Northwestern Arkansas: Day 3
The warm, comfortable bed at the cabin was nice. I woke up a few times during the night and noticed how incredibly dark it was–no city glow–fantastic.
This was our final day of waterfall hiking. We were all a little sore and tired from the previous days’ hikes, but we chose two waterfalls: Lonesome Hollow Falls and Native American Falls.
To get to Lonesome Hollow Falls, head south on Hwy 7 toward Cowell. Turn right at the Cowell Cemetery and then right onto FR#1253. Park at a dirt barricade about 0.9 miles down the road. This one was not difficult to get to at all.
Lonesome Hollow Falls came with the promise of a short hike. I wish I could say that was the case for all of us on this hike. We started off hiking down a 4-wheel trail with instructions to go off trail and downhill to the creek bed after seeing bluffs on our left. The bluffs were not supposed to be very far. We hiked maybe 5 or 10 minutes and decided it felt like we went too far. Dad and I located a good spot to go off-trail. My mom and sister were not so sure so they started back up the hill. As dad and I bushwhacked our way down to the creek bed I think uncertainty set in for both of us. This was supposed to be an easy hike and an easy-to-find waterfall right?
Trying our best to avoid leaf covered, broken branches and thorny vines we made it down to the creek bed. We hopped some rocks and came to this little place along the stream. Nope, this is not the falls….not yet.
We kept hiking. Conditions were not improving. The boulder hoping was more strenuous and we decided to hike up the steep hill instead. Yes, we hiked down just to hike back up. We kept hiking up and up and then we heard a quick, sharp, loud “WHAAA!”. My sister’s Squatch call haha! Her and my mom were up at the top of the hill, just sitting there…next to the falls. Ugh! My dad and I definitely took the long route. I am pretty sure that’s to blame for the tick I found attached to me later that night. In any case, we made it, and started taking photos. Lonesome Hollow Falls is awesome! It pours off off a giant rock overhang 47ft down into the hollow. The photo below is a composite of about 8 images.
The point where we should have gone off trail was literally maybe 2 or 3 minutes from where we parked the truck. My mom and sister had been waiting for us for quite a while. Next time it will be much easier to get to now that we know where we are going. That’s the problem with going to waterfalls that have no designated trail!
Native American Falls was to be a longer hike than Lonesome Hollow Falls, although only 1.5 miles round trip, according to Tim Ernst’s book. There is parking along Hwy 7 for this high just south of Pelsor about 0.4mi. There is no trail for this one. Immediately we started off down the steep hill toward the creek bed below. I knew it was going to be another long, uphill hike on the way back. Through the thorny vines, rogue branches and unsure footing we made it down to the creek. We followed the creek, struggling a bit with the slippery rocks. After a while, we finally made it to Native American Falls! This was a nice one! Getting down to the bottom of this falls was not an option today. That would require hiking much further along the steep slope and hoping to find a spot to get down to the creek below. I did not have nearly a wide enough lens to take a picture of the falls from the best vantage point. The image below is a composite of 7 images. Seems to be a theme with this trip, huh? It was a really nice falls.
We tried to make the hike back seem shorter by hiking practically straight up the hill from the falls. It took a while and we ran into a lot of downed branches and thorns, but we made it up to the highway and walked less than 0.25mi back to the truck.
After all of that bushwhacking through the forest…it was time for another Ozark Cafe stop! My dad selected the Cheese Volcano burger for his meal haha. We all had malts again of course, even my mom this time.
