49 Big Buffalo Falls

-

    A cold front slipped through last night and highs today are only forecast to reach 60, should be a good day for some hiking.  So, we’re going back to Big Buffalo Creek to explore more of the Upper Buffalo Mountain Bike Trails (UBMBT).

Big Buffalo Falls above lovely pool

    Since our hike here last month, (see: 45 Big Buffalo Creek & Little Buffalo Falls) I have researched the UBMBT a little online and found that the system consists of 35 miles of 19 interconnected trails.  A lot of these trails are on old roads, and about nine miles of the trail system utilizes roads still drivable including Cave Mt. Rd., Kapark Rd. and Nuckles Creek Rd.

Big Buffalo Creek 

    Today’s loop route will take us on parts of four of the trails.  We park right at the intersection of Cave Mountain Road and Highway 16.  Cave Mountain Road has a wide apron here at the intersection with the highway, and plenty of room for a couple cars to park, although this isn't a 'designated' parking area.

near the intersection of Hwy. 16 and Cave Mountain Road

    The hike downhill begins right here at the intersection on an old road that is now ‘Red Star Trail’.  Just 50 yards down the hill is a Forest Service cable gate across the road and a UBMBT trail map, this spot is designated intersection #32.  We continue downhill, Red Star Trail is just under a mile and downhill all the way.  It isn’t very steep though, as we follow a little feeder creek to our left down toward Big Buffalo Creek.

many views of creek along Big Buffalo Trail

    As we get closer to the bottom the trail swings to the left (east) and levels out a little, the scenery gets prettier, and we cross the little creek twice.  At the bottom is trail intersection #3 the end of Red Star Trail, we turn right (south) on Buffalo Creek Trail.  Crossing the little creek one more time, then another little feeder this one a steep dry gully.  Further along we hear someone approaching behind us, we step off the trail allowing two bikers to pass.

fern fireworks

    They tell us when I ask if they have ever seen hikers on the bike trails ‘yes, but not very often.’  Not far afterwards we come to a wet crossing over Big Buffalo Creek, then trail intersection #5 where we leave Buffalo Creek Trail and turn left (northeast) onto Twisted Hickory Trail.  And in 100 feet or less another intersection, straight ahead is Wildcat Trail we turn right (southeast) staying on Twisted Hickory Trail.


    Now off the old road Twisted Hickory is pure trail, but a good one and easy to follow.  After a half mile we cross a dry side drainage then start uphill away from Big Buffalo Creek, and around another side drainage.  The trail continues uphill until we reach the next intersection #13.

first and fourth Buffalo Creek crossing

    Twisted Hickory ends here where we turn right (west) on Zeester Trail.  This trail zigzags its way downhill and soon we come to Big Buffalo Creek and another wet crossing.  Just on the other side of the creek is an old rock wall and the end of Zeester Trail at intersection #6.  This is the spot where we first realized last month that we were at the UBMBT.

good trails and well marked

    Today we turn north on Buffalo Creek Trail, on the west side of the trail is a large flat area with evidence of a couple campsites.  A quarter mile further up the trail we hear a splashing waterfall, and just 20 feet off the trail we come to the bank of Big Buffalo Creek at Big Buffalo Falls.

Little Buffalo Falls (April 2020)

    A lovely little waterfall, Big Buffalo Falls is about 8 feet tall and 12-15 feet wide.  We linger a while here taking it all in.  This is the first waterfall of any significance and one of only a handful on the entire 153-mile Buffalo River.  Big Buffalo Falls is for us the highlight of today’s hike.

Not a tall waterfall Big Buffalo Falls is however the first significant falls on the Buffalo River
Big Buffalo Falls

    Half a mile past the falls we cross Big Buffalo Creek again, then a quarter mile more to intersection #5 and our last crossing today.  Almost half a mile past that is intersection #3 where we start uphill on Red Star Trail and end today’s hike back at the car parked on Cave Mt. Rd.  Today we had a great hike on some wonderful easy trails of the UBMBT in the ONF.  The hike was 6.1 miles with 753 feet of altitude gain.

Roberts Gap church

Upper Buffalo Mountain Bike Trails: Statistics Chart 49     Our parking area today (U3), couldn't be easier to find.  Right at the intersection of Highway 16 and Cave Mountain Road, although not an 'official' parking area, there is plenty of room along the side of the road for a couple vehicles.

base map before fair use alterations is property of ArcGIS-
-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License


Location: Upper Buffalo parking area 1: 35.85856, 93.52534

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

23 Thunder Canyon Falls

-
Image
    We head south this morning with the intention of doing the short easy hike to Hideout Hollow Falls.   It is supposed to be seasonably cool this morning with highs later this afternoon in the low 80’s, so we get an early start hoping to beat the heat.   The dirt road from Compton to Hideout Hollow at the Schermerhorn Trailhead isn’t bad, flat and pretty smooth all the way to the trailhead. Thunder Canyon Falls      At the trailhead parking area there are already four vehicles here, it 's not a very big parking area and there's plenty of room for one more car.   W hat we find discouraging is two of the vehicles are small buses.    Having been to Hideout Hollow a couple times, we know it isn't a big area, and my imagination pictures bus loads swarming all over the falls.   After quickly reconsidering our plans, we decide to continue down the road to Erbie and hike to Thunder Canyon Falls instead. Thunder Canyon Falls     Well, that nice flat and pretty smooth road mentione
Read more

21 Triple Falls

-
Image
     This morning we loaded up our out-of-town guests and took them to Broadwater Hollow.   The plan was to show them a little bit of the Natural State's beauty and do some  hiking at the same time.   Broadwater Hollow was awesome as usual, (see: 20 Broadwater Hollow ) and everyone was up for a little more. framed in green      So off to Triple Falls we go.   ‘As the crow flies’ it’s not very far from Broadwater Hollow to Triple Falls.   But in a car, is a different story.   From Compton we drive to Ponca then up the mountain to Mt. Sherman and finally down the hill to the Boy Scout’s Camp Orr.   A very scenic drive the entire way. Triple Falls      The parking area is actually just inside the Camp Orr property and is designated with signage.   The hike to the falls I believe, is the shortest possible that you can even call a hike.   Anything less and it would probably be visible from the car.   It sure is a beautiful spot too. skippin' rocks      Triple Falls is three distinc
Read more

86 Fuzzybutt Horsetail and more

-
Image
     The southeast corner of Richland Creek Wilderness is an area we know pretty well, having visited many times, but there are still many waterfalls in the area that we have not seen.   Today we’re out to check-off a couple more from the list and check-out a different route to get there. at the roadside campsite      Under two miles south of Witts Springs is Richland Creek Road (SC265 or FR1219), we turn west on this good dirt road and less than four miles later arrive at Falling Water Road (this is the intersection for which Intersection Falls is named).   A left on Falling Water Road (FR1205) brings us to the concrete bridge over Falling Water Creek.   There's parking on both sides of the bridge, we pick the west side right in front of our trailhead.   This parking spot right on Falling Water Creek at the confluence with a lovely little feeder stream wouldn’t be a bad place to camp although very close to the road. Flat Stanley Falls      We start up the road away from Falling Wa
Read more

17 Haw Creek Recreation Area

-
Image
     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. Haw Creek      First up is Pack Rat Falls, we park the car in the middle of the loop campground at the restrooms.  A fter 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. side falls below Pack Rat      This is a pretty good little trail for a while.   After passing some stacked rocks I call the 
Read more