Doppelganger Falls (aka Butt's Hollow Twin Falls) and Polyfoss Area, Arkansas Ozarks

5/12/2015 - Doppelganger Falls - Polyfoss (Many Waterfalls) Area

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking location #1:  35.64384,  -93.65612,  1724 ft.
  Parking location #2 (and road branch):  35.64585,  -93.65695,  1559 ft.
  Doppelganger Falls:  35.64950,  -93.66066,  1234 ft.
  Facade Falls:  35.64790,  -93.66040,  1267 ft.
  Sarah's Cascade:  35.64786,  -93.66037,  1433 ft.
  Falls #2:  35.64974,  -93.66051,  1222 ft.
  Falls #3:  35.65023,  -93.65990,  1220 ft.
  Falls #5:  35.64833,  -93.66136,  1382 ft.
  Falls #6:  35.64809,  -93.66160,  1417 ft.
  Umbrella Falls:  35.64841,  -93.66203,  1387 ft.
  Old road branch:  35.64509,  -93.65820,  1651 ft.
  

Pet Friendly: Yes, dogs off leash should be fine. Some of the terrain is a little steep and rugged, so if your dog can't be trusted off leash I would not recommend taking it.

Motorcycle Friendly: No, not really.  The dirt roads are in relatively good shape, but are still dirt roads with potholes, mudholes, etc.  While you could take a heavy bike on this road, you wouldn't like it.

Waypoint and hiking track files (.gpx format)

  Mulberry River Waypoints

  Track for hike to Doppelganger Falls

  Track for return hike

  

Doppelganger Falls (19 ft) - with Bethany

Today Bethany, Boomer and I set out to visit Doppelganger Falls and explore a little to see some of the other waterfalls in this drainage.  We got a little sidetracked when we decided to check out an unnamed waterfall that Bethany had found in a previous visit to Sarah Hollow.  That quick side trip turned into a little exploratory mission itself, and it was after noon by the time we left Lower Sarah Hollow.  You can read the details of those new waterfall finds in this blog post.  Fortunately, Doppelganger Falls was not far from Sarah Hollow and Engagement Hollow, so we backtracked down FR-4401 and were back on our way to Doppelganger Falls in no time.  This waterfall is in Butt's Hollow, a fairly short basin that drains into the Mulberry River.  I have seen one photo that refers to Doppelganger Falls as Butt's Hollow Twin Falls, so you may also see it by that name.

Sarah's Cascade

To get there, I will give directions from Clarksville; go north on Highway 103 from Clarksville and turn left (west) on CR-4160 (aka CR-30).  From where you turn north onto Highway 103 from Main Street (Highway 64) in Clarksville, it is 14.4 miles to the left turn onto CR-4160.  There is a sign there that says "Batson Church 5 Miles".  This is just after you finish all the switchbacks going up the mountain on Highway 103.  Go 2.8 miles on CR-4160, then turn right (north) on CR-4141/FR-1525 (aka CR-279).  Go 1.3 miles down CR-4141, and turn left onto FR-1525 where it splits off from CR-4141.  There is another road on the left just before FR-1525 branches off - be sure you take the second left to stay on FR-1525.  Go an additional 1.0 miles to parking location #1.  An old Jeep road takes off to the right at this point, and there is a place to pull off and park on the left opposite of the Jeep road.

This is where we parked today.  Not knowing what the condition of the old jeep

Falls #3

road would be after the torrential rainfall of two days ago, we decided to play it safe and park there.  This is the parking location designated in Tim Ernst's excellent and highly recommended Waterfalls of Arkansas book.  As it turned out, this old road was in very good condition, not what I would call a "Jeep road" at all.  Our Explorer would have had no problem at all getting down this road and on another old road branching off it to the right.  Parking location #2 above is an alternate parking location that will get you much closer to the waterfalls.  As we'll discuss below, this is also what I would consider a better route to visit the waterfalls in this area.  It is a little longer than the 'traditional' route, but not much, only a couple of hundred yards.  It will cut off a good deal of the bushwhack that going the other route entails.  I'll take a little more easy hiking to cut down the bushwhacking any day.

Facade Falls (64 ft)

At any rate, this was our first trip to the area, and we did not know that at the time.  All we had for guidance was Tim's guidebook, and typically I find his route to be the best.  We hiked down the Jeep road from where we parked for 0.2 miles, and where the road branched we went left.  Whenever I see a branch, I always wonder where the other branch goes.  We found out on the way back.  But on the way in, we branched left and shortly thereafter came to the first drainage.  We turned right off the trail at this point, and started out bushwhack downstream on the left (west) side.

