The best of the hiking season in Northern Arkansas extends from late fall through early spring, and one of my favorite activities is waterfall hunting in the Leatherwood Wilderness Area about fifteen miles southwest of the cabin. On March 31st three of my Master Naturalist friends and I took advantage of the nearly two inches of rain that had just fallen in the area and went out to see what we could find. The Strava map above shows our route and our elevation profile.
For me, the adventured started even before I had left the little gravel lane that leads to our cabin. The road ahead was totally blocked by a flock of turkeys -- several of the males flaunting full tail-feather displays. Even though my cell phone photos are blurry and grainy, they give the general impression of these bold birds that simply refused to move out of my way:
The hiking group met at the Push Mountain fire tower, a spot I found particularly interesting because of the abundant wildflowers and butterflies. There is enough of an opening for some sunlight, and apparently it is a gathering places for horseback riders so the soil is well-fertilized. Butterflies, of course, like socializing on hilltops and they are also inordinately fond of manure. I didn't have a macro lens to use for photography, and none of the butterflies would pose, so my photos are an inadequate record.
Once we were all gathered, the long day in the woods began. You can get a feel for the arduousness of such hikes from the fairly dramatic changes in elevation on the Strava map, but perhaps it is a better measure to note that we hiked only 8.6 miles over the course of 6 1/2 hours. In some cases there are well-beaten social trails to the waterfalls in the wilderness area, but in this case we had to hike 2 miles down an abandoned road called Barkshed Extended to get to the vicinity of the first waterfall. Apparently few waterfall hunters are willing to do that, and we could find no social trail heading toward the first waterfall. So we followed the guidance of my GPS to bushwack "as the crow flies" to the head of the first falls. On the map you can see where that bushwacking began as we made a nearly 90-degree right turn and then began to follow a relatively straight line. We crashed through the woods, going steeply downhill until we got to the head of the first waterfall. It was a pretty series of steep stair-steps, somewhat hidden by the trees in my photos. (Click on them to enlarge.)
Then we followed the bluff line to the northeast for about 1/3 of a mile, hoping to find a way to the bottom of the falls. When that began to seem unlikely to pay off, we decided to cut over "as the crow flies" to the second waterfall in the area. I think my GPS said it was 7/10 of a mile away, and it was my expectation that when we got to the top of the first ridge, it would just be a matter of hiking downhill the rest of the way.
Oh, the folly of false expectations! It turned out that we climbed over a series of four ridges, each higher than the last. And the 7/10 of a mile of crow flying meant nearly a mile and a half of hard hiking. But it was worth it. The second waterfall is known as Helen's Pour-off, and the name fits. There is a long bluff ledge which had a nice flow of water when we were there, but could obviously handle a lot more!
While the rest of us took time for a leisurely lunch, Lee scouted out a route down, through the bluff line, to the base of the falls.
Here are a couple of shots from the bottom.
Hiking out was a little like emerging from a journey to the center of the earth, but the occasional wildflowers on the way made me deeply regret having left my macro lens at home.
All in all, it was a very good day.
