Exploring Northwest Arkansas

Liles Falls

  
We had been coming down to Arkansas for several years before we ever heard about this waterfall and only then upon reading about it in a book. It's super-easy to get to, and very picturesque, and yet, it isn't a place that people talk about a lot.

Liles Falls is just off the road on the way to the Erbie Campground. As you are driving on the road to Erbie you pass the Koen Interpretive Trail, the Ponds Loop and a little picnic area (I'll talk about all of those at a later time) and at one point, cross a little stream and there is a parking area there on the right.

If you park your car there and then walk back out across the creek there is a very well-traveled trail that dips down into the woods from the opposite side of the creek. It isn't a maintained trail, but it's flat and easy to follow -- and the falls is only about a quarter of a mile of flat trail from the road.

Once you get to the waterfall, the scramble down to the bottom is a little challenging but can be done by most active individuals -- and when they get to the bottom, they'll be greeted by a wonderful, 41' tall cascading waterfall. 

This waterfall is also easily accessible off of the Buffalo River Trail between Erbie and Ozark.

We came during the wet season, but it had been several days since it had rained and the falls was just a small little cascade. I've seen some wonderful photos of it on flickr and plan to come back after a good rain to see it in all its glory.  Even with a small stream of water, it was still a beautiful place to sit and relax for a spell before heading back to the car.

Star Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 (this may go up if I go on a really wet day)

Difficulty: Easy -- although the scramble to the bottom of the falls is a little tricky

Footwear: I recommend trail shoes -- but tennis shoes would be fine

Kids: Except for very young kids this should be easy enough. May be a bigger challenge for the elderly.

Trail Guide: Tim Ernst's Arkansas Waterfalls book

 

The Ponds Loop

The Ponds Loop is a sort little trail (about a .4 mile loop) that is right off the road driving into the Southern part of Erbie (for the purposes of this blog I will differentiate south Erbie from north Erbie because the river crossing here is not always able to be crossed and definitely not always able to be crossed for those without a four-wheel drive).

The Loop starts just across the road from a little picnic area. The little route to the South Pond (pictured first with my lovely wife Michelle posing in front) is flat and wide and is actually handicap accessible. A short trek through the woods gets you to the North pond (secong picture). And then, it's another short little walk back to the parking area.

This little loop can also be added to the Buffalo River Trail -- Erbie to Ozark stretch.

This is an easy and scenic trail and great for people with young kids or for the elderly.

Distance: .4 miles

Difficulty Level:  Easy

Footwear: Anything will work

Children: Definitely

Guidebook: Tim Ernst - Buffalo River Hiking Trails

Time of Year: Winter/Spring/Early Summer (I imagine these ponds will dry up a lot by the end of summer and into the early fall).

Indian Creek Hike/Bushwack to Tunnel Cave Falls

  
The Indian Creek area is one of my favorite areas of Buffalo River National Park area.

The trail back to Indian Creek is not an official trail -- but it is pretty well traveled, and runs right along Indian Creek, so it's fairly easy to follow and almost impossible to get lost on. Just follow the creek.

To get to the trail, head out on the Buffalo River Trail out of Kyles Landing and head toward Steele Creek.  After a stretch you'll see a sign that points you toward Indian Creek.  At that point, you are no longer on a maintained trail.

The highlight of the trail is Tunnel Falls (I'll discuss it a bit more in a bit) -- a 31' high waterfall that pours out from a cave.

The trail follows Indian Creek out away from the Buffalo River.  When the water is high (like after a good rain) there are numberous volunteer waterfalls that appear along the creek area.  Some of the photos of these volunteer   
waterfalls and cascades appear on this page.

The trail crosses the creek 3 times on the way back to the falls.  This creek is usually passable - -but in times of high water (the best time to venture back to the falls) your feet may get wet. My one time back to this falls was after a very hard rain so my feet were very wet -- but it was well worth it.

As you get back to the back of the trail, you'll go up a steep stretch of trail that loops around high above the creek. It's a pretty scary stretch and a slip would be extremely bad.

