This morning we’re on our way to Long Ridge for a hike along an amazing bluff with shelters, caves, bear cracks and more. In Cowell we turn right on the dirt road south off Scenic
Highway 7 that circles around behind the cemetery. Then turn right again and head south on Taylor Ridge Road which starts out pretty good, even past the parking spot for Lonesome Hollow.
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split boulder
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But after passing through the National Forest boundary gate the road gets worse in a hurry.
It’s not that rough but has a few mud holes, is narrow in places and a little
overgrown. Actually, it's more of an ATV trail than a road, we drive on slowly passing a few possible parking spots along the way. When the road begins a gradual descent, we find a parking spot.
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Long Ridge Crevice
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After parking we continue down the road/ATV
trail. The trail continues downhill and
curves around to the left at the base of the bluffline. On our right (south) is a huge boulder that has
split in the middle. Not far past this
rock the ATV trail turns to the south and down the mountain.
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entrance to the crevice
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This is where we leave the ‘road’ and begin a bushwhack along the base of the bluffs.
After about a hundred yards we come to a tall narrow
opening in the bluff. This is the
entrance into the Long Ridge Crevice.
Once inside this long crevice goes straight back to the west maybe 400
feet. About halfway there is a zigzag turn
left then right, where it gets a little narrow.
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bluffline
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Inside Long Ridge Crevice is a lot of green moss and ferns on the beautiful smooth rock walls, also a few trees trying to
survive in the limited sunlight. This place
is really unique, kind of like a cave with no roof, or a bear crack without elevation change. The crevice dead ends though, so it’s
back out the way we came. |
deep inside Long Ridge Crevice
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Once out of Long Ridge Crevice we continue east along the bluff and soon come
to a small cave. We keep heading east
then around a short corner of sorts, and above us is a natural arch with two
windows through it. It’s difficult to
get a good look at it from below so we back up around the ‘corner’ and up a
steep hillside just far enough to view the double opening arch from above.
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two windows
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While we’re here we also notice this steep
slope could be climbed up and out. A good ‘bail-out’ exit so to speak, if you wanted to shorten the hike. But don't do that, you'll miss the best caves yet to come. We head
back down and around the corner, continuing east. Just past the Double Arch is another little cave,
then another.
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Cave 13
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All these caves so far
have been nice but small, only maybe fifteen or twenty feet deep. Here the bluffline opens up into a little box
canyon with a 12-15 foot waterfall at its head.
Today with only a trickle it isn’t too impressive, but we both agree
with some rain this one would look great.
On the way back down out of the box canyon we notice another waterfall
off the lower bluff. This one is
completely dry. We’ll just have to come
back after some rain. |
inside cave 5
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We keep going along the bluffs and soon come to another small cave, then
another small shelter. Just beyond we
see yet another cave opening, this one looks bigger! Yes, this is the largest cave so far, and has three entrances, various
chambers and passages inside. None of
the caves here are very deep, you don’t really need a flashlight.
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Cave 13 main entrance
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The thing I like most, in all caves, is
the colors of the smooth cave walls.
They really do have a full palette of color. The show that nature puts on (anywhere you
look) just blows me away. On this hike ‘mother
nature’ saved the best for last, just past Three Door Cave (Shelter
13) the bluffline ends and we climb the easy route back to the top. |
cave 8
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Up the hill then back (west) along the top of the bluff is easy hiking
through the woods. Along the way, higher
up in the same little drainage where the other two waterfalls were, we find a
third fall. This one only about 8 feet
tall and again dry today. A little over
a quarter mile farther we come to the road (ATV trail) and turn north back to
the car.
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in cave 13
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This was a great little hike, even though most of the hike is a
‘bushwhack’ the woods on top are wide open and easy hiking. Along the base of the bluff was also pretty
easy going, with only a few places where the ‘jungle’ was a little thick. Just
over 2 miles total with a couple steep areas but nothing too steep, we had a
great time today in the Ozark National Forest, and will be back, maybe next
time after a good rainstorm.
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early fall in the Ozarks
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Long Ridge Bluffs: Statistics Chart 28 From the back side of
the Cowel Cemetery at the intersection of NC7120 and FR1253 aka Taylor Ridge
Road follow FR1253 about 2 miles south to the forest service gate at parking
area 1, or if the gates open continue another 1.3 miles to parking area 2 which
is the best parking spot. FR1253
continues and parking area 3 is another tenth of a mile, but of course the
further south you go from the gate the worse the road gets travel at your own discretion.
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| base map before fair use alterations is property of USFS Forest Service-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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