Bill's Branch & North Fork Saline River

Hike Features:

Date:  March 26, 2002
State: Arkansas
County: Saline
Location: Off Highway 9, on forest road south of Winona Scenic Drive. 
Length of hike shown:  ~ 5 miles
Trail: Off-trail hike.  There are old road traces that are 'trail like', but this is NOT a maintained trail.  Requires crossing Bill's Branch creek numerous times. These are wet crossings after high rains, otherwise no problem.
GPS:  Parking area at trailhead: 516177.83E  3853143.81N 15S (UTM WGS84)
Trail fork where Bills Branch meets Saline River: 514923.85E  3854401.81N 15S (UTM WGS84)

 21 photos of this hike in photo gallery
Reaching Trailhead: I got there from Little Rock by driving Hwy 10 west to Williams Junction, turning south on HWY 9 for a few miles, turning west on Winona Scenic Drive (sign is destroyed now), going about 4 miles  to the next intersection, turn left and go about 3-4 miles until the road crosses the North Fork of the Saline River.  Parked just south of the river. 

Description of hike: The trail was not obvious.  The parking is south of the river (just a few feet) and east of the road.  I crossed the road west and looked for an old road between the river and the adjacent hill.  After bushwacking into the woods for maybe 100 feet, the road was found.  The old road here makes a great route into this area.  It is even blazed in places with old blue paint blazes. The walk along the road is through nice open woods and its about 1.2 miles to the fork where Bills' Branch and the Saline River converge.  I went left at that point and hiked up Bill's branch for another 0.8 - 1 mile.  The old road continues here but is less distinct in places.  There are some nice small bluffs along the creek and some small, interesting side creeks coming in from the south.  At about 2 miles from the start, I saw an old road heading up the hill to the north and left the creek.  This old forest road (now abandoned) heads over the hill (see map) and follows a gully down to the Saline River (about 3.2 miles from start).   I took a small detour from this point and walked UPSTREAM along the river to a sharp bend (can see it on the map).  Looks like there was an old trail crossing here, again with blue blazes.  Then, turned around and headed downstream along the river, following an old road trace.  Basically, I just followed the river back to where the trail meets up again with the route in (confluence of Bill's Branch and the Saline River).  From there its about a mile back to the car.

Notes/comments: This is a great hike.  There are some small (very small) waterfalls along Bill's branch; just 4-5 feet high but nice.  In spring the wildflowers are spectacular.  I have no idea why parts of this are blazed.  I suspect that the Ouachita Trail used to go this way and was later re-routed, but I'm just guessing.  As seen on the map, on top of the mountain it is possible to walk out to a nice promontory and view the valley to the southeast from a sort of cliff.

Navigation: I used a GPS.  Since 2002 I've been back here many times and no longer need a GPS.  However, I think it was helpful the first time I hiked this.

Cautions: When the water is up, like after heavy rains, it is not possible to cross the river (the old road crosses the river).  However, it is possible to scramble along the west side of the river and still make this loop.  I tried this hike later after very heavy rains and found it impossible to cross Bill's Branch without getting wet.  Another consideration is that this hike is located in a designated turkey hunting area.  Something worth keeping in mind during turkey season.