It has been a year since
our last visit to Big Creek, that’s probably too long for such an awesome place. So far, this spring has seen a lot of rain so we come anticipating beautiful scenery and lots of water.
With our ‘creek waders’ in tow we drive south for Big Creek. Today we’ll start our hike at the ‘old homesite gate’. A metal
gate next to the road and the remains of an old home, namely a root cellar and
foundation stones. This is also the main
parking area with room for maybe four cars, please don’t block the gate.
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Right Fork near crossing
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We head out on the
old road, past the gate and the homesite then down the hill.
After a good quarter mile, we come
to Right Fork Big Creek, to our right is an old barn and garage which we poke
around a little before crossing the creek.
Last year when we crossed here, we were easily able to skip across on top
of dry rocks. Today though the Right
Fork is swollen and running fast, we don our creek waders and hope for the
best.
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ruins of a barn
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We make it across mostly dry, the
creek waders are good for water about eleven inches deep, and this was about their
limit. We head up the bank and into a
little hay field. Then another larger
field to the banks of Left Fork Big Creek which has even more water than Right
Fork. This larger fork of Big Creek has
rolling white water that we can’t see through to the bottom. Since there is an alternative to crossing
here, we decide better safe than sorry and backtrack along the south side
of the field about 150 yards to what I’m calling the Tim Ernst trail, this is the route described in his book
Arkansas Waterfalls. In a corner on the
south side of this irregular shaped hay field we spot some fluorescent ribbon tied in the trees, this is where the trail
starts.
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scenic stop along Left Fork Big Creek
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Having read of horrible
choking greenbrier and blackberry along this bushwhack route we are braced for
the worst, at its beginning we find a nice clean trail, and hope for the
best. As it turns out, it is a very clean and easy trail to follow
with a couple small 'step over' side stream crossings along the way, and some
ups and downs in between. But with none
of the undergrowth I had read about.A
quarter mile or so from the hay field we notice the trail is getting pretty
close to Left Fork and we stop to admire some scenic large rocks in the
creek. From here another 200 yards or
more brings us to a trail intersection, the right fork heads up and over the hill, I’ll
assume directly to Cave Creek Cascades.
We take the left fork down to Left Fork and Rock Peninsula Falls.
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Rock Peninsula Falls
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Last year viewed from the north bank, this
time we’re on the south bank so a different perspective. But what we notice right away is the
increased volume of water flowing over the falls, see: (9 Big Creek Cave Falls) for a photo comparison. Rock Peninsula Falls is in its prime today,
with water flowing off all sides it’s just breathtaking. After Rock Peninsula Falls the trail soon
intersects with an old road trace.
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many creek views
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The
road left goes down and crosses Left Fork Big Creek, we turn right and head uphill. About 100 yards farther is Cave Creek
Cascade, a nice long cascade down a steep little creek which flows from the
mouth of a beautiful cave. While Cave
Creek Cascade is nice, the real reason to climb up this tiny drainage is the
cave. The rock face entrance of the small Cascade
Cave is possibly the prettiest rock wall in this entire Big Creek area. |
rugged area along Cove Branch
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From Cave Creek Cascade
it’s just a short hike around the corner to Big Creek Cave Falls which is the
premier waterfall here. We decide to
skip Big Creek Cave Falls today, which in hindsight was a bad decision, see: (9 Big Creek Cave Falls), for my description and a picture of Big Creek Cave Falls. But we want to be sure we make it to Wolf Creek
Cave Falls which is our primary goal for the day, since we have never been there. Just upstream of its confluence with Cave
Creek we cross Cove Branch with our creek waders and continuing
southeast in another 100 feet or so we cross Wolf Creek as well.
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sinkhole at Underground Falls
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Are all these creeks getting a little confusing? Maybe I can muddy the waters a
little more: Cave Creek Cascade, Big Creek Cave Falls, and Wolf Creek Cave Falls all flow from the mouths of caves, and each one a short distance uphill from Cove Branch. That’s right all three flow into Cove Branch,
then downstream a little ways Cove Branch and Wolf Creek join together to form
Left Fork Big Creek. Farther downstream
Right Fork Big Creek flows into Left Fork Big Creek. From there it’s four or five miles
downstream to the community of Vendor, where Left Fork Big Creek flows into Big
Creek, two and a half miles above the Buffalo River.
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from below Wolf Creek Falls
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Okay…back to business,
now on the east bank of Wolf Creek is the main trail on another old road. We follow the road south and soon cross Wolf
Creek, and then less than a hundred yards further is Cove Branch. The road crosses here, but we leave the trail and follow upstream along the edge of the narrow bank of Cove Branch on a
volunteer trail. It’s a little rough
through here but in only about 75 yards the trail improves and backs off away
from the ledge. Then soon arrives at the
amazing (and dangerous) Underground Falls.