You eventually reach Copperhead Falls. I think this is usually a pretty nice waterfall but the water was so high the day we went it ended up looking more like just a huge cascade.

At about 2.7 miles back you get to Tunnel Cave Falls. As I noted before, it's a 31' high waterfall that comes out from a   
cave on the side of the bluff and it flows into a beautiful blue pool of water. 

The second to last photo on the page is of Tunnel Cave Falls.

When the water is really flowing -- just beyond Tunnel Cave Falls (you'll be able to see it -- and hear it) is another cascade of water that comes pouring over the side of the ridge and has a series of large cascades down into the same creek as Tunnel Cave Falls. This waterfall (I don't know if it even has a name) is extremely impressive (that is me in the last photograph standing close to it in the last photograph of this post). 

Again, when we were there, there was a lot of water -- and the sound of all of the water flowing was an incredible sound -- to go along with this being, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful areas along the Buffalo River.

There is apparently more to see here -- but the "easy" way to see it used to be to climb through the Tunnel Cave to the other side but now that is closed (as are most of the caves in the area) because of disease that is killing the grey bats and it's best if humans leave well enough alone there. There is a "back way" to get there -- which involves climbing up a rope up a bluff, and scurring up more bluffs. But apparently it is extremely dangerous and I felt like it was best left to another day.

Hike Length: 5.4 miles

Difficulty: Moderate to Difficult

Best time of year: Winter and Spring when water is high

Footwear: Hiking Boots

Children: I wouldn't

Star Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Guidebook: Indian Creek Area in Tim Ernst's Buffalo River Hiking Trails Book

Scenes and highlights from the 2011 Jasper Elk Festival

A couple of weeks ago we attended our first ever Elk Festival in Jasper. In its 14th year, the Elk Festival celebrates the reintroduction of Elk into the Buffalo River Wilderness.

Now, I confess that I'm a big fan of small town festivals, but we had a great time.

 
During the day, we visited all of the 80 (I'm guessing) or so vendors that were there.  The booths covered a variety of different crafts:  jewelry, framing, pottery, flags, jellies and jams, hand-made turkey calls, etc -- along with many of the organizations that are helping maintain the area around the Buffalo River including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Friends of the Buffalo River.  We bought two wooden cutting boards (which I love) and Michelle bought a cute little hair stick thing that helps her keep her long hair off her shoulders when it's hot. We also plan to get a little custom framing done from the framing guy.  There were also a lot of activities for the kids too.

 
The highlight of the event (for me) was the Dutch oven cookoff.  For a couple of dollar donation, we got a bowl and wandered around to all of the booths tasting a sampling of their Dutch oven cooking.  I had no idea so many things could be made in a Dutch oven -- roasted pork and some cajun fare was excellent, but the big surprises for me were the breads, cheese cakes and other baked goods.  Yum!

 
After dinner we settled in for some live music.  I think the band name was Double Barrel but am not certain on that.  Regardless, it was a great show.  As the day became night, the fireworks began and the band played some patriotic songs in the background.

 
After the fireworks, we listened to a couple more songs before taking our extremely tired selves home for the evening.

The Elk Festival is officially on our "must attend" list for years to come -- and if you get a chance, I'd encourage you to do the same.

Wild Raspberries

 
So, this is our first summer at Grandma Stella's Homestead.  Last fall we had seen several wild blackberry plants on the property -- but last weekend we were greeted to quite the surprise.  As we were walking around our fields, we noticed several huge patches of bright red berries -- upon further inspection, they were wild raspberries.

 

So, we dedicated a good amount of time picking raspberries. We had quite the large bounty (below), so we froze some for later use, made several jars of Raspberry Jam, made smoothies, a tasty berry cobbler (we ate that for breakfast with yogurt a couple of mornings), put them over ice cream and ate them plain.

It was awesome.

Apparently there are wild raspberries growing along roads and fence lines throughout Arkansas -- they're a tasty and healthy treat and an exciting find for us at the Homestead. Yum. 

Our bounty: