Exploring Northwest Arkansas

After a long rain...

One of the things I love most about the Buffalo River Valley is the look it has after a full day's rain as the clouds/vapor/steam rise up above the valley. It's nearly impossible to photograph to get the full effect, but we went out to make an attempt at it after a full day's rain a couple weeks ago. Hopefully you'll get a feel for what I mean.

Meanwhile, we also got to see something I'd never seen before, which was the buzzards that usually roam the bluffs of the valley drying off their wings after the rain. There were probably 25 of them in two dead trees -- all with their wings spread out drying them off.

Fall Color

I love the fall color in Arkansas. While it may not have the same vibrancy as you get in New England, and Wisconsin, the colors and views are still amazing. When matched with the outstanding views, the Elk rut, and the perfect temperatures for hiking -- it makes for an incredible time to visit the Buffalo River area. The following are just a few of the pics we took last week. The colors should be at their peak over the next 10 days or so.

This picture was taken near Steel Creek.

Roark Bluff

From the Ponca low water bridge

Young bull in front of a barn in the Boxley Valley.

Many of my favorite hiking trails this time of year include overlook trails, such as Pedestal Rocks, Sam's Throne, Old Erbie Loop Hike, McFarrin Point, or Hawksbill Crag. There are also some fantastic scenic drives -- including along Highway 7 and the drive to Sam's Throne.

But the reality is that the colors are everywhere, and you really can't go wrong. And remember, the best of the fall color isn't always seen by looking up -- sometimes it's seen by looking down -- as evidenced by this fantastic mossy area we saw on the Buffalo River Trail from Ponca to Steel Creek.

Elk Rut in the Boxley Valley -- 2012

With October comes the Elk Rut -- the annual mating ritual of the Buffalo River Elk. And with the rut, comes an influx of tourists from around the midwest to see the sights and sounds of the run.

The simplest place to see the elk is in the Boxley Valley -- where they tend to congregate in the early morning and late evening near the highway between Ponca and Boxley. In the evening you can hear the haunting bugles of the male elk echoing throughout the valley.

The elk are pretty easily seen from the road, but a decent pair of binoculars and a 200mm zoom lense can make a huge difference in improving your experience.

Below are a few of the sights from our trip about 10 days ago.

Waterfall areas on Buffalo River Trail, Ponca to Steel Creek

Earlier this year, I posted some pretty detailed information about the hike along the Buffalo River Trail from Ponca to Steel Creek. You can the entire trail notes here.

In that post I mentioned several water run-off areas that I thought would make pretty spectacular water features during times of high water.

Last weekend the Buffalo River Valley saw several inches of rain so we set out to check my gut on  these water run-off areas – and they didn’t disappoint.

There are several along this stretch of trail – all are within about the first mile of this stretch of trail. So after a good rain, don’t hesitate to head out along this stretch of trail and see some of the
impressive water features.

One word of caution though, climbing up to the top falls here will take a fair amount of scrambling, and if the water's running well, that means it's probably plenty muddy as well. So be careful, and be smart, and don't do more than you feel comfortable doing. It looks pretty nice even if you never leave the trail.

 

Old Boxley Grist Mill

The Old Boxley Mill is someplace I’ve heard about for years, but I’d never been, so this past weekend we took the opportunity to go explore the old mill.

The Mill itself is just off Highway 43, just a few miles east of the junction to Highway 21 and is generally NOT open to the public, but the National Parks Service does open it up every October on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for a few hours each day (10a-1p) for public viewing.

The three-story mill was built in 1869 by Robert Villines.

While up until this point, most grist mills were built on rivers, and reliant on seasonal water supplies, the mill in Boxley used a mill pond that was created by impounding a nearby spring so water was available year around.

The mill was used for 80 years, under three different generations of Villines. At its peak the milling capacity was about 200 pounds of meal per hour.

