Balanced Rock Falls and Leatherwood Creek, Buffalo National River near Ponca, Arkansas

10/31/2019 -  Leatherwood Creek and Balanced Rock Falls

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Area:  36.021338,-93.354948,  1007 ft.
  Trailhead:  36.021370,-93.354290
  Falls #1:  36.019940,-93.352310
  Leatherwood Spring:  36.018108,-93.350642
  Falls #2:  36.016920,-93.350200
  Old homestead:  36.016400,-93.349850
  Falls #3:  36.016250,-93.349480
  Falls #4:  36.016410,-93.348900
  Balanced Rock Falls:  36.016800,-93.348120, 1213 ft.
  Falls #6:  36.016850,-93.347880
  Falls #7:  36.015350,-93.349510
  Falls #7:  36.014540,-93.349210
  Falls #9:  36.014040,-93.348900
  Falls #11:  36.013600,-93.348430
  Falls #12:  36.013480,-93.348480
  Falls #13:  36.013160,-93.348670
  Falls #14:  36.013690,-93.348200
  Falls #15:  36.013800,-93.348010
  Falls #16:  36.014040,-93.347640
  Bluffline Break to Wading Falls:  36.013125,-93.347783
  Wading Falls:  36.013184,-93.347653
  Falls #18:  36.012980,-93.347150
  Kizmet Falls:  36.012490,-93.346610
  Falls #20:  36.011940,-93.345550
  Falls #21:  36.011651,-93.345040
  Falls #22:  36.011000,-93.344440
  Leatherwood Falls:  36.010780,-93.344040,  1210 ft.
  

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs are not allowed here.  This area is part of the Buffalo National River and is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service.  Pets are not allowed on trails within the Buffalo National River (BNR), with the exception of the Mill Creek trail, Tyler Bend campground trails and the Buffalo Point campground trails.   You can take them on the river itself, and in campgrounds, on a leash, but not other areas of the BNR.  You can see the NPS policy here. 

Hiking Statistics:  This is an easy hike to Balanced Rock Falls, with a volunteer trail.   The distance to Balanced Rock Falls is approximately 3/4 mile one-way.   The rest of Leatherwood Creek is a bushwhack, but not difficult by Ozark Mountain standards.  I hiked a total of 3.37 miles today, including a little wandering around and exploring.  The highest-to-lowest elevation change was only 233 feet.  That is the approximate climb to both Balanced Rock Falls and to the BNR boundary line at the upper end of the creek from the parking location.  I would rate this a moderate bushwhack.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post

  Leatherwood Creek Waypoints
  Leatherwood Creek track
  Leatherwood Creek return track

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:

  James A Villines Homestead
  Triple Falls and Rock Creek Bridge Falls
  Whitaker Creek waterfalls - Compton's Double Falls, Amber Falls, Owl Falls
  

Balanced Rock Falls

First, let me clarify where this is.  Like many creeks, hollows, lakes, etc., there is more than one Leatherwood Creek in the Arkansas Ozarks.  There is a Leatherwood Creek that runs through the heart of the Leatherwood National Wilderness, then into the Lower Buffalo Wilderness Area, and flows into the Buffalo River only seven or eight miles from where the Buffalo flows into the mighty White River.  This is NOT that one, this is the Leatherwood Creek that flows into the upper Buffalo River at the Ponca river access.  Ever since Danny Hale first explored Leatherwood Creek and documented it in the Takahik website, it has been high on my list to explore.  Finally, we got some rain and all the stars aligned in my busy life of retirement and I packed up and headed for Ponca.  Yeah, I know you folks that aren't retired don't understand.  You probably visualize, as I did, retirement as a life of leisure and free time to do whatever you want.  The reality is, we pretty much do whatever we want, but somehow that makes us busier than we ever have been.  I don't know how I ever had time for a job.  But I digress again, please forgive me.  Bethany heard the word "bushwhack" and opted out, and Boomer isn't allowed in most of the Buffalo National River (BNR), so he had to stay home and I was on my own today.  

Park on this side of the low water bridge.
There is plenty of room!

Getting to the parking location is super easy; just go to the Ponca access on the Buffalo River, where the low water bridge is:  

• From Jasper, go north on Highway 74 to the junction of Highway 74 and Highway 43.  
• Just prior to the junction, Highway 74 has a bridge over the Buffalo River.  While on that bridge, if you look to your left, you will see a low water bridge over the buffalo.  That's where you will park.
• Turn left (west) on Highway 43, then in about 100 yards, turn onto the gravel road on the left. 
• The gravel road goes only 0.2 miles to the parking area on the Buffalo River.