After bushwhacking downstream for about a quarter mile, we came across (surprise!) an old trace road.  I suspected this led to the road we had passed at the branch in the old Jeep road, and we made a mental note to explore further on the way back out.  Continuing across this road and downstream, we came to our first waterfall in Butt's Hollow.  I had seen a few photos of waterfalls in Butt's Hollow that Brian Emfinger had posted on Panaramio, but none for this one.  If you go down the right side of the creek instead of the left, you are likely to miss out on this one, Sarah's Cascade, as it turns and faces the left (west) side of the creek.  

Sarah's Cascade

Sarah's Cascade is a beautiful, stair-step type waterfall just a few feet from the top of Facade Falls.  Facade Falls, directly below it, is a 64 foot tall waterfall arching out over the canyon below.  There are many, many waterfalls in this small area of Butt's Hollow, but the only ones that I know of with names are Facade Falls, Sarah's Cascade and Doppelganger Falls.  Generally, while out in the woods I'll just number the waterfalls for documentation until I research to see if anyone has called them by a particular name, then go back and edit names in if they exist.  I was able to find a way down to the base of Facade Falls on the left (west) side, albeit a very steep and very slippery one.  Be careful, or you will end up sliding 40 or 50 feet down the steep slope.  Even after getting to the base of Facade Falls, large trees and the profile of the canyon kept me from getting a good perspective of this waterfall.

Facade Falls (64 ft)

Facade Falls is in the creek feeding the left twin of the two Doppelganger Falls, and you can get down to the point right between the tops of Doppelganger Falls by following the top of the creek bluffline downstream.  As bushwhacks go, this one is not too bad.  It is a little steep, but undergrowth in the area is minimal and it is fairly open hiking under the tree canopy above.  Once you get down to the tops of these two waterfalls, the easiest route I found to the base is to cross the creek of the 'right twin' - that is, the right (west) of the twin waterfalls as you face them.  Cross the west creek just above the top of the waterfall, then you can climb the bluff easily, go downstream just a few yards, and access the base of Doppelganger Falls.  As you stand at the top of the waterfalls, you can see this route.  

Doppelganger Falls (19 ft)

Doppelganger Falls is one of several 'twin' falls in the Arkansas Ozarks, so I'm actually relieved that it has a unique name to separate it from the others.  One of those other 'Twin Falls' is a triple falls, and not even a 'twin at all, although it was at one time.  Doppelganger Falls, just like Twin Falls in the Richland Wilderness area, is formed by two separate creeks that just happen to have waterfalls where they spill into the same pool.  The effect is spectacular, of course.  If one waterfall is spellbinding, consider how special it is to have two, each with their own personality, at the same place.  

Falls #2

We went down the combined creek a short distance from Doppelganger Falls.  I would have liked to explore this whole region a little better, but it was getting late in the afternoon.  Also, Bethany was still nursing a sore knee from where she banged it up on a hike a couple of weeks ago.  The ruggedness of this area was not helping that at all, so we looked at a couple more waterfalls and started heading back upstream.  We found Falls #2 in a side canyon just downstream of Doppelganger Falls, near the access down off the bluff.  This tributary creek was running well today, but I suspect it will dry up almost completely in dry weather.

Falls #3

Going on downstream from Doppelganger Falls, we found Falls #3 about 100 yards downstream.  This is a series of short waterfalls that looked fantastic with the combined flow from the two Doppelganger waterfalls.  The creek drops off fairly steeply, so I suspect there is much more to see.  But we needed to turn around at some point, so this was it.  Going back upstream, we chose to cross back over the creek feeding the 'right twin', to get back to the top of Doppelganger Falls again.  We started our ascent, this time going back up the west creek, where we had come down along the east creek.  

Falls #5

From the map in Tim Ernst's guidebook, I knew there were a couple of waterfalls in the west creek, and we wanted to make sure we checked them out.  Next time I visit this area, I will go up the other side of the west creek, the right side as you go upstream.  Going up the left (east) side of this creek didn't work so well because there are a couple of steeply banked drainages coming in from that side.  We soon came to the first one, and chose to stay to the left, where we knew the slope was passable, since we had come down between the two creeks feeding Doppelganger Falls.  This first tributary contained Falls #5, a very tall, very steep cascade running almost the full height of the canyon.  

Falls #6

Hiking up (and up, and up...) and around this side tributary, we eventually climbed back up to that old road we had crossed.  Since this road appeared to cut across the top of all the creeks in this drainage, we turned right and hiked back to explore a little.  Virtually every creek running across this road ran down into a steep and rugged drainage, just what you want for waterfalls.  The first couple of creeks appeared to be too small to be the main creek feeding the 'right twin', but one did have Falls #6 in the middle of a very steep, very slippery slope.  I almost slid on my butt down into this canyon, but managed to grab a tree and pull myself out.

Umbrella Falls

Going down the road just a little further, past a large tree trunk across the road, we came to the main creek in the 'right twin's' drainage.  Just below the road was a spectacular waterfall, Umbrella Falls.  This waterfall spills over a ledge into a grotto almost like a giant well, hitting another ledge halfway down, then falling to the floor of the grotto.  One of the largest umbrella magnolia trees I have ever seen is growing in front of the waterfall, making it difficult to get a good angle for taking photos of it.  

