On just about every map I have ever seen of the Buffalo River, the upper
part is called ‘Main Prong Big Buffalo Creek’, well that is too long. Who
is going to call it that, especially in conversation? I hope no one objects, in my descriptions
I’ll shorten the name to Big Buffalo Creek.
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Main Prong Big Buffalo Creek
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The creek begins at what is known as the ‘farthest source’ which is a small spring at the
side of Cave Mountain Road near Roberts Gap, just north of the old church where the road makes a sharp turn.
Big Buffalo Creek ends at its confluence with Reeves Fork, which is where
the Buffalo River begins.
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little creek where we park on FR92269A
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By the way, I have a passion for maps, I study every map I can get my hands on.
A few years ago, while perusing Google Earth looking for drivable routes to get close to the river, I noticed what looked like a well-used road off Highway16. It doesn’t even show up on most maps of the
area, with a little more research I learn this road is FR92269A of the Ozark
National Forest.
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Spring 'tis the season'
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Today we’re going down
this road to see how far we can get, it isn’t too rough but very narrow, in
fact two or three places where big trees have fallen across the road someone has
cut sections of trees out to clear the road.
Evidently whoever did this work, wasn’t driving a big wide truck. Our little SUV ‘Not a 4-Wheeler’
barely fits through these openings, but we eventually get down next to a little
creek where we park. |
rock wall near marker #6
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From here we start hiking, first across the creek then up a little hill. Still on the road we soon pass through an
open gate and then maybe 100 feet is a steel post with a trail map on it. I just have got to check this out, it seems we have ‘stumbled’ into the Upper
Buffalo Mountain Bike Trails (UBMBT).
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some rugged scenery
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This
trail system was designed and built for mountain bikes, but hikers are also
welcome. We are ‘totally stoked’ since we were
expecting today's hike to be off trail. Apparently, these trail maps are located at all the major trail intersections, this one is intersection #6, where Zeester Trail ends at Buffalo
Creek Trail. |
many interesting wildflowers today
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We head out downstream on
Buffalo Creek Trail and immediately cross the little side creek that we’re
parked next to 200 yards back upstream.
A hundred yards past the creek crossing and off the trail about 50 feet
to our left is a big pile of rocks, maybe an old homesite. This trail on an old road is really nice and we’re already making
plans to check out more of the bike trails.
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'just a creek'
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Walking along on the old road Big Buffalo Creek is only about 100 feet
to the north, we soon come to an old
rusty bucket on the edge of the trail. I
think someone must have placed it here for a reason, so off we go exploring
down to the creek. We don’t find
anything ‘significant’ but Big Buffalo Creek is just gorgeous with wildflowers
poking up all around.
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many interesting wildflowers
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Big Buffalo Creek is nothing like Big Piney Creek which in my opinion should be named Big Piney River. Big Buffalo Creek is
just that, a creek. At this point about 4 miles downstream of the
farthest source the creek is ten to fifteen feet wide with a slab rock bottom, and crystal-clear water this is truly a
pristine water source. |
Ancient Falls
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Back on the Big Buffalo Trail we soon come to the first of three creek
crossings. Here the creek is about
ten or more feet across, so we wear our creek waders. In another 100 feet comes the second
crossing. About a quarter mile past the
second crossing the trail swings around within 20 feet of Big Buffalo Creek at
a beautiful spot with round boulders, green moss and young ferns.
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thick woods along Buffalo Creek Trail
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Continuing on down the trail another 100
yards we see just 50 feet farther the next creek crossing and decide to stop
here and turn around. Knowing that the
nice spot with the mossy boulders is just 100 yards back upstream, we decide to
hike along the creek to see what else we might find. |
Little Buffalo Falls
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Just 75 feet upstream we find a nice little
waterfall from a feeder stream spilling off a ledge right into Big Buffalo
Creek. We would have missed this
waterfall had it not been for the sound of splashing water. Big Buffalo Creek is clogged with dead trees
right here against a low bluff on the north bank and we were starting to head
away from the creek to avoid all the deadwood debris when we heard the faint
splashing of water.
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Big Buffalo Creek
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I’ll call this ‘Ancient Falls’ named after another trail of the UBMBT just uphill behind this little waterfall called 'Trail of the Ancients'. At just 3-4 feet tall and 3 feet wide this is a noisy little thing. If and when all the deadwood washes away this
will be another lovely spot on the creek.
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more wildflowers
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Continuing upstream we soon arrive
at the nice mossy boulders wedged between the creek and trail. We eat lunch and have some water, while here I check the GPS just to see how
close we are to Dixon Ford. Well, it’s
probably over 2 miles downstream to Dixon Ford but just about 100 yards further
upstream is another waterfall. |
top tier of Little Buffalo Falls
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We bushwhack upstream along Big Buffalo Creek to Little Buffalo
Falls. Little Buffalo Falls is another
lovely spot on the creek, with the falls consisting of four little ledges each
about 12 inches tall spanning the creek at different angles. You could say it is four little waterfalls,
or I guess you could call it a series of cascades. Either way, Little Buffalo Falls is very scenic, so we
have to take pictures.
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20' across and 1' deep
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From here it’s
back to the Buffalo Creek Trail, which is 100 feet or less south, then on to the
car. Today we achieved a ‘high sense of
discovery’ first finding a little used route to the river, then the UBMBT system
and a waterfall unknown to us. And we had as always, a
great time. Today's roundtrip hike was for the most part, an easy scenic
stroll just under 4 miles with an elevation gain of just over 125 feet.
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old road creek crossing
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Big Buffalo Creek: Statistics Chart 45 The small parking area for
the UBMBT near intersection #6 is on Forest Road 92269A near a creek crossing. To get there from Fallsville at the
intersection of Highways 16 and 21, go west on Highway 16 about 6.1 miles, or
from Boston go east on Highway 16 about 10.1 miles. Then go north on FR92269A approximately 1.5
miles to the bottom at the creek. This
road is narrow and a little rough in places.
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| 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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