To access Leatherwood Creek,
Look for this unmarked trail over a small berm

OR from Boxley, go east toward the junction of these two highways.  The Buffalo River access road will be on the right 100 yards before the junction with Highway 74.  If you find yourself in Ponca or on the Highway 74 bridge over the Buffalo, you went too far.  NOTE:  It is always good practice to park on the highway side of the low water bridge.  There is room on the other side for a couple of vehicles, but there are some other considerations.  There is a "No Parking" sign on the gate on the left that goes up to the Villines homestead.  More importantly, the Buffalo River can rise several feet in a very short time during rainy periods.  If you park over there and it rises over the low water bridge, your vehicle isn't going anywhere for a while.  Yes, people have been stranded there.  Don't be one of those people.  There is a vault toilet in this large parking area that looks like it may have been built back in the CCC or WPA eras but is kept fairly clean, as most facilities in the BNR are.

Thong Tree

On the other side of the low water bridge, there is a clearly marked trail on the left by the aforementioned gate that goes to the old Villines homestead.  On the far right, there is another clearly marked trailhead for the Buffalo River Trail.  In between the sign and the BRT trail is a volunteer trail that goes up and over a little berm that is NOT marked in any way.  That is the trail for going up Leatherwood Creek.  There is no official maintained trail in this valley.  The volunteer trail only exists because after Danny Hale posted some photos of Balanced Rock Falls, it suddenly became very popular.  It's a relatively easy hike along a remarkably beautiful little creek.  The fact that it has gone unnoticed for decades, for the most part, tells you a little about how common this type of scenery is in the Ozarks, and especially areas like the Buffalo River.  There are literally thousands of waterfalls in the Arkansas Ozarks, but this one is such a unique formation that folks were certainly drawn to it after Danny found it.  If you visit it, please keep it as pristine and beautiful as it is now.  Leave no trace, and take only pictures.

Falls #2

Once over the berm, you find yourself walking along the right side of Leatherwood Creek.  You pass a large thong tree and in only a couple hundred yards, come to the first waterfall, Falls #1.  I'm using Danny's names for waterfalls since he was the first to come here and document it.  He does the same thing that I do in a new area;  just number the waterfalls as you come to them, and if you give one an actual name later just update the documentation for it.  At the lower end of any hollow, generally, the waterfalls are fewer and smaller.  Leatherwood Creek is no different, and in the upper parts of the creek, they are one after another.  It is about a quarter-mile upstream from Falls #1 to Falls #2.  Along the way, I saw a nice spring coming right out of the rock bluff on the left side and flowing into Leatherwood Creek.  I suspect in wetter times, there is actually a small creek in the side drainage here.  I called this Leatherwood Spring and put coordinates for it in the list above.

Balanced Rock Falls

Less than a hundred yards upstream from Falls #2, there are the ruins of an old homestead on the right, just above where high water would come.  Falls #3 is right above Leatherwood Creek in the side drainage on the left.  This is the tributary creek that Balanced Rock Falls is in.  Cross Leatherwood Creek upstream of this side drainage and the volunteer trail winds to the right side of the creek as it follows the tributary upstream.  You'll pass Falls #4 in this tributary, then Balanced Rock Falls is only about a hundred yards upstream from that.  It is only about 150 feet of elevation difference from the creek to Balanced Rock Falls, and that is about the biggest and steepest climb I had for the whole day.  As I said, this is fairly easy hiking by Ozarks bushwhacking standards.

Falls #4

Above Balanced Rock Falls is Falls #6, a two-tiered waterfall with twin falls at the top and a longer cascading waterfall right below them.  I spent a little time climbing up to the bluffs above in this little drainage, doing some exploring, then hiking back down to Leatherwood Creek.  I stayed mostly on the right side of the creek as I made my way upstream.  There are stretches of about a hundred yards of the serene, beautiful, creek between waterfalls, and the fall colors made this a fantastically pretty area today.  When you get up to where Falls #11 is, there are a half dozen waterfalls in the two side drainages on each side of Leatherwood Creek.  