The waterfall is so high and the grotto is so narrow, you can't quite capture the whole span of the waterfall.  Looking for a way to the base of the waterfall, or at least that intermediate ledge, I climbed down on the right to where I thought I could access the ledge.  Unfortunately, it was very slippery clay and shale, and I almost slipped into the canyon.  Another downed tree saved me again - thanks, Lord, for the help today.  I managed to drag myself under this tree and onto the ledge halfway down that side of the grotto.  Unfortunately again, there was water streaming down from the overhang above and I had only about a two foot high space to hunker down and try to capture a photo or two. 

Umbrella Falls
Through the veil of water streaming in front of ledge

This was a better perspective than on top of the bluff, but water was streaming down in front of me from the ledge above.  I did the best I could, then went through a similar ordeal coming back up.  If you think it is slippery going down, try climbing back up on that slip-n-slide.  I have a healthy fear of heights, and it was kicking in big time right about now.  When I saw how slippery it was going down, I hollered at Bethany to "don't even think about coming down here".  Now, I was wishing someone had hollered at me before if made this stupid move.  I managed to dig into the clay where roots were and hang on to the roots, and slowly made my way back up in that manner, digging into root after root. 

Cascade above Doppelganger Falls

So, hikers - my one word of caution here is to go ahead and try this at home, but not here where you can fall 40 or 50 feet to your death.  Especially if hiking alone; in this area, it may be years before someone finds your body.  At any rate, I was dirty, muddy, and tired, but alive.  I'll take that one out of four any day.  I cleaned up as well as I could in the creek above and we headed back up the old road the way we had come.  My tripod still has clay in crevices I can't seem to get clean.

Going back (eastward) along the old road was easy hiking.  This was, indeed, an old road, at least at one time.  On my Topo maps this is FR-94404, although I'm sure it has not been a Forest Service maintained road for many, many, years.  We kept on the old road past the point we had crossed it on the way down.  It was actually quite open and would have been usable for vehicles except for a couple of places where trees have started growing in the middle of it.  

About a quarter mile from where it goes above Facade Falls and Falls #1, this old road tees into another road, this one in better shape and drivable for most vehicles.  This intersection of old roads is what I have marked as Parking

Dirtball - this is after cleanup 
in the creek
Photo by Bethany Henry

Location #2 in the GPS coordinates above.  We turned right onto this road and soon came to the juncture with the Jeep road where we had taken the left fork instead of turning onto this road on the way down.  We turned left onto the Jeep road and in 0.2 miles were back where we had parked.

We were tired and dirty (I wasn't the only one that had slipped in mud and leaves today), but happy with another day in the beautiful Arkansas outdoors.  This is truly a great area to hike and explore in.  There is not a lot of undergrowth with hardly any briers to speak of.  It is fairly steep in some areas and an overall elevation difference of about 500 feet from where we parked to the bottom of Doppelganger Falls.  I would call it a moderately difficult bushwhack overall.  Another conundrum with this area is that it will look best with a good deal of recent rain, but there are many places where it is very slippery and slick, and those places will be all the more slippery with recent rains.  I'll highly recommend the area, but just be careful out there.  

GPS tracks
Blue - track for hike to Doppelganger Falls
Red - track for return hike

Engagement Hollow Polyfoss, Arkansas Ozarks

5/2/2015 - Engagement Hollow - Camp Robinson edition

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location #1: 35.66268,  -93.62127,  1461 feet
  Parking Location #2: 35.66990,  -93.63350,  1050 feet
  Short Grotto Falls:  35.66817,  -93.6283,  1075 feet
  Amy Falls:  35.66672,  -93.62440,  1141 feet
  Unnamed Falls #6:  35.66758,  -93.62092,  1368 feet
  Whiskey Still Falls:  35.66733,  -93.62128,  1328 feet
  Unnamed Falls #4:  35.66722,  -93.62140,  1322 feet
  Unnamed Falls #3:  35.66662,  -93.62237,  1223 feet
  Unnamed Falls #2:  35.66442,  -93.62027,  1342 feet
  Unnamed Falls #1:  35.66403,  -93.62132,  1337 feet
  Fallen Timbers Falls:  35.665351,  -93.62170,  1269 feet
  Unnamed Falls #9:  35.66955,  -93.63085, 1012 feet
  

Pet Friendly: Yes, dogs off leash should be fine. Some of the terrain is a little steep and rugged, so if your dog can't be trusted off leash I would not recommend taking it.

Motorcycle Friendly: No, not really.  The dirt roads are in relatively good shape, but are still dirt roads with potholes, mud holes, etc.  While you could take a heavy bike on this road, you wouldn't like it.

