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Report on my Lost Valley Hike from early January 2010
I wrote this article in 2010, but if you are planning a winter hike to Lost Valley in Newton County, you may find this information helpful.
With all of the places in Arkansas to hike, it’s hard to pick a favorite. But one place will always be at the top of my list and that is Lost Valley in the Boxley Valley. I have been making trips up to Lost Valley since 1969 and it has changed very little since my first trip. Most of my hikes in Lost Valley are in the Spring or Fall and I rarely make trips up to the area in the winter. But it can be a great place to photograph in the winter, especially when the various waterfalls of the valley freeze. When this occurs you have a chance to catch some rare and unique ice formations. Lost Valley is a box canyon and throughout it’s 1 mile or so length Clark Creek which runs through the valley creates many waterfalls, but the most important ones are towards the back of the valley and these are the Eden Falls complex. Eden Falls is actually a 3 part waterfall, lower Eden Falls, Cave Falls, and Upper Eden Falls. Most of the year, you will find water in Lower Eden Falls and Cave Falls, but the upper which is also the highest and most dramatic only runs after a major rain event and even then it won’t run very long. In the wintertime to maximize the best ice formations, you actually don’t have or want a high flow but instead you just need enough water to bounce off the surrounding rocks. The bouncing water as it freezes is what creates the ice formations.
On this winter day, the conditions were perfect for the ice formations, as the temperature was around 12 degrees and there was no wind blowing. Starting from the visitor center, I hiked up to the Jigsaw Blocks . The ground had a nice covering of old snow that had a hard ice coating. This made for a very bright shooting condition and while working the valley, I had to constantly check to make sure I was not getting blown highlights from the snow. I have always been drawn to the Jigsaw blocks and I have photographed it many times over the years. Most often Clark Creek is dry around the Jigsaw Blocks even in the Spring, so they tend to be a static study for me. In fact in 25 years of hiking up Lost Valley, I have only seen a good flow of water at the Jigsaw blocks 3 or 4 times. The best was in August of 2008 and the entire spring of 2009. You can work the blocks in many ways, I tend to prefer a head on shot like this one.
There was a great play of light and dark on the rocks that create the jigsaw pieces. This time of year, the sun is low in the sky so the shadows are quite dramatic. You can see Clark Creek on the left of the rocks and if you follow it upstream you will see the Natural Bridge. I was pleased to see that no one had walked around the rocks and left footprints. From here I walked on up to the Natural Bridge. Read the rest of this entry »
Richland Creek Hike and Update
The Big Bend on Richland Creek
I returned to Richland Creek last week. I had hoped that the USFS (U. S. Forest Service) had made some changes to Forest Service Road 1205 and reopened the campground, but sadly I found that this was not the case. It’s a sad thing to note that the U.S. can spend 16 billion to bail out GM (to no avail), but can’t take about 100K to fix up the road network to one of the most pristene parts of the Ozark National Forest and Richland Wilderness Area.
My last trip to Richland Creek was in late October 2008. I was hoping that all the water from the twin Hurricanes in August and early September would keep the water table high enough so that the waterfalls on Big and Long Devil’s creeks would stay up. Unfortunately, after the 1st week of September, Arkansas received no more rain and the creek didn’t hold.
Richland and it’s surrounding watersheds are to me some of the best unspoiled parts of Arkansas. Read the rest of this entry »
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.