Wading Falls

Just upstream, the next one you come to on Leatherwood Creek itself is Falls #17, which Danny has named Wading Falls.  I immediately saw where the name comes from. There is a large pool that covers bank-to-bank between the bluffs along each side of the creek.  Wading appears to be the only option to get to the base of Wading Falls.  Those of you that are avid blog readers know that I'm not much of a fan of getting in the water and wading, especially in cold water.  For the record, I didn't do that.  I hiked up the bluff on the right and found a bluffline break that I could climb down through right at the base of Wading Falls.  The coordinates for the break are listed above.  Once down at the base of Wading Falls, I chose to scramble up on the rock ledges on the right side and inch my way over to the top of Wading Falls, which puts you in a big, long slot canyon that leads up to Falls #18.  In retrospect, that is probably not the smartest thing to do, and definitely not the safest.  It's probably best if you climb back up through the bluffline break and hike up along the top of the slot canyon.

Kizmet Falls

Continuing upstream, Kizmet Falls (#19) is one of the most serene, beautiful waterfalls you will find this time of year.  I call it Kizmet Falls, because the word Kizmet has a special meaning for my wife Bethany and me, and fills me with inner peace.  Falls #20 and Falls #21 were roughly spaced out 100 yards apart upstream, similar to most of the creek.  Above that, the topology changes and there is a big bluff with a very wide overhang on the right side of the creek.  Here, Falls #22 flows out over an extended ledge.  Just upstream from that is one that I'll call Falls #23A, since it flows out of the pool below Falls #23.  Danny named Falls #23 Leatherwood Creek Falls, but I didn't see a location for this little one just downstream of it.  A large dead tree has now fallen onto the top of Leatherwood Creek Falls, all but obscuring the top of this waterfall.  I'm sure that with the force of water during heavy rains, this tree won't last more than a couple-three years before being torn apart and carried downstream. 

Leatherwood Creek Falls

I climbed the bluff on the 

Falls #22
You can barely see the top of Leatherwood Creek Falls
at the end of the bluff

left and continued upstream above Leatherwood Creek Falls to the boundary of the Buffalo National River.  Beyond this boundary line, I could see massive bluffs, rising 200 feet or more straight up above the upper part of Leatherwood Creek.  I could see the bottom part of at least one waterfall that had to fall all the way from the top of this bluff.  This is private land, so I went no further today.  There is no signage, so you have to be cognizant of where the boundary line is and keep an eye on your GPS.  See the "Glossary and FAQ" link at the upper right for what I'm using to navigate and track my hikes.  Please respect the property rights of others; there are vast amounts of public lands to explore here, so there is no need to trespass.  For my next trip here, I'll locate and contact the property owner to see if I can get permission to do a little exploring.

Bluffs rising above Leatherwood Creek
at the Buffalo National River boundary

Turning back, I stayed above the bluff and went downstream along the opposite side that I had traveled upstream on.  Ergo, I was still keeping to my right.  There is not a lot of undergrowth here, and since I had seen the entire creek on the way up I saw no reason to do the kind of rock-hopping and zig-zagging that is required along the creek.  Plus, despite my best efforts my boots and socks were completely saturated with water and my feet getting pretty cold.  When I came to the side drainage containing Balanced Rock Falls, I descended to the creek level and crossed the creek, returning along the creek on that volunteer trail I started today's hike on.  It was a short, pleasant, hike, and I soon found myself back at the low water bridge.  Since the trail to the Villines homestead is right there, it is kind of required that I go check it out.  That will be the next blog post!  

Along Leatherwood Creek

Falls #21

Falls #23A

Falls #23A

Leatherwood Creek

Wading Falls
Falls #18 is visible above it, at the end of a long slot canyon.

Wading Falls

Falls #18

Kizmet Falls

Old Homesite ruins

GPS Tracks for Today's Hikes
Red - Leatherwood Creek Outbound
Blue - Return Route to the Trailhead
Black - Villines Homestead Loop Trail

Fairy Falls and Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

9/25/2019 Fairy Falls and Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Park - Fairy Falls:  44.515336,-110.832617,  7202 ft.
  Grand Prismatic Overlook:  44.523491,-110.840027,  7341 ft.
  Fairy Falls:  44.524818,-110.870113,  7310 ft.
  

Pet-Friendly:  No, Yellowstone is NOT a "pet-friendly" place.  Dogs are technically allowed within the park, but they have many restrictions.  They are allowed in some cabins throughout the park, but none of the lodges or hotels.  They must be leashed at all times, stay within 100 feet of park roads, and are not allowed on any trails or boardwalks.  In other words, if you take your dog, you will be severely limited on what you can do and where you can go within the park.  We left Boomer at home with our fabulous dogsitter/housesitter.

