Last month we were down in this area with the plan of hiking to
waterfalls on Little Cow Creek. We
didn’t make it into Little Cow Creek that day, but instead checked out
some other cool stuff in the area. That
included Haw Creek Recreation Area in the Ozark National Forest, which is a
nice little campground with beautiful Haw Creek Falls right on the north edge
of the campground. Today we’re back at
Haw Creek Rec Area, this time we'll be hiking to Pack Rat Falls and nearby
Pam’s Grotto.
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Haw Creek
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First up is Pack Rat Falls, we park the car in the middle of the loop
campground at the restrooms. After a quick visit to Haw
Creek Falls, it’s only
about 100 feet to the falls and too awesome to pass up, so why not? Then over to the trailhead (of sorts) for Pack Rat which is at
the back of campsite #6 in the southeast corner of the
campground.
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side falls below Pack Rat
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This is a pretty good little
trail for a while. After passing some
stacked rocks I call the ‘goat pen’ we come to a little creek. Turning here we head upstream, from this point on, the ‘trail’ is pretty
spotty if at all. We crisscross the
creek as necessary passing a few small falls or cascades along the way, and a huge tree I think is a sycamore, or is it a beech.
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tree hugger
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It is a steady climb as we go around lots of boulders. But all in all, a fairly easy bushwhack, and soon we arrive at the base of Pack Rat Falls. The falls are flowing well today, so we take some pictures and have a little break while taking in the serenity of
this great place before going back. Up a steep hill on the east side of the creek we can see a faint trail
going up to Upper Pack Rat Falls, but we pass on this one, maybe next
time, we want to have plenty of time and energy for
Pam’s Grotto. |
Pack Rat Falls
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Back down at the campground we pull out of Haw Creek Rec Area, north
(right) on Highway 123, and in less than a half mile is a pull off on the right then downhill to a nice campsite on Haw Creek. This is the parking area and beginning for our
hike to Pam’s Grotto. Crossing the
highway, we locate the trail north of a small creek and head up the hill. |
'route' to Pam's Grotto
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The trail is pretty steep but at least the trial is in good shape. After a couple switchbacks we come to the
base of the bluffs. This area is also
a popular rock-climbing destination, we can see why, these bluffs are fantastic. From here the trail follows the bluffline
back towards the creek and stays mostly level for a while.
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Bluff near Pam's Grotto
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We round the corner of the bluffs and head down into the creek
drainage. ‘Down’ being the key word
here, it’s a steep slope but at least not very far. The hike levels out again but the bluffs
have crumbled quite a bit leaving large sharp rocks all over the place. We climb through these rocks keeping close to
the bluffline, some places are pretty tight, but we scramble through. Then behind some huge house sized rocks enter into Pam’s Grotto. |
Pam's Grotto Falls
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Is this what would be called a true grotto?
Set in the head of a box canyon, with a bluffline wrapping around behind
with a waterfall plunging off the top.
The force of the water over the millennia having carved out a large
shelter cave, which besides shelter, also provides a dry passage behind the
falls to the other side of the canyon.
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more bluffs
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A
true grotto maybe, and truly an amazingly beautiful place. Pam’s Grotto Falls has lots of water flowing today and along with the recently leafed out umbrella magnolia
trees make this an awesome conclusion to a great day. After lots of picture taking and a little rest, we hike out the way we
came in. |
behind the fall at Pam's Grotto
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Today's visit to both Pack Rat Falls and Pam’s Grotto were just great, the total hiking distance was only 2.2 miles
with an elevation gain of around 500 feet.
Although there were some steep and rugged sections, overall it isn’t a
difficult hike. We took our time and had
a good time. That’s the way to do it!
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in the grotto
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Haw Creek Recreation
Area: Statistics Chart 17 The entrance off Highway 123 has a big sign and is located about 1.6 miles
south of the narrow bridge over Big Piney Creek at Fort Douglas or 12.8 miles
from the intersection in Pelsor of Highway 7/123. If coming from the south Haw Creek Rec. Area
is about 8.9 miles from the bridge over Little Piney Creek or 14.6 miles from
the intersection of Highway 123/164 at Hagarville. |
base map before fair use alterations is property of ArcGIS-
-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License
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