Ouachita Trail (section 08) mile 183.1 to 184

Hike Features:

State: Arkansas
County: Perry
Location: Off Highway 10, on Brown Creek forest road. 
Length of hike shown:  ~ 2 miles
Trail: Part bushwhack (off trail) and part on trail.
GPS: 512140.40E  3858487.19N 15S (UTM WGS84) (OT crossing of forest road)


 7 photos in OHJ Photo Gallery
Reaching Trailhead: We drove out HWY 10 from Little Rock, past Williams Junction until we reached the sign to turn left for Lake Sylvia.  A few miles down that road brought us to a dirt road (going off to the right) called Brown Creek road (or something like that).  We went down Brown Creek road until 512717.91E  3858502.47N 15S (UTM GPS coordinates, WGS84, labeled "start" on map).  

Description of hike: I'm a little ambivalent about putting these hikes on the web.  This off-trail hike goes to a wonderful waterfall under a bluff. Its really more of a cascade than a true waterfall.  The cascade height is not impressive (maybe 10 feet), but the place is a gushing, roaring vortex during big rains.  Great place.  During times of lesser rains, its still nice.  My ambivalence is about publicizing the location of these places.  On the one hand, it would be bad to see them trampled by the masses.  On the other hand, people who really care need to know that these gems are there so they can help protect these areas.
 
Anyway, we parked at the starting point (see above, map).  From there we hiked up the west side of the creek, which was a surging torrent on January 14, 2007 after 3 days of rain. There is no trail but its easy to follow the creek, staying to the west.  Some rock scrambling is necessary.  After scrambling over an east-west running rock dyke, we reached an old road trace that follows the creek up to the falls.  It's overgrown (of course) and has numerous fallen trees, but it was easy to follow.  After a quarter of a mile or so we reached the falls.  There is a large bluff (overhang) where 2 streams converge.  The streams drop under the cliff in a cascade of swirling water.  On a day like today, when the water is flowing 10+, its an impressive place.  It was pouring rain during the whole hike, with low-hanging clouds, fog, gushing water everywhere... really fantastic atmosphere.  Rainy days are my personal favorite for hiking.

After hanging around the falls for a bit, we decided to continue on up the mountain.  As seen on the map, the waterfall area is just northeast of North Fork Pinnacle and the hillsides are steep and rocky.  There are some 'boulder fields' that aren't really a barrier but are not easy to walk across.  Anyway, I knew that the OT was on the ridge top, from previous hikes in this area.  I've spent 100's of hours hiking off trail here.  So we hiked on up to the ridge to catch the OT.  From there it was a nice stroll back to the road.  There are two more nice waterfalls just to the west.

When we reached the road we were curious to see what SF Brown Creek looked like.  It was a raging torrent.  The OT bridge was nearly underwater.  I had never seen the water quite so high here.  From there it was a brief quarter mile or so back to the car.  We were also curious to see what the low-water ford across Brown Creek looked like (see photo). 

Cautions:  The off-trail hike to the falls is easy but there is a small bit of rock scrambling.  There are also a lot of briars in summer.  The is best as a winter hike, preferably after big rains.  The other caution is to treat the falls area with great care.

Where are the photos of the falls?  Why aren't there any pictures of the cascade?   It was pouring rain from the time we started and during the whole time at the cascade.  I forgot my umbrella (which I usually take for keep the rain off the camera on rainy days).  Simple as that. There are other photos of this place that I'll link to later.

Hikers: mec, sb, jc