Hiking Statistics:  This is a fairly easy hike with a good trail the entire distance.  The trail to Fairy Falls is 2.93 miles each way (by my GPS), so you are looking at almost 6 miles round trip.  The highest-to-lowest elevation gain is only 108 feet, so it is fairly flat the entire distance.  The loop that goes up to Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook is 0.3 miles long, but it is just an alternate route off the Fairy Falls trail, and the overlook is less than 200 feet to the west of the Fairy Falls trail.  So if you take the loop up to the overlook, it will add very little distance to the hike but will add an elevation gain of almost 200 feet.  It is moderately steep on the trail up to the overlook.  I would rate this a moderate hike, just due to the total distance and the elevation gain to the overlook.  We took our time and spent just over an hour hiking each way.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post
  Yellowstone and Teton waypoints
  Fairy Falls hike track
  Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook track
  

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:

  Yellowstone in Winter

Fairy Falls

Bethany and I have been to Fairy Falls in Yellowstone National Park a couple of times, and it is one of our favorite waterfalls in the park.  At 200 feet tall, it is one of the tallest in Yellowstone, and it is just a beautiful waterfall that is far enough off the Grand Loop Road that it has never been crowded on our visits.  There are two ways to hike out to Fairy Falls, although we have only hiked the trail that starts out south of the Midway Geyser Basin.  The other route starts at a trailhead where Fountain Flat Drive terminates for vehicle traffic, shortly after crossing the Firehole River.  On this route, it is 3.0 miles just to the turn from the old roadbed to Fairy Falls, then an additional 1.7 miles to the waterfall itself.  This old roadbed that you start out on is a bike trail as well.  if you have mountain bikes you might choose to take this route, which goes around Goose Lake.  The National Park Service (NPS) has even placed a bike rack at the turnoff to Fairy Falls.

Fairy Falls - with Bethany and Rick

The route most folks take starts at the Fairy Falls trailhead, about a mile south of the Midway Geyser Basin parking.  There is a lot of parking here, and it tends to fill up fairly early in the morning.  That may throw you off a bit, but the vast majority of those folks won't be going to Fairy Falls, so don't expect the same crowd at the waterfall.  This parking area is also the closest parking to the Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook.  Grand Prismatic Spring is in the Midway Geyser Basin, and after walking the boardwalk around it, many tourists find that you can't really see it that well up close.  Clearly, from what you can see of it, it is huge.  They want to get a birds-eye view of it, so they make the hike up to the Overlook.  Most, as I mentioned, don't continue on to Fairy Falls.  

From the parking area, you immediately cross the Firehole River on an old single-lane bridge and start hiking on a very wide, nicely leveled trail.  You would think this looks like an old road, and your thinking would be absolutely correct.  This was the initial route for the road between Fountain Flats and the Old Faithful area, and the power line for the Old Faithful facilities still runs along this route.  It is now closed to all but foot and bike traffic for park visitors.  If you have a mountain bike, you can bike to the junction with the bike rack I mentioned above.  Along the way, the trail borders the west side of the Midway Geyser Basin.  There are some small hot springs right along the trail.  No, you can NOT venture off the trail here.  All thermal areas are fragile from an ecological standpoint, and they are dangerous from a personal safety point of view.  Walking off the trail into thermal areas is a big no-no anywhere in Yellowstone and can get you ejected from the park.

Grand Prismatic Spring

About 0.8 miles down the trail, you come to the side trail on the left leading up to the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook.  The trail winds up the mountain at a somewhat steep grade, so take your time.  It is only a climb of fewer than 200 feet, so it isn't that bad if you don't rush it.  Once at the overlook platform, you can look down at Grand Prismatic and immediately see why they built an overlook.  This is huge, the largest hot spring in the world.  The Midway Geyser Basin boardwalk goes all around it, but from that perspective, it just looks like a lake with a lot of steam.  Viewing it from above, you can see the dazzling colors throughout, as well as get a feel for the size of the spring.  The people around it on the boardwalk look tiny.  When you get done viewing Grand Prismatic, you can continue on the trail in the same direction you were going instead of doubling back.  It goes back down the mountain to rejoin the Fairy Falls trail about a quarter-mile from where you branched off on the side trail.  You could do this little detour either hiking to or returning from Fairy Falls, but you will be fresher for that climb if you do it on the way out.  

