Richland Creek Hike
Shaw's Runout in the early morning at Richland Creek.
I had hoped that more rainfall would have occurred in the later part of September so that Richland and other creeks would be at a higher level in October. It has been 2 years now since there was good water in Richland Creek during fall.
All the way up HWY 7, I noticed that the colors seemed rather muted which is the same way they have appeared around Little Rock. The good news is the Forest Service Road 1205 is still in very good shape all the way down to the bridge over Richland Creek. I had been worried that since the campground was now closed, the routine maintenance on 1205 past Dicky Junction would now be continued. Since the large landslide that occurred on 1205 south of Richland not much has been done to fix 1205 south of Richland Creek campground.
Richland Creek itself has had a hard year as there were two major floods approaching 20,000 CFS on it during the Spring and then one other major flood after Hurricane Gustave saturated Arkansas with rain. The signs of the high water are all along the creek either in the form of small contained landslides or huge trees that were pushed down and have washed up on the bank. All of the rocks were totally scrubbed clean of most of the lichens during the spring floods but these in time will grow back.
I have been hiking in from the parking area on the North side of the Campground bridge. This makes for a tad longer hike, but you also take in some great maple trees along the creek near Maytag rapid. The creek was running at around 8 CFS which is a very low level. At this low level, I chose not to go all the way up to Twin Falls since there would be almost now water coming over the falls.
This day I worked my way up the creek to Bill’s Thrill Rapid and then setup. As was the case in 2006, the trees on one side of the creek had already hit the prime color stages and dropped their leaves and the trees, mainly sweetgums, on the right side of the creek had only begun to change colors. This is a favorite spot of mine due to the formation of large rocks in the creek bed which offers many angles to shoot, both up and downstream. There were a lot of clouds coming over the creek this day and it made for some tricky shooting. The fall colors always seem to pop more when the sun is shinning on them.
After working the Bills Thrill area, I then headed back down the creek and stopped at several different spots. I skipped many of my favorite spots since the water level was so low. The day ended at Shaws folly rapid, which really took some abuse in the Springtime floods. Several of the larger trees that used to help frame this area on the creek were totally broken off at the trunks and all that is left are the stumps. The water made allowed for some very nice close up shots one of which I have featured in this review.
The day was starting to wind down so I didn’t head on over to Falling Water Creek. This is still one of the best creeks to hike down in the fall, but again the water levels would have been very questionable.
The Stack rock area will most likely be perfect in the next 2 weeks and Sam’s Throne should start to peak in color in the next 10 days or so.
Tags: Arkansas, Bill's Thrill Rapid, Fall, Hiking, Maple, Maytag Rapid, Richland Creek, Sweetgum
