Jeff's Arkansas Hiking Blog: January 2024

12/27/2023 - Bear Hollow Waterfalls (WF)

GPS Coordinates - (Latitude, Longitude, Elevation)

Parking Area: 35.72425, -93.94684

Baby Feral Hog Falls: 35.70034, -93.95236

Cascade 1: 35.69995, -93.95221

WF 2: 35.69961, -93.95273

Cascade 2: 35.70000, -93.95103

Cascade 3: 35.70011, -93.95019

The One We Almost Missed Falls: 35.70015, -93.94998

WF 4: 35.70016, -93.94983

WF 5: 35.70020, -93.94961

WF 6: 35.70049, -93.94873

Bear Hollow Falls: 35.70042, -93.94853

Cascade 4: 35.70036, -93.94819

Upper Slot Falls: 35.69982, -93.94598

Curved Slot Falls: 35.69976, -93.94568

Enclosure Falls: 35.70075, -93.94506

Cascade 5: 35.70305, -93.94573

Cascade 6: 35.70330, -93.94597

Jack White Falls: 35.70694, -93.94728

Markers:

Blue waypoints = Named WF

Black waypoints = Unnamed WF

Orange waypoints = Cascade

Car symbol = Parking area

Hiker symbol = ATV trail / Old road

Running Person symbol = Access point

Level of Difficulty: ATV trail is easy to moderate / Moderate bushwhack / GPS Recommended / 2/3rds of the hike is along an ATV trail and an Old road.

Hiking Statistics: Distance is 6.17 miles / Descent is 794 / Ascent is 798

My first time to this area was in 2019. My friend Rick and I were hiking down to Jack White falls and I looked at my GPS and suggested that we check out other parts of the area. We followed the ATV trail until we reached an older road to our left that Tim Ernst says to go down to get to Jack White Falls. We eventually reached a fork and decided to keep following the old road to the right and then we would come up by Jack White Falls. This was my first time bushwhacking with my friend so we stayed up the hill for a little while and didn't drop right into the hollow. Eventually, when we got closer, Rick seen a small WF and said that he had to go down to it. We both hiked down to the water and while he was taking photo's there, I decided to hike upstream some to see if we missed any and I found a nice WF. I told Rick and he hiked up to it. While he was video taping it, he said "The One We Almost Missed Falls", so it is named that. We found other nice ones while working our way down to the intersection where we would take a left and start working our way up to Jack White falls. I didn't mark all the way points that time so I needed to go back there. I recently lead a friend of mine to there in Dec of 2023. We parked at the coordinates provided. We hiked along the ATV trail until we reached the old road on our left at coordinates 35.70916, -93.95023, which is very easy to miss if you are not paying attention. We passed it and had to go back. We turned onto that and headed downhill along that old road. We eventually came to the fork where Jack White falls was to the left but we kept hiking along the old road to the right to reach another part of the hollow. We turned off the old road at coordinates 35.70145, -93.95271 and started bushwhacking down to the water. We came to the top of a waterfall pretty quickly. When I got down to the bottom and in front of it, I seen a young Feral Hog and pointed it out to my friend. We took pictures and decided to name it "Baby Feral Hog Falls". After we were done there, we continued downstream and just a little ways, water from 2 drainages met to form a nice cascade. Their is a WF up the other drainage but we did not go to it since my friend had to be at a certain place at a certain time. When we were done at the cascade, we continued hiking downstream. We passed by a couple of nice cascades before reaching the next WF. I didn't recognize it from the top since I'd seen it only from the bottom my first time there, but when I got down in front of it, I realized that's the WF Rick named in his video called "The One We Almost Missed Falls". I told my friend Gez who was hiking with me ahead of time about how Rick named one of the waterfalls and the story behind it. After we were done there, we continued hiking downstream and passed by 3 other WF's. One of them wasn't running much. Soon we came to the top of a WF that I had not named yet. We named it Bear Hollow Falls. We used the hills to our right to get to the bottom and in front of it. When we were done there, I looked at my GPS and could see that we were getting close to the fork but knew one of my favorite parts of the area was coming up at the bottom of the drainage we were in. We eventually reached the top of the WF at the beginning of this neat slot area. I ended up naming it Upper Slot Falls. We got down into the slot between the 2 WF's and spent time taking pictures and videos. We used the hills on the right of the top of the WF to get down into the slot. When we were done there, we crossed the water to get to the other side and used the hill on the left side to get down below and in front of the other WF. With how the slot curves above the falls, I decided to name it Curved Slot Falls. We took a break there before we headed up the drainage to our right from right in front of Curved Slot Falls. When we were ready to keep moving on, we started hiking up the drainage We quickly reached Enclosure Falls while working our way up. This is my favorite WF there. There's a little waterfall below it so you have to go over to the bluff to the right to get above the little one and then walk between the bluffs to be right in front of Enclosure falls. I provided a picture of the way to go to get above the small WF and right in front of Enclosure Falls. When we were done there, we had to back track some to get ourselves up above the bluff. We used the hills to our right at coordinates 35.70049, -93.94497. We eventually got up above the bluff and then worked our way to the right to get to the top of the WF and back into the drainage by the water. We passed by a couple of nice cascades while working our way upstream to Jack White Falls. We took a break there for a while. When we were ready to get back to our vehicles, we used the hills to the left of Jack White Falls to get ourselves above it and back onto the old road at coordinates 35.70703, -93.94768. Once we were back on the old road, we took a left and headed to the fork that we were at earlier in the road. We took the right and headed back up the hills along the old road. Once we reached the ATV trail, we took a right onto that and hiked along that back to our vehicles.