Back on the Fairy Falls trail, you go about an additional quarter mile from where you rejoined it off the side trail to the overlook.  Take the trail branch to the left that follows the base of the bluffline the rest of the way to Fairy Falls (see the

Fairy Falls

map below).   This is where that aforementioned bike rack is.  From here, the trail gets narrower and rougher but is still an easy hike.  It winds through the lodgepole pine forest but still stays mostly on the flat without much in the way of ups and downs.  As you get close to Fairy Falls, it gets somewhat rougher but is still what I would call easy hiking.  This area is now a dense forest of younger lodgepole pines.  

The older growth pines were almost all destroyed in the fires of 1993, and what you see now is the regrowth that is now a quarter-century old.  At this altitude, the pines grow very slowly.  The old tree trunks are still laying all around;  those of us from the southern climes would expect this to all have rotted and disappeared by now, but there is very little rot at this altitude as well, and no termites or other organisms to help with decomposition.  None of this is on the trail, of course; the NPS has done a good job of keeping the trail clear and groomed.  There is also a primitive campsite along this section of trail for backpack campers.  No campfires are permitted, however.

We didn't pass anyone along the hike out to Fairy Falls, and when we first got there we had the place all to ourselves.  While we were there, a couple of hikers that were backpack camping came and left, and another couple showed up as we were about to leave.  Bethany is probably the world's friendliest woman, so within a few seconds, she was BFFs with anyone we encountered during our two week trip to Yellowstone and Teton.  That's quite a few folks, and all of them were the nicest people you can imagine.  I think a magical place like Yellowstone has that effect on anyone.  Fairy Falls itself is just spectacular and is in a spectacular setting.  Check out the video at the bottom of this post.  Even this late in the year, when the previous winter's snowfall was completely melted, it had a good deal of flow.  One thing I love about the rivers and streams in Yellowstone is that they do dry up slightly by the end of summer/fall, but not much at all.  We took the requisite photos of our new friends, then started our hike back.  

All in all, this is a great hike, highly recommended for all.  I noticed on the last section of trail there were orange trail markers high on the trees along the trail.  Generally, that is done for the benefit of winter visitors that can cross-country ski from the Snow Lodge at the Old Faithful area.  I'm a novice cross-country skier, but I may try to get out to Fairy Falls on our next winter visit.  Any time you go, dress for the weather.  In summer, we have been here when people were swimming in the pool at the base of the falls.  Today, it was near freezing, so that wasn't on anyone's mind.  Bears are also a consideration.  We have a canister of bear spray that we never use at home in Arkansas.  However, in Arkansas, we have only black bears.  Here in Yellowstone, there are grizzly bears (aka brown bears).  We generally take our bear spray on any backcountry hike in Yellowstone.  For the Fairy Falls trail, I think there is enough traffic that bears will give it a wide berth, but it is best to be prepared.

GPS Track for Fairy Falls Trail (red)

Fairy Falls - 4 second video

Wild Cave tour at Blanchard Springs Cavern Recreation Area, Ozarks near Fifty-Six, Arkansas

7/30/2019 - Wild Cave Spelunking, Blanchard Springs Caverns

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Park for Cavern tours:  35.96392,  -92.17871  
  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.
  Gunner Pool:  35.99507   -92.21349,  461 ft.
  

Pet-Friendly: No dogs allowed in the cave.

Hiking Statistics:  For the first time in seven years, I have no idea.  There is no way to get a GPS track, so all I know is we were in the cave system for just over six hours.  Our guide said the Titan Room was about 0.6 miles from where we entered the cave, but between the ups, downs, overs, cutbacks, squeeze throughs, and corkscrews, it seemed like about a good eight mile bushwhack.  If I rate this as I do my other hikes, I would rate it as a difficult bushwhack based on the technical aspects.  I was so enthralled by what I saw and the ongoing conversation with our guide that I was never really fatigued.  I was still pretty jazzed at the end of the hike.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post

  GPS doesn't work in the cave, and you really don't need it for Blanchard Springs Falls or Mirror Lake; see the map below.

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:

  Blanchard Springs Cavern Dripstone trail and area hiking
  Blanchard Springs Cavern Discovery trail, Mirror Lake, and Gunner Pool
  Mirror Lake night photography

Rick and Tom in the Titan Room.
The columns behind us are 85 feet high.