GPS files:

  GPS track for Engagement Hollow (.gpx format)

Whiskey Stills Falls

Bethany, Boomer, and I went to Engagement Hollow on Wednesday, en route to Oark for burgers.  So, where to go hiking today, on a beautiful Saturday?  Back to the same place, of course.  Well, maybe not "of course", of course.  I usually don't go back to same area in so short a time.  But today, John Kaviak had organized a hike through Engagement Hollow for some military folks at Camp Robinson and had opened the invitation.  You just don't get a better class of people to hang around with, and even after two visits to the area, I still had some unfinished business in this valley.  

Amy Falls

I had taken some photos of Whiskey Still Falls just three days ago when I went with Bethany and Boomer, but had not actually approached the waterfall since it had such little water flow.  When I learned it had a cave associated with it, I kicked myself for not getting a closer look.  "Next time", I said to myself.  So here it is - the perfect 'next time' opportunity with some military folks and their families.  

Falls #9

Something else I had missed in my previous two visits was a ninth waterfall in Engagement Hollow.  Brian Emfinger, who had originally explored and documented this area, had told me there was yet another waterfall downstream of Short Grotto Falls.  My first visit, it was below freezing all day and we went directly from Short Grotto Falls back to the road so we could thaw out just a little sooner.  On my visit three days ago, Bethany banged her knee higher in the hollow and by the time we got to Short Grotto Falls, it was starting to be quite painful and swollen.  So I still had one more waterfall to check out as well.

Taking a break - at Falls #4

I won't rehash all the 'how to get there' information, and the details of making your way through the hollow.  All that information is in the previous post, so you can scroll down to it, click the link on the right, or go here.  A quick work on naming the waterfalls in this great little polyfoss;  Since Brian was first to explore and document it, I will try to maintain some consistency and use the same designations he did.  Four of the waterfalls in the hollow have been named, and for the rest I'll refer to them by the same numbers Brian did on his web page.

Below bluff south of Fall #3

We started the day with a early morning meet-up at the Clarksville Pizza Hut, then headed for Engagement Hollow.  Again, see the previous blog post for detailed driving and hiking directions.  We followed the same route today as Bethany and I followed previously, with a couple of exceptions.  Going from Whiskey Still Falls back down to the main creek, John took a route down the left (south) side of Falls #3, then back upstream to the waterfall itself.  While you could go down either side of the bluffline Falls #3 goes over, I found going down the right (north) side to be shorter and a little easier going. 

Short Grotto Falls

After going through the entire hollow, including the Whiskey Still Falls side drainage, we ended up where I exited the hollow on my previous two visits, Short Grotto Falls.  This time, however, we continued on down the main creek and came to Falls #9, only about 300 yards downstream.  It is low enough in the hollow that it will generally have at least some flow over it all the time.  That being the case, it is one of those shorter, wider falls that always look best with lots of water.  

Inside cave at Whiskey Still Falls

From Falls #9, we went downstream about another 100 yards and turned left to go up to the parking location #2, only an additional 100 yards or so.  We had plenty of vehicles today, and had the foresight to leave a couple of them at this location.  So everyone got to ride back to where we had left the rest of the vehicles at parking location #1.  Since I usually hike alone, or go with someone in just one vehicle, this was a rare treat for me.  

Today, the waterfalls were not as great as I had seen them in January, but the weather sure was nicer.  The company was top notch as well.  There were only a dozen folks hiking, but this is by far the largest group I have hiked with, and I couldn't have asked for nicer hiking companions.  This polyfoss has a tremendous amount of water features in a relatively small area, so it stays very high on my 'highly recommended' list.   It does tend to dry up after going a while without rain, so my only suggestion would be to keep this one for a day when the area has seen at least some rain recently.

Engagement Hollow Polyfoss, Arkansas Ozarks

4/29/2015 - Short Grotto Falls, Amy Falls, others in the Engagement Hollow Polyfoss

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location #1: 35.66268,  -93.62127,  1461 feet
  Parking Location #2: 35.66990,  -93.63350,  1050 feet
  Short Grotto Falls:  35.66817,  -93.6283,  1075 feet
  Amy Falls:  35.66672,  -93.62440,  1141 feet
  Unnamed Falls #6:  35.66758,  -93.62092,  1368 feet
  Whiskey Still Falls:  35.66733,  -93.62128,  1328 feet
  Unnamed Falls #4:  35.66722,  -93.62140,  1322 feet
  Unnamed Falls #3:  35.66662,  -93.62237,  1223 feet
  Unnamed Falls #2:  35.66442,  -93.62027,  1342 feet
  Unnamed Falls #1:  35.66403,  -93.62132,  1337 feet
  Fallen Timbers Falls:  35.665351,  -93.62170,  1269 feet
  

Pet Friendly: Yes, dogs off leash should be fine. Some of the terrain is a little steep and rugged, so if your dog can't be trusted off leash I would not recommend taking it.