This underground waterfall is at the bottom of a small sinkhole. The underground stream enters the sinkhole
then drops twisting downward and disappears.
All very unique and impressive, but watch out, one misstep here could result in a quick drowning and trapped in an underground watery grave…yeah, be careful.
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Wolf Creek Cave Falls
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From Underground Falls
we stay on the trail heading uphill, and soon can see Wolf Creek Cave Falls up
ahead. After we pass a gate the trail
levels out at the base of Wolf Creek Cave Falls, another beautiful waterfall
flowing from the mouth of a cave. Wolf
Creek Cave Falls is similar to Big Creek Cave Falls in respect to the layered
shale cave entrances at both falls. But
that’s where similarities end. Wolf
Creek Cave Falls fans out at its base, sort of a steep cascading waterfall. Whereas Big Creek Cave Falls is a straight
drop type falls and taller. Even so,
Wolf Creek Cave Falls is beautiful, with lots
of green moss all over the rocks around the fall. Only 20-30 feet below the falls all the water disappears in the rocks.
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a splash of spring
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The water later reappears briefly in the sinkhole of Underground Falls,
then finally re-emerges at a spring under a huge boulder in Cove Branch. We head downhill to check this out, soon
arriving on the bank of Cove Branch.
This is another beautiful, tranquil spot on the creek. We sit on a large flat rock, have a snack and rehydrate while contemplating exploring further upstream. There is more to see upstream including a mineshaft and more waterfalls, but here on the east side of Cove Branch we seem to have come to a dead-end at some thick underbrush. We should really be on the other side of the creek to continue south.
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scenic spot on Cove Branch
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From here we retrace our
route back north along the ledge above Cove Branch, back to the main trail and old
road. But before the crossing over Wolf Creek, we turn right at an intersection with another old road. This trail/old road heads uphill along Wolf
Creek eventually all the way up to Hudson Mountain. However, we soon leave the trail heading east down a volunteer trail to the bank
of Wolf Creek where there is a little waterfall. I’m not sure of the name of this waterfall as I’ve seen it called many things, including Wolf Creek Falls, Highchair Falls, and others choose to call it ‘no name falls’ or
‘un-named falls’.
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a little wet weather fall
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‘Wolf Creek Falls’ is
alright since it is on Wolf Creek, although that could get confused with Wolf Creek
Cave Falls. I like ‘Highchair Fall’
which is unique and easy to remember, and I’m assuming is named for the big flat rock
wedged against a tree just below the falls.
This rock could be a nice place to view the falls from, although it is a little high. Whatever you call it,
this is a gorgeous little waterfall with a beautiful pool at its base.
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Highchair Falls
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Here at Highchair Falls we decide it’s about time to head back but have a decision to make.
We can either (A) go back the way we came on Tim’s route crossing both
Wolf Creek and Cove Creek, or (B) take the shorter route crossing both Wolf
Creek and then Left Fork at that crossing we ‘by-passed for safety's sake’ earlier. We take (B), hey what the hell, sometimes you got to live a little, we backtrack out to the trail/old road.
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spring flowers
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After crossing Wolf
Creek then another quarter mile plus we come to the cattle guard at another
road intersection, we veer to the left which is the old road that follows Left
Fork Big Creek downstream. Another
quarter mile brings us into the first of the fields and 200 yards more to the Left
Fork crossing. Maybe the water level has
dropped some in the four hours we’ve been here, or maybe the crossing just
isn’t as intimidating from this side of the creek. Whatever the reason it looks good, we don the waders and cross without incident.
On through the big field then the last little field after which we cross Right
Fork.
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rocky Left Fork
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From here it’s past the barn, up
the hill on the old road and back to the car before you know it. This Big Creek Cave Falls area is always a
great place to hike, and today with the high water it was even more fun. We had a great time, and we’ll be back, after
all there are still many waterfalls, caves and an old mineshaft that we
haven’t visited yet. Today’s hike was
just over 5 miles with an elevation gain of 450 feet.
Big Creek Cave Falls: Statistics Chart 43 The small parking area can
fill-up on weekends, is located about 2.8 miles down Coopers Bluff Road (NC 6840) east off Scenic Highway 7 just
over a mile north of the Hwy.7-Hwy.16 intersection (Deer turn-off), or just under a mile south on Highway 7 from the Smith Mountain Road intersection.
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