Everyone knows by now how much I love waterfalls, caves and night photography.  It should come as no surprise that the Blanchard Springs Recreation Area is one of my all-time favorite places, particularly in the summertime.  When other creeks and waterfalls dry up due to lack of rain, Blanchard Springs and Mirror Lake Falls are still in full splendor, fed by the seemingly endless supply of water in the large cavern systems underground here.  When it is too hot and humid to explore new hollows or even hike most trails, it is 58 degrees in the most beautiful cavern I have ever seen.  In the Milky Way season of April through September, the Milky Way is perfectly aligned with Mirror Lake and Mirror Lake Falls for some spectacular astrophotography in a dark sky area.  So when my brother Tom and his wife Jeannette came up to spend a few days with us, what better place to go this time of year for Bethany and me to show them some of the best Arkansas has to offer?

Blanchard Springs is about a 2.5-hour drive from our home north of Dover, but fortunately, we have good friends that have a nice cabin right on the White River only 8.9 miles from Blanchard Springs.  For those driving to Blanchard Springs for a day trip, getting there is still easy.  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 (see the map below).  After you make the turn, there are signs on the paved access road to the visitor center, Mirror Lake, and Blanchard Springs.  Blanchard Springs is operated by the Forest Service.  There is no fee for entrance to Blanchard Springs Recreation Area, but there is a small fee for the guided tours.

This curtain is formed by air currents less than 1/8 inch thick

The Dripstone and Discovery Tours are $12 each, with a 50% discount if you have a "Parks Pass" - the interagency pass also called a Senior Pass or Golden Passport.  If you don't have one and are over 62 years old, get one.  It is a one-time fee of $80 for a lifetime pass that will get you into all the national parks and other areas run by the federal government agencies.  The Wild Cave Tour is somewhat more expensive at $86 each but is a much longer tour with much fewer people and all equipment is provided for you.  The Dripstone and Discovery tours have just a $1 cancellation fee, but there is no refund on the Wild Cave tour.  If something does come up you can cancel your reservation, but they keep your money and you have one year to reschedule your tour.

You can schedule all of the tours and pay for them online, and that is advisable.  I was able to get reservations for the four of us on the Dripstone and Discovery tours, but the Wild Cave Tours were sold out.  They only have one tour a day on the days they actually schedule them, so there are not a lot of slots to start with.  When we went on the Dripstone tour yesterday, I inquired about whether there was a cancellation list, and as luck would have it, they just had a couple of cancellations for the Wild Cave Tour the next day.  Tom and I snapped up tickets for those two slots before someone could get them online.  Woo-hoo! Bethany and Jeannette had decided to opt-out of the Wild Cave tour anyway, but Tom and I were now set!

Near start of Wild Cave Tour

We arrived at the visitor center a few minutes before our 9:30am departure time and met Aaron, our guide for the day, and the other four guys that would be in our tour group.  There is a separate space in the visitor center just for staging the Wild Cave tours.  Aaron gave us what we would have called a pre-job brief at the nuclear facility I worked at.  He covered basically where we would be going, what the conditions were, hazards involved, safety measures, and contingencies for rescue if that were needed.  This tour is much more strenuous than the Dripstone and Discovery tours of the upper and lower cavern systems, and since there were no nice cement trails and handrails, there are quite a few more hazards.  Aaron laid out the conditions and hazards in plain terms, then gave us a chance to back out if it seemed to be more than we bargained for.  They don't discourage anyone from going, but they do want to be realistic so there are no surprises.  I'll just say this; if you aren't in decent physical shape or if you have some kind of limiting medical condition, this isn't for you.  To put that in perspective, I'm almost 67 and I had the time of my life, I really enjoyed it.  But I also get out and hike a lot; you should know your body, you decide for yourself.

A cave salamander, the largest animal living in the cave

After our briefing, we suited up and I leaned my first lesson on preps for this hike.  The only thing you need to bring is an extra pair of shoes to wear out (I took my water shoes), water, and a snack or light lunch to eat when you stop for a break half-way through.  They supply overalls, helmet, headlamp, knee pads, gloves, and a pack for the stuff you are taking in with you.  I'm not sure what the overalls are made of, but I think maybe kevlar or something equally as tough.  They are also a little heavy and airtight, so after trying it on, I opted to go shirtless and left my t-shirt at the staging room.  After seeing how active we were, I'm glad I did.  Even though it was 58 degrees, there were parts that I was active enough I still sweated.  I would have overheated with a t-shirt on as well.  