Motorcycle Friendly: No, not really.  The dirt roads are in relatively good shape, but are still dirt roads with potholes, mudholes, etc.  While you could take a heavy bike on this road, you wouldn't like it.

GPS files:

  GPS track for Engagement Hollow (.gpx format)

Oark Cafe

Today Bethany, Boomer and I went to Oark for one of the best burgers anywhere, the Oark Burger at the iconic Oark Cafe and General Store.  Of course, an ideal appetite enhancer was right along the way.  That would be Engagement Hollow, a great hiking area with several waterfalls.  I had only been to this area once, back in January, and was impressed with the number of waterfalls packed into a relatively small valley.

Short Grotto Falls - Rick, Bethany, and Boomer

This area is not in Tim Ernst's Waterfalls of Arkansas book, at least not in the current edition.  Brian Emfinger did all the original documentation for this waterfall-rich area, and until very recently had not even given the area a name.  He took a friend into the area last month to propose to his wife-to-be, and named it Engagement Hollow at that time.  The lucky fiance, Amy, now has the waterfall that was the site for the proposal named after her as well.  

My last trip into the area, I missed a couple of nice waterfalls high in a side drainage.  At that time, I didn't even know about Whiskey Still Falls.  One of my goals this trip was to correct that.

Amy Falls - with Boomer and Rick

To get there, go north on Highway 103 from Clarksville and turn left (west) on CR-4160.  From where you turn north onto Highway 103 from Main Street (Highway 64) in Clarksville, it is 14.4 miles to the left turn onto CR-4160.  There is a sign there that says "Batson Church 5 Miles".  Go 2.8 miles on CR-4160, then turn right (north) on CR-4141.  After about a half mile on CR-4141, bear right onto FR-4401.  This road does have a marker a few yards down it, but is easy to miss.  About 1.5 miles down FR-4401, there is a 'Y'; bear left to stay on FR-4401 an additional 0.8 miles to the first parking location.  From the first parking location you can continue on FR-4401 for a few yards, and bear right onto FR-1522.  The second parking location is about 1.5 miles from the first one down FR-1522.  This road has obviously not been graded for a while, as grass is growing in the middle of it.  It is in fairly good shape, however, and should be passable to most regular passenger cars.  It dead ends in a wide turnaround area at parking location #2.  At one time, it continued on to the Mulberry River and a bridge at the small community of Yale, but that bridge and the rest of the road have been closed for some time.  

My last trip, we had pretty much made our way down the hollow going from waterfall to waterfall and finding our way down.  Today, I decided to use the GPS track Brian had uploaded to his web page and see how that worked.  Why not follow the best route of the guy that had found these waterfalls and was most familiar with the area?  As it turns out, that worked pretty good for us.

Wild Boar Skull above Falls #1

Hiking down from the parking location, we went straight down and across the first drainage, then followed the bluffline around to the first waterfall, Fall #1.  This is a fairly tall, tiered waterfall, and you have to back up a little to actually view the whole thing.  It had very little flow today, probably in part due  to the lack of recent rain and partly because of the water sucked up by all the massive trees in the area.  Bethany found the skull of a wild boar here, and a pretty big one at that.  We did NOT see any of his surviving family today, but I did see some pig tracks.  That is one of the animals I do worry about running into.  Bears, coyotes, cougars, and bobcats tend to avoid you if they can.  Wild pigs are just crazy, and you never know what they will do.  

Hiking downstream from Falls #1 on the right (west) side, there is a slope down through that bluffline.  Once down at the creek level, you can hike back upstream to Falls #1, then go back to the point you descended down to the creek.  You will notice another drainage coming in from the right.  Follow this small creek up to Falls #2. This is two tiered waterfall, and looked beautiful when I was here in January.  Today, however, the first two waterfalls just didn't have enough flow to be 'picture worthy'.

From Falls #2, we hiked downstream to Fallen Timber Falls.  When the creek is running well, this waterfall spans the width of the canyon bottom and you have to climb back up the bluff to the right (west) to continue downstream.  Today, we could go through a crack on the east side of Fallen Timber Falls and get downstream that way.  If you want to see all of the waterfalls in this hollow, however, you need to get back above the bluffline on the right side as you face downstream.  

Short Grotto Falls

The next tributary creek you come to, right above Fallen Timber Falls, is a major one in this drainage, starting almost at the top of the mountain on the west side.  If you stay on the right side as you go upstream along it, you can find a way to the top of this drainage.  Whiskey Still Falls is named for the remains of an old still found in a cave near the waterfall, a remnant from old prohibition days.  John Kaviak came through this hollow at one time and painted green blazes for a route up this side drainage, and orange blazes for a route along the main creek.