By the late 1950s, demand for meal began to decrease as store-bought bread became more popular and after a flood damaged the mill, Clyde Villines (the 3^rd generation owner) shut down the mill.

After years of falling in disrepair, the mill eventually was turned over to the National Parks Service and was entered into the National Historic Register of Historic Places in 1975.

In 1984, the National Parks service began restoring the old mill – but money is always tight and restoration was not complete. However, the Gorgas Science Foundation saw the innovation in the mill and also helped to renovate the old mill.

Today, the first floor renovation is complete and you can see an old pulley system, the old turbine, a couple of flour bins, the hopper where mill was poured in before it was ground and many bins that carried ingredients between floors. 

If you get a chance to check out the mill, it’s worth the trip to check out a little piece of rural American History. And if you go, and the mill is open, remember to bring a flashlight. There is no electricity in the mill so it can get pretty dark at times.

Distance:  It’s a short walk from the parking area that is just off the highway.

Difficulty: Easy

Footwear: Whatever you have on

Stars: 3.5, out of a possible 5.

Kids: Definitely

Old Boxley Church, Walnut Grove Cemetary

The Buffalo River Valley is full of history -- of early settlers that settled in the area for its lush natural resources and fresh water supply.

And many of the best historical sites are easily accessible in the Boxley Valley. 

One of these is the old Boxley Church. 

The church building was built around 1877 and served as both a church and a school. The school later consolidated with the Jasper School District, but the church remained. While a new church was built right next door, the old church remains in use as a community center.

Last summer, the community worked really hard to raise money to remodel the old church building -- spending about $75,0000 on the renovations. While the first floor remains with a lot of the historic charm -- with the old original hardwood floor and chalkboards still in place. The upstairs has been remodeled. The building still has no indoor plumming -- just as it was when it was constructed.

The building is a really cool look at a history that has long since past --but the history remains to remind us of where we've come from and a look at how we've gotten here.

Next door to the church is the old Walnut Grove Cemetary -- and both sit in just a fantastically beautiful location in the river valley with high bluffs surrounding the area. Both are well worth a quick stop off of the highway in Boxley to take a look around.

Withrow Springs State Park - War Eagle Trail

As far as Arkansas State Parks go, Withrow Springs isn’t the biggest at 786 acres, nor does it have the spectacular features and trail systems of parks like Pinnacle Mountain, Petit Jean and Mt. Nebo, but it’s a quiet little park with plenty of things for people to do and see.

The park itself is on Highway 23 about 20 miles south of Eureka Springs and 5 minutes North of Huntsville (so take the opportunity to eat at Granny's Cafe) – and pretty easy to get to.

The park itself is named after Withrow Spring (above) – which flows in from out of a hillside and forms a small creek that flows along the main entrance of the park.   There are a lot of little picnic spots along this stretch of creek that are great for a family outing.

The park itself has a swimming pool, baseball fields, tennis courts, a lot of picnic sites and some really great campsites. There are also three short hiking trails that make up about 4 ½ miles of trails that when you go out and back can fill a full day of hiking.

The most popular of the hiking trails is the War Eagle trail – so this is the one we took. The trail itself is only officially about 1 mile long, but you need to go out and back, so it’s a two mile round-trip. If you add a little spur from the visitor cemter to the trail head it makes itt about 3 miles round trip – and that’s the route we’re going to take today.

The official trail head is right off of Highway 23, and well -marked very near the park entrance. But we started across the road from the visitor’s center inside the park. Park in either of the two parking spots by the visitors center and then cross the road to the two picnic areas and there is a sign that points the way to War Eagle Trail.  Enter the woods at the sign.

The trail heads up into the woods on some stone steps and then levels out a bit. You eventually meet up with a fence line that will follow you along your right for a bit until the trail dips back down the hill into a little mowed field and follows a service road for a few hundred yards until you hit a gravel road.  This part of the trail isn’t officially part of the War Eagle Trail, but we saw a lot of wildlife along the trail including several species of lizards, a snake, deer and a pack of armadillo.