Speaking of stuff you take with you, DON'T take a good camera.  I left my Z7 back at the cabin and took only my cell phone for taking pictures.  A camera will get banged up pretty bad, there is no good place to pack it, and it will make it really tough to keep up and maneuver in some places.  Leave it in the car.  I put the cell phone in the only velcro pocket inside the coveralls, and put my snack food and two bottles of water in the pack Aaron provided.  I only needed one bottle of water, your mileage may vary.  The extra shoes you carry in for walking out of the cave after the tour can be any style.  However, DO wear a good pair of hiking boots for the tour.  You need good ankle support and good traction.  There is damp clay throughout much of the area you will be hiking, and it can get slippery even with good soles like my Oboz Bridgers have.  They were pretty gummed up with clay by the time we completed the tour.

We started the tour by getting on a bus from the staging area at the visitor center and riding around to the airlock that the Discovery tour uses to exit the cave.  Aaron gave us another briefing here, we put our gloves and knee pads on and went in through the airlock.  We actually used the lower cave trail, which is pretty nice, until we got through the "ghost room" (more on that later), and further down just past the huge waterfall-like flowstone where they have benches for the Discovery tour.  We left our extra pair of shoes off the trail here and started the actual Wild Cave tour.  It only takes a few minutes to get to this point, and from here on it is off the lighted trail and into areas of the cavern with no trail and only the headlamps on your helmet for lighting.

To be honest, we made so many turns down various passages, so many ascents, and descents, that I completely lost track of where we were in relation to the outside world.  Aaron is an extremely capable and experienced spelunker and very knowledgeable about the history of cave exploration here.  He kept up a continuous dialog about where we were, the geology of the cave, what kind of formations we were looking at, and historical points of interest.  For much of the route we took, there was a line run to act as an antenna for the radio he carried in the event we had some sort of emergency.  The cavern system here is roughly divided up into three sections; the lower cave that is where most of the Discovery tour goes, the upper cave, where the big Cathedral Room of the Dripstone tour is, and the middle cave, which you don't really get to see unless you go on this Wild Cave tour.  During the tour, we transitioned from one section to another, and Aaron often pointed out places where you could see a distinct transition between the huge limestone layers that each section of the cave formed in.  

At the "Death Ledge"

After dropping below a huge tube that carried the ancient underground river that drained to expose the cavern spaces, we ended up at a precipice Aaron called the "death ledge".  It's just a big cliff over a large pit that you don't want to fall to your death in, but for folks like me with a fear of heights, the name sounded a little ominous.  Here, we all turned off our headlamps for a couple of minutes to experience complete, total, darkness.  Yes, I stayed well back from the edge.  Here, Aaron also pointed out the flat ceiling over the abyss, and let us know that we would be taking a passage directly above that.  He mentioned that because the ceiling was so thin here, we would just be crossing it one at a time to prevent a collapse of the ceiling.  I made a mental note to let my brother Tom go ahead of me to properly test the structural integrity of the ceiling.

The Titan Room

Continuing on with the tour, we made numerous twists, turns, ups, and downs. Along the way, there were all kinds of cave formations that Aaron discussed with us, and the occasional dead bat that had been marked - some were identified over nine years ago and still weren't fully decomposed.  There were also a few locations where biologists had brought horse poop to catalog the cave life that would come out to feed on it.  Bat guano is the primary source of organic material for the cave crickets and cave spiders, and they are the primary source of food for the cave salamanders, the apex predator of the caverns.  Of course, the primary points of interest were all the various calcite cave formation, the "dressings" and "decorations" of the cavern; stalagmites, stalactites, curtains, columns, and flowstones.  There were also helictite formations, a speleothem (cave formed mineral) that appears bush-like or moss-like because it grows at all kinds of angles that seemingly defy gravity.  The helictites also grow on the sides of walls, not just the floor or ceiling, which makes their growth mechanism all the more mysterious.  There were a lot of helictites along our Wild Cave tour, something you rarely see on the Dripstone or Discovery tours.

We eventually made our way to the Titan Room, a large room with huge columns resembling Titan ballistic missiles.  We paused at a ledge here to eat lunch, rest, and take in the beauty of the cave.  It seemed to me that there was a whole lot of cave past the end of this room, and Aaron assured me there was.  He has been down into the Titan Room and has explored some of the passages further on.  New passages, huge rooms, and connections to other cave systems are still being found, but the National Forest Service has a policy of conservation and protection, not exploration, so very little exploration is done compared to Carlsbad or Mammoth caverns, which are operated by the National Park Service.  Blanchard Springs is the only cavern system operated by the National Forest Service.  