From Whiskey Still Falls at the top of the drainage, you can cross the tributary creek and go down the other side.  From this side, you can descend through the drainage and find breaks below the two major blufflines to visit the two larger waterfalls, Falls #4 and Falls #3.  From Falls #3, you can follow the creek upstream to the base of Fallen Timber Falls, then follow the creek downstream to see the remainder of this area.

Amy Falls

Heading downstream from Falls #3, you will want to be on the right side of the creek.  You can get to the base of Amy Falls from either side, but on the right side (west), there is an access not far below the waterfall that has a much easier slope.  There are some nice smaller waterfalls and cascades, but the main attractions in the lower part of the hollow are Amy Falls and Short Grotto Falls.  Today, there was not enough flow to make the smaller falls picturesque.  But Amy Falls and Short Grotto Falls are low enough in the creek that they get enough water to look good most of the time.

Amy Falls is a beautiful waterfall in a beautiful setting.  I can see why it was chosen as a location for a marriage proposal.  After visiting Amy Falls, we hiked downstream another quarter mile to Short Grotto Falls.   You can pick your way downstream along the creek bed, but as you approach Short Grotto Falls the hiking is more on the level along the left side.

Short Grotto Falls

The photos of Short Grotto Falls make it look much taller than it is.  Over the years, it has carved out a grotto with very deep overhangs on both sides.  The result is a very uniquely profiled waterfall, like no other that I know of.  It is definitely a very photogenic little waterfall.  We spent a good deal of time here, as it seems just about everyone that visits does.  It is one of those waterfalls that seem to have a special, almost magical feeling.  If you have been to Fuzzybutt Falls or Twin Falls of Richland, this is the same feeling you get at those especially serene settings.

Amy Falls - with Bethany and Boomer

Up to this point we were using the GPS track file Brian had provided as a general guide.  His track continued on downstream for a distance, then up and out of the creek to the FR-1522 road.  My last trip, we decided to shortcut that and just went up the valley wall from Short Grotto Falls.  I had wanted to continue all the way downstream on this trip, but Bethany had banged her knee earlier in the hike and it was starting to hurt and swell.  So we decided again to shortcut the hike and just head up and over onto FR-1522.  It was a little steep, but once you get up the initial bluff, the road is just a few yards further.  Once we were up out of the hollow and back on the road, it was a pretty easy hiking back to the Jeep.  Uphill, as I said before, but still easy hiking. 

On the way back to our parking location, Bethany found yet another waterfall.  This one was just off FR-1522, in the hollow on the east side, away from Engagement Hollow, in the curve just before FR-1522 runs into FR-4401.  She heard some water splashing, so we went to investigate (of course!).  Sure enough, there was a nice nine foot tall waterfall just a few yards off FR-1522.  With the geology of the Ozarks, and the great layers of sandstone that have eroded away into valleys and hollows, there are literally hundreds of small waterfalls like this every place a creek runs down a steep drop over a bluffline.  There are a lot of them out there, but the thrill and excitement you get from finding a new one never gets old.

Oark Cafe - Boomer waiting on that Oark Burger!

It was another great day in the wilderness.  By the time we got back to the Explorer, my GPS trip meter said 4.03 miles.  Engagement Hollow itself is only about a mile long, so that tells you how much we wandered around to see things.  This is also fairly typical for the way I hike.  I would rate this a moderately difficult hike.  It is steep in spots, and you need to be aware of leaves and rocks that can be very slippery.  There is no undergrowth to speak of, so although it is a bushwhack all the way, it is an easy one.  This is definitely one I'll come back to again.  And yes, the Oark Burgers at the Oark Cafe and General Store were especially delicious today.  Boomer (our German Sheperd) managed to patiently wait on the front porch for his while they were cooking.

GPS Track for Engagement Hollow

Bull Falls, Sprinkler Falls, and Mrs. O'Leary's Falls, Arkansas Ozarks

4/20/2015 -  Bull Falls, Sprinkler Falls, and Mrs. O'Leary's Falls near Cow Creek

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location #1:  35.74227,  -93.32117,  1460 ft.
  Parking Location #2:  35.73749,  -93.32046,  1631 ft.
  Break in bluffline:  35.74528,  -93.32181,  1173 ft.
  Sprinkler Falls:  35.74577,  -93.32046,  1096 ft.
  Bull Falls:  35.74738,  -93.31633,  1136 ft.
  Mrs. O'Leary's Falls:  35.74706,  -93.31927,  1104 ft.

Pet Friendly: Yes, dogs off leash should be fine. A lot of the terrain is very steep and rugged, but most dogs should be able to make it through the bluff break.  Smaller dogs or dogs on leash would not be recommended.

Motorcycle Friendly: No.  Parking is down several miles of very bad Forest Service road.  Some of the road barely qualifies as a "Jeep road".  