When you get to the gravel road (which, I’m guessing is about .4 miles, turn left, and walk along the road for a bit until you get the highway and another gravel road to your right and take that – this is the official War Eagle Trail trailhead.  From here, the trail heads off to the left under the bridge – it’s an easy to follow trail, but it’s strangely easy to miss because there is another trail of sorts that heads down to War Eagle Creek on the right that seems like the trail, but isn't, and just goes down to the creek.

Once on the trail, head out under the bridge. Once under the bridge, some stairs climb up to the ridge and you’ll be overlooking War Eagle Creek (the namesake of the trail). You’ll pretty much follow this ridge along the creek most of the way. The trail stays mostly level, crosses across some rocky bluffs, and then back to dirt path again. It’s very easy to follow. Eventually you’ll hit a small cave, then you continue on a few hundred yards and you’ll find an even bigger cave. This is War Eagle Cave – and you can hear a stream running through it. This cave, like most wild caves in Arkansas, is closed to public use due to white nose syndrome which is negatively impacting the gray bats that inhabit these caves.

At the cave, you’ll have to scramble up the hill and over the top of the cave and then back down on the bench. This next stretch of trail is the best part of the whole trail as it follows along a natural rock bench. They have put up a safety fence along here since it'd be quite a tumble into the creek -- but this is a really nice little stretch of the trail.

Shortly past this stretch the trail heads back off into the woods and then curves off to the left where it eventually arrives at Crossbow Pavilion. Here, you can either head back, or cross the highway and hit a trail that heads off toward the campsites and the Dogwood Trail.  For us, we headed back the way we came.

War Eagle Trail

Distance: 2 miles round trip, about 3 miles if you include the stretch from the visitors center to the trailhead.

Difficulty: Easy-to-moderate

Footwear: Trail runners or tennis shoes

Map/Guidebook: Trail maps are available at the Park Visitor’s Center, or probably through the state park service.

Kids: I wouldn’t take very young children, but this is great for older children.

Star rating: 3 out of 5

Mt. Nebo State Park - Rim Trail

Arkansas has earned the reputation as “The Natural State” because of the beautiful natural sites around the state. And as a part of this reputation, Arkansas has established an outstanding State Park system that is diverse in the natural beauty they provide.

One of the crown jewels of the state park system is Mount Nebo State Park. The park was established in 1935 – with many of the trails and cabins dating back to this time with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) (part of Roosevelt’s “New Deal” during the Great Depression).

First, the park is located 7 miles south of the community of Dardenelle on Highway 155. Take 7 highway south from wherever, through Russellville, through Dardenelle and then turn left on 155 (the road is well marked). Hwy 155 up Mount Nebo is VERY steep, and very curvy, so be prepared and don’t bring a long trailer.

At the top of the Mountain, there are campsites, cabins that can be rented, private residences, a pool, tennis courts, playground equipment, a basketball court and a great little visitor’s center with several snakes on hand to so you can learn about the native species. You can also often catch the sight of hang gliders from the visitor’s center as it is a frequent launch point. The park also offers 360 views of the countryside which also means fantastic views of the sunrise and sunset (at sites aptly names Sunrise Point and Sunset Point).

The park also boasts over 14 miles of hiking trails, all of which connect that can make for a wide variety of routes, distances and difficulty levels. So you can get oriented, there are two main trails here that go around the entire mountain. The Bench Trail, is four miles long and is part way down the mountain. It’s smooth, soft and easy trail and great for taking the dogs or for mountain-biking and also where the majority of the Springs on the mountain are located. Further up the mountain is the Rim Trail. It is 3 ½ miles long, and more rugged in places, but has outstanding views all the way around the mountain – many of them views of Lake Dardenelle. I had a hard time finding a good map online to show how this lays out, so I've scanned in the one we got at the park office for you. 

