We’ve been going to the Richland Creek Wilderness for years and had
never heard of ‘Sandstone Castles’. It must have been sometime back in 2016, in
the back of Ken Smith’s Buffalo River Handbook I stumbled on the address for
the Ozark Society’s website. I decided
to check it out and found that their next scheduled hike was going to someplace
called ‘The Sandstone Castles in Richland Creek Wilderness’.
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above the Castles
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That got my curiosity up, I 'googled' Sandstone
Castles, not much came up other than a blog post on a site called ‘Ricks
Hiking Blog’. In that blog post Rick guides Chuck Dovish (Exploring Arkansas on PBS) to the 'Castles' and since then I have
become an avid follower of Rick Henry’s blog. I credit him for pointing me
towards many others whom I frequently rely on for hiking information, including John Moore, Patrick Caple, Brian Emfinger, Danny Hale, and others. |
above Sandstone Castles
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Today we’re finally going to Sandstone Castles. I drive right past the parking area, not sure
if that's it or not. Once I realize,
yes that had to be the spot, we turn around in a driveway at a group of
mailboxes just west of Iceledo Gap. A
woman is walking down the driveway to check the mail, so I wait to ask directions and she replies, “Sandstone
Castle? Never heard of it.” …Ok then,
guess I’m not the only one, and she lives right next to the place. We go back and park off the road under the
power lines right across from the trailhead (a rock cairn).* |
old rock wall
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At the trailhead we hike uphill on an old road trace. Much of the hike today is on old roads, this
first section is a little steep but not too bad, just some ruts from years of washouts. The trail soon
improves as it levels out and follows a fence line south, which is the boundary for the Richland Creek Wilderness and as such there are no ‘official’ trails. There isn’t supposed to be any trail maintenance either, but as we know old roads make great trails through the wilderness. |
in a 'room'
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Anyway, we soon come to an intersection of
sorts. There’s even a homemade sign
someone nailed to a tree here pointing out the direction of the trail, a left
turn here takes us out onto Big Middle Ridge.
Staying up on the ridge there isn’t much elevation change all the way to
the castles, just gently up and down.
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homemade sign
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It
is about 2 miles from here to Sandstone Castles, most of the way the trail is pretty easy to
follow. But it does fade away once in a
while making a GPS device helpful. Like
I said much of the hike is on old roads, that too helps us from getting
lost. The road was here for the people
who once lived on this remote ridge, we pass by a few manmade rock walls along with a couple old home sites. |
another rock wall
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These help to keep
the hike interesting, we soon come to a low natural rock wall feature that
leads us up a little rise first north then around to the east and a small
mostly dried up swamp, which is unusual up on a ridge like this. Once past the swamp the tree cover thickens up and just ahead it
appears we are coming to the top of a bluff. |
in the castle
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Sure enough, we’re on top of the bluff with a gorgeous view down into
the Big Devils Fork valley to the east.
From here we back off the edge of the bluff a little and head south
maybe 150-200 yards to a bluffline break that gets us down to the level of Sandstone Castles. Here the view down below
is of Long Devils Fork south of us, and here are the ‘Castles’ to our left and
right.
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small shelter
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Sandstone Castles are five or
more shallow cave type shelters called ‘rooms’ by many. Most are pretty small, but a couple are big
enough to contain multiple rooms.
All contain beautifully sculptured rock walls and interesting patterns of
erosion on both walls and ceilings. Also, the large Natural Arch is one of the highlights of Sandstone Castle. |
approaching the Arch from the east
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We explore the Castle area for almost an hour
including the smaller rooms at the West Castles area and have a little lunch
break, then decide to see if we can find the trail that leads down the ridge to
Twin Falls at the bottom of Big Middle Ridge, where Big Devil and Long Devil meet to form Devil’s
Fork. |
Sandstone Castles natural arch
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Well, that trail is easy enough to find but we have no desire to hike
all the way down to Twin Falls today. Instead, we head up and back out to the ridgetop swamp.
From there we make our way along the ridge all the way back to the
car. Sandstone Castle is amazing, and the
views of the Devil’s Forks are pretty awesome too.
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through the Arch
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It’s a pretty long hike but
an easy one without a lot of climbing.
We enjoyed every minute of this hike, and I know we’ll come
back. Today we hiked just under 6 miles
and a total elevation gain just over 730 feet. I’ll admit, by the
end of the day my back and knees were pretty sore. Next time maybe we’ll find the East Castle or
maybe hike down the mountain to Jim Bob and Twin Falls, now that would really be a ‘trek’. |
Sandstone Castles
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Sandstone Castles: Statistics Chart 34 There are so many ways to get to Richland Creek Wilderness, it just depends on where you’re coming from, I won’t get into detailed directions to the Wilderness. But from the 3-way intersection Bass is north on NC5070, Moore is south, and Iceledo Gap is east on NC5080. From this intersection go east towards Iceledo Gap 0.9 miles and park on the west side of the road, or to the same parking area go about 2.5 miles north and then west from Dickey Junction which is the intersection of NC5080 and NC5085 you will pass through Iceledo Gap along the way. *Update: as of 2022 a roadside sign now marks the trailhead |
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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