GPS files (.gpx format) - maps of these tracks are at the bottom of this post:

  GPS track to UNF #1 and Bull Falls
  GPS track from Bull Falls to Mrs. O'Leary's Falls, back to parking location
  GPS track for FR-1216
  GPS track for FR-1003

Bull Falls

After completing our hike into the Piney Bowl Falls polyfoss area, Dan and I still had a lot more of our hiking day left.  The drainages in the Piney Bowl area are right next to Big Piney Creek, nestled between Big Piney and the mountain that separates it from the Cow Creek basin.  Cow Creek drains into Big Piney Creek just south of Piney Bowl and right across the Big Piney from Rock Creek.  This Cow Creek is the one just east of Rosetta, not the one near Rush, Arkansas.  One of the things making life a little confusing for waterfall chasers is that early settlers in the territory apparently did not communicate well.  Several creeks in northwest Arkansas have the same or similar name, so you have to make sure you know which one is your target.  Since we were "in the area anyway" (excuse #2), we decided to check out the elusive Bull Falls along Cow Creek.

Mrs. O'Leary's Falls - with Rick
Photo by Dan Frew

It was John Moore's photo of Bull Falls that brought us to Cow Creek.  His  Panoramio photo shows a spectacular waterfall plunging off a high sandstone cliff.  I could get the GPS coordinates for it from the photo, but nothing for directions on actually getting to it.  I did a little due diligence and scoped out the topo maps and satellite imagery.  I thought the best approach would be either to park along FR-1004 directly above it and hike down, or go all the way around the Cow Creek basin to where FR-1216 crossed the tributary for Middle Cow Falls and hike upstream.  The Cow Creek drainage basin is some pretty rugged terrain, and road access is very limited.  There are Forest Service roads along the top of the ridge of the mountains on both sides, but no roads going down into the basin itself.

Sprinkler Falls

Our first potential parking location was not far from where we had parked at Piney Bowl.  However, from the top looking down, it looked like several hundred feet of steep climb down and back out.  It also had a fair amount of undergrowth, and would have made for miserable hiking conditions.  So we opted out of option #1, and headed around the entire basin back through Rosetta, and back along FR-1003 (Pine Ridge Road) to FR-1216.  We took FR-1216 along the crest of Middle Ridge, all the way to the point of the mountain overlooking Cow Creek.  At this point, FR-1216 is really not much of a road.  Technically, FR-1216 ends here, but there is a junction off to a local Jeep road that will cross the tributary containing Middle Cow Falls, which was our option #2.  

Hiking the north bluffline - Dan

We decided to go for a new option, and plowed ahead to see just how far Dan's Jeep could make it down what had at one time been a logging road.  We made it about half way down the mountain toward the creek and finally decided to just park and hike the rest of the way down.  This is the parking location #1 that I identified under the GPS coordinates listing above.  We possibly could have made it further downhill in the Jeep, but it was getting a little tight on the trail we were following.  Without knowing what was ahead of us and whether we would even be able to turn around, we let common sense take over and parked the Jeep.

I have added a topo map at the bottom of the post showing the track along FR-1216.  This is not well maintained at all, and has some deep mud holes, ruts, and an occasional tree trunk across the "road".  FR-1216 is not that bad when you first turn onto it, but gets progressively worse the last mile or so.  My advice is to know the limits of your vehicle and only go as far down this road as you feel comfortable, then hoof it the rest of the way.  If you break down or get stuck, it is 15 miles back to a paved road, many more miles back to cell phone coverage, and no one else is likely to be going down this road.  You have been warned.

Anyway, to get to this point, the driving directions are not that complicated.    - From the community of Pelsor (Sand Gap), go 16.2 miles south on Highway 123, then turn right onto FR-1003, aka Johnson County CR-5741.  This is 3.3 miles past the Haw Creek Campground.  If you are coming from the other direction on Highway 123, this junction is 10.5 miles north of Hagerville.

  - Go north on CR-5741 for 5.7 miles, then 

  - Turn left on CR-5680 (still FR-1003, just a different Johnson County Road).  Go 1.5 miles on CR-5680, then

 - Turn right onto FR-1216.  Go 2.8 miles down FR-1216 and park for parking location #2.  

Mrs. O'Leary's Falls

We went an additional 0.6 miles down the mountain to parking location #1.  At this point, the trees growing up in the old logging road will give even the most serious 4x4 some issues.  As I said, pick your end point and park where you feel comfortable with your ability to be able to drive back out.  We cut off an additional 231 feet of elevation change by parking closer to the creek, but it's really easy hiking on the old logging road.  It definitely is not worth pressing the limits of your vehicle.  The same can be said for FR-1216 itself.  The last half mile to a mile are in very bad shape, but the hiking would be mostly on the level and an easy hike.  My Explorer has 4x4, but if we had been driving it, I probably would have left it about a mile from where we parked Dan's Jeep.  I'm grateful that Dan has a nice Jeep and isn't afraid to use it, but I wouldn't go that far with the longer wheelbase and lower clearance of my Explorer.