Then, most of the other trails are then vertical trails that essentially connect the two main trails – often near areas natural springs or the park’s namesake seasonal waterfall, Nebo Falls.  These trails, the Nebo Step Trail, Nebo Springs Trail, Varnall Springs Trail and Gum Springs Trail are all ½ to ¾ mile in length but VERY challenging as they go nearly straight up or down depending on which way you’re headed. The other trail in the park is the Summit Park Trail – a historical trail that has a great stone bridge, remains of an old hotel that once stood here and a man-made lake.

Because of all of this, the most popular is the Rim Trail – so this is the one we took while there. 

There are a lot of access points to the Rim Trail, but for the purpose of our hike we left from the Visitor’s Center (well marked in the first picture above). So we started off in back of the visitor’s center, walked down a flight of stone stairs (right next to the hang-glider launch spot) and were off. When you get to the bottom of the steps, we turned right, to go clockwise around the mountain (this means you’ll come in from the left when you return). Going clockwise allowed us to get the most difficult portion of the trail out of the way first, while we were still fresh.

 

The trail starts of very tough, up and down several sets of stone stairs, many of which were probably first put in place by the CCC. This part of the trail is pretty rough, and probably not suitable for youngsters or dogs. The trail follows along several great bluff-lines to your right and great view with some great overlooks to your left. I’m going to note here that this portion of the trail was pretty rough for us. It was August, and hot, and we hiked at mid-day, and while a breeze is common on top of the mountain, we were shielded from it during this stretch and the rocks were just catching the afternoon sun and accelerating the heat – so, avoid this if you can.

During this stretch of the trail you also pass the Nebo Steps Trail and Nebo Springs Trail. Nebo Springs sounds like a great area but we ran out of time and are going to do this the next time back. Eventually, the trail passes the Swimming Pool and then the campground (with GREAT campsites) before crossing HWY 155 and darting back into the woods again. It is about here that the trail becomes less rugged and is easier hiking.

The next stretch took us along a great bluffline, and many great views, and had it not been so hot, this probably would have been my favorite stretch. You’ll pass by the Varnall Springs Trail and as you round the bend you’ll see a trail that goes up to your right, this will take you up to Sunrise Point. We walked up, checked it out, and had a quick lunch on one of the picnic tables up there. This would also be a potential starting point for the trail.

We continued back along the trail, past several private homes and a couple of the state park cabins. The trail then passes Gum Springs Trail (there is a Gazebo at the top of this trail, and is another trail head) and then on a really nice, flat, soft stretch of trail that goes along a couple more cabins.

At a point here, the trail then hits the Summit Park Trail – at that point you have to decide which part of the trail you want to follow to connect back with the Rim Trail. To the left, you go down some more stairs and get to see Fern Lake and Darling Springs, but we decided to stay on the high road.

We passed Lover’s Leap (a couple of rocks that overhang the valley with great views of the surrounding country side, and the old stone remains of an old hotel that used to be here that burned down in the 1920s. We crossed the stone bridge, expertly built by the CCC and then a series of cabins before rejoining the Rim Trail.

The remaining part of the trail is very smooth and scenic and goes out to Sunset Point (another potential trailhead) and FANTASTIC views of Lake Dardenelle. It then curls around for a short trek back to the visitor’s center, for a full hike of 3.5 miles and a full loop around the mountain top.

Distance: 3.5 miles

Difficulty Level: Moderate – although varies from very easy to pretty strenuous in places

Footwear: Trail Runners are fine, although you may prefer hiking shoes on rougher stretches.

Kids: While Most of the trail is suitable for youngsters, the stretch between the visitor’s center and Hwy 155 may not be. You may feel more comfortable just following the road for that stretch if little ones, elderly or pets are involved.

Time of year: Will be excellent year around, but probably avoid the heat of the day in the heart of summer.

Star Rating: 4.5 out of 5