The guides on the Wild Cave tour are very experienced cavers that are trained to assess the capabilities of the people in each particular group and have bypass passages and different routes that can be used for folks that may struggle in a particular area.  They have places where they can take people, and places where they cannot take people (apparently the other end of the Titan Room is a  "not").  By this time, Aaron had assessed our small group as we utilized tenuous footholds, ledges, and slick areas, and had decided we were fit and competent enough to get "the works".  Oh my, what a fun adventure.  I'm used to climbing, hiking rough areas, and utilizing my skills as a champion "Ozark butt slider" on bushwhacks in wilderness areas, but this is different.  

At one point we had to pull ourselves up and use our hands and feet to brace on walls and "spider crawl" down about 30 or 40 yards of a passage, eight or ten feet above the passage floor.  If you have ever watched American Ninja Warrior on TV, this is similar to the "Jumping Spider" obstacle.  I loved it.  There was also a passage called "The Corkscrew" that you can probably envision, and at one point a choice of two narrow passages, one called "Ham Sandwich" and one called "The Birth Canal".  I had my pack hung sling-style on my side, and I still had to take it off to get through, then have it passed forward to me.

Small wooden placards with the names of Boy Scouts
on early exploration.  Good stewards of the cave,
they left these instead of damaging the cave wall.

On the way back, we passed points that we had seen earlier, but for the most part, took an entirely different route.  We passed a large room that bats packed into for a couple of weeks every October to do nothing but copulate.  Yeah, bats are mammals, not birds, and they "do it" kind of like people do, except hanging upside down.  I'm still on the fence as to whether I want to come back in October to see that, but I think it would be interesting.  We also saw some signs of the early cave explorers.  After the Cathedral Room and Ghost Room were discovered in the early 1960s, the Forest Service essentially shut down all cave exploration and concentrated on developing the elevators, tunnels, and trails to open the caves up to the public.  The caverns here are among the most highly decorated and best-preserved caverns in the world.  

Helictites

At the end of our off-trail adventure, we made one more descent down a slick clay surface where I basically put my boots together, squatted down, and skied to the bottom of the slope.  I think my form was pretty good.  To cap off our day, as we approached the area where the giant flowstone was on the Discovery tour, Aaron noticed the lights being turned on for an approaching tour group.  Knowing that part of the experience for the Discovery tour was to sit on the benches there and turn off all lights for that "complete and utter darkness" experience, he had us wait at the bottom of the large room there.  When the lights turned off, we screamed and yelled at the top of our lungs.  The next day, on the Discovery tour with Tom, our guides were talking to us about the Wild Cave tour, and when they found out we were on it the day before, said: "so YOU were the ones...".   No one cried or had a heart attack, so it was all good and added to the experience for those folks as well.

After getting back to where we left our extra shoes, we changed into them to get up on the lighted trail and carried our boots.  On the way out, Aaron gave us a really good tour and discussion of the best parts of the Discovery Tour, the giant flowstone and the Ghost room, a large room that is highly decorated like the Cathedral Room.  He also pointed out a small hole at the top of a clay mound, which is a recently discovered passage into a room as large as the Ghost Room, and as highly decorated with formations.  Aaron had obtained permission to take a couple of NFS employees into this room, called simply Ghost Room 2 after it had been charted and sampled by geologists and other scientists.  While in Ghost Room 2, he noticed yet another small hole that had airflow out of it.  Sticking his head and upper body into the opening, he found yet another large room about the same size with the same high level of fantastic formations.  This Ghost Room 3 is now waiting on proper sampling and charting before anyone is actually allowed into it, so as not to contaminate it beforehand.   

The Ghost Room

The point I am making with this is that there is probably much more of this cave system and many others waiting to be discovered.  One of the guides at Blanchard told me there are an estimated 10,000 caves in the Ozarks.  I believe it.  There are over 400 known ones just in Stone County where Blanchard Springs is, and who knows how many still unknown.   The Wild Cave tour is a great way to experience what it is like to get into a wild (unknown and uncharted) cave, with the benefit of going with a highly capable and competent guide to minimize the hazards.  I highly recommend this hike, with the caveat that it simply isn't for those not in decent physical condition or with medical conditions that might be prohibitive.  I can't believe we have lived in Arkansas for 28 years and this was the first time I took this tour.  It will certainly not be the last time.  

Blanchard Springs Recreation Area

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)