this in the Ozarks.  This waterfall was so nice we gave it a name, Sand Cave Hollow Falls; I'm still going strong with the originality.

Falls #4

Climbing up the bluff above Sand Cave Hollow Falls, we were starting our climb up and over to the other prong when I thought I caught a glimpse of water upstream in the bright sun.  We went up for a closer look and found Falls #4, a really nice waterfall in the 12 foot range.  Looking upstream from the base of Falls #4, we could see another ...  hmm, make that two more ... nooo, maybe three ... Okay, let's go up some more and look!  There were three nice waterfalls close together, in separate creeks that all came together near the top of Falls #4.  The rightmost two of these were double falls, each with a nice waterfall above them.  There were other waterfalls in minor drainages around this system.  I think Dan counted ten waterfalls from Sand Cave Hollow Falls up.

Sand Cave Quintuple Falls
(leftmost waterfall in foreground)

Since there are five major waterfalls in this tight grouping, I have been calling them Sand Cave Quintuple Falls as a grouping of waterfalls.  Kind of like Triple Falls at Camp Orr or Twin Falls of Richland.  Yeah, yeah, I know -it isn't that original and it's somewhat boring.  If you have a better idea, let me have it.  Anyway, leaving Sand Cave Quintuple Falls we climbed to the bench above the first tier of waterfalls and started back   We found a very old trace road running along this bench, running along the top of both prongs.  We did find one more waterfall, Falls #10, at the top of the north prong. 

Falls #10

From Falls #10, we were fairly close to Lindsey Mountain Motorway.  We headed toward the road and found it less than a quarter mile from Falls #10.  From there it was a simple hike of about 3/4 mile along the road (and downhill!) back to where we had parked.  After analyzing our track and discoveries, clearly the route to take for all the water attractions would be to park at the higher point on the road, then take our route backward to the waterfalls.  That will cut off most of the distance we took wandering through the hollow and put you at the elevation you need to be.  Once in the south prong, it isn't that far down to Sand Cave Hollow Falls, nor that far up to the upper tier of the Sand Cave Quintuple Falls.  Of course, if you want to see the Sand Cave itself, our original parking location is perfect.  If you want a good little cardio workout, we proved that you can hike through the hollow and get that as well.  Otherwise, it will be a much easier hike from the new parking location.

Sand Falls Quintuple Falls
Leftmost Waterfall

Combined with our earlier hike today, we ended up hiking a little over nine miles through some rugged terrain, bushwhacking through most of it.  For the section of the track between the road and the new parking location, I would rate it as an easy to moderate bushwhack.  That section of the track is only about a mile each way, so this is really worthwhile for the waterfallapalooza at the end.  We did get a little rain the day before, as well as a brief storm this morning, so I'm not sure how much the flow in these waterfalls is dependent on wet weather.  Please let me know what you find if you visit these waterfalls. I would highly recommend this hike;  it is a relatively short bushwhack with a really nice payoff.  I know I'll be going back to this one.

GPS Track - Sand Cave Hollow