From either parking location, head downhill on the old logging road.  We followed it all the way down to the top of a small tributary creek to Cow Creek, where the trail ended.  Hiking along this creek was fairly easy going, however, without much undergrowth or other impediments.  You will want to stay on the bluff above the creek for easier hiking, and turn downstream (right) when you get to Cow Creek.  Following Cow Creek downstream, we took the first bluff break we could find.  The coordinates for this access below the bluff are listed above.  I looked for other breaks while we were along Cow Creek and could not find any other breaks in the bluffline.

Sprinkler Falls

As we descended through the bluffline to approach creek level at Cow Creek, I glanced to my right and thought I saw water raining down about 50 feet out from the bluff face.  I looked again, and guess what?  There was a nice waterfall about 150 yards downstream.  The major blufflines along both sides of Cow Creek in this area are huge, typically from 70 feet to over 100 feet high, and have very wide overhangs at the top.  For a waterfall chaser, this is fantastic.  All the water in the tributary creeks on both sides will have to plunge over that bluffline at some point.  Unless it has eroded a break in the bluffline, that creek will make a pretty nice waterfall when it spills over.  

That was certainly the case with this one.  To the best of my knowledge, if anyone has seen it before they didn't bother with naming it or documenting it.  Since it fell from such a high distance, and the wind swept the water trail back and forth like a sprinkler head, Dan thought Sprinkler Falls would be an appropriate name.  It is hard to estimate the actual height, but I would peg it somewhere between 80 and 90 feet high.  Due to the great height and wide overhang of the bluff, the water falls a good way out from the base of the bluff.  From the discoloration at the throat of the waterfall above, it looks like it generally has some water flow.  It was flowing pretty well today even though we have not had that much recent rain.

Bull Falls

After leaving Sprinkler Falls, we crossed Cow Creek to continue our hike downstream on the other (north) side.  Cow Creek is a very large drainage system, and the creek did not appear to offer many decent places to cross, so we crossed the creek here, below Sprinkler Falls.  We knew Bull Falls was on that side, and knew we would have to cross at some point anyway.  Continuing downstream, we came to yet another tributary creek we had to cross, one that had a good amount of water flow.  We have chased enough waterfalls that the significance was not lost on us, and we made a note to follow the bluffline back around and check for a waterfall after we had found Bull Falls.

As we hiked downstream, we started climbing toward the bluffline, knowing that Bull Falls was in the next drainage, and that it had to be at the bluffline.  We soon came to it, and were rewarded with a spectacular Ozark waterfall.  Because the sandstone bluff here is high and the drainage was a decent size, this was a good sized waterfall as well, with the water jetting out from the ledge above, falling well out from the bluff.  We had finally made it to Bull Falls, and it was well worth the effort to get there.

Mrs. O'Leary's Falls

From Bull Falls, we hiked back upstream but stuck to the base of the bluffline.  Sure enough, that tributary creek we crossed on the way to Bull Falls had a very nice waterfall where it spilled over the bluff.  Like Bull Falls, it had created a very large shelter type overhang for itself through eons of erosion of the bluff base.   In keeping with the theme of most of the named waterfalls in the Cow Creek basin, I'll name this one Mrs. O'Leary's Falls.  See what I did there?  If you don't, go search on "Mrs. O'Leary's cow".  That's about the most well known cow I know of.

From Mrs. O'Leary's Falls, we headed back to the Jeep.  Mrs. O'Leary's Falls was actually closer to Sprinkler Falls than we had thought, and we actually overshot the point we had crossed Cow Creek on the hike out.  We found another spot to cross just upstream of our bluffline break, and went right up the bluff through our break.  As you can see from the GPS tracks on the topo map below, we went through an area of post-logging new growth to shortcut a little off our bushwhack back to the old logging road.  From there, we just followed the old logging road back up the mountain to the Jeep and left for home.

Bull Falls - with Rick
Photo by Dan Frew

Another great day in the Ozark wilderness and although tired, we thoroughly enjoyed the day's hikes.  Whenever you hike into a new area, especially a remote and rugged one, there is a certain exhilaration from exploring and finding new waterfalls or other features.  If it's new to you, that sense of awe is going to be there regardless of how many others have been there before you.  Both Piney Bowl and Cow Creek are rugged, steep areas and the hikes are mostly bushwhacks on each one.  Both are highly recommended, but if you are not used to this type of hiking, you might want to give a full day to each one.  Also, both are remote and isolated enough that you need to let someone know your plans if hiking alone.  

GPS Tracks
Blue - Parking to Sprinkler Falls to Bull Falls
Red - Bull Falls to Mrs. O'Leary's Falls to Parking

Topo Map of Cow Creek Basin, east of Rosetta
Orange GPS track - FR-1216 to parking #1