Today actually feels like fall, finally. Summer was pretty mild really, but now with
fall here we’re ready for hiking season and today have picked a section of
the Buffalo River Trail to ‘easily’ break-in
the season. The parking lot at the Ponca
Low Water Bridge is where we start, which is easy to get to in any vehicle, and
is big with room for about 50 cars.
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Ponca Low Water Bridge
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We cross the river here on the Ponca Low Water Bridge,
50 feet past the bridge on the
left is the trailhead for the BRT heading downstream to Steele
Creek and beyond, there are signs here. Heading
north, in less than 100 yards the trail crosses Hwy.74 under the bridge. The first quarter mile or so is
pretty lush with occasional views down to the Buffalo on our left. Then as the trail turns a little away from
the river is a small campsite, and another 200 yards a nice view of
the river on a rocky outcrop just off the trail. |
Buffalo River
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A little farther we come to a tumbling cascade, below that 100 feet off
the trail a very nice waterfall off the bluff that is probably 40 feet tall. This little feeder stream is short and steep,
so for this 'Bluff Falls' at its best you’ll want to visit right after a good
rain. In fact, all these little feeder
streams along this section of trail dry up fast so these falls would be
classified wet weather falls. After
the trail crosses this creek in about 100 yards is a nice wide bear-crack down
to the river and back to the base of Bluff Falls. |
deep crevice
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About 200 yards past the bear-crack is
another small campsite next to the trail, and just beyond another 40-50 foot
waterfall. This one I’ll call Pedestal
Falls, since it has carved out a deep crevice in the bluff leaving an attached
‘pedestal’ right in front of the fall.
The pedestal provides a unique
and great view of the waterfall but
be careful of all the loose and slippery
rock. |
Buffalo Vista
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After a brief climb uphill,
the trail
follows an old road around the next bend, then leaving the roadway heads east
to the next feeder stream. Here another
cascade, this one bigger than the last.
Past this little drainage,
we go around the next bend then up a short
hill to a nice campsite on the right above the trail. Continuing mostly on the level into the next
small hollow we soon come to three more waterfalls.
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underfoot on the BRT (typ.)
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The first is below the trail at about 10 feet tall. Next a nice 25-footer above the trail in a tight steep fork to the southeast. The last of the three falls is past the creek
crossing in a northeast fork, this two-tiered waterfall is close to the trail
and very pretty, maybe 15 feet total height and will be the last waterfall we
see today. |
entering the 'portal'
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A quarter mile or so from the last waterfall we enter the symbolic
upstream end of the Buffalo Canyon, here the trail goes up and through a short
narrow bear-crack. From here most of
the way to Steele Creek Campground we stay high above the river on the dry
rocky trail. Along this stretch of trail are many stone steps built into the trail and we pass at the top of another long bear-crack that heads down to the floodplain of the Buffalo.
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backside of symbolic Buffalo Canyon portal
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Before some more stone steps the trail
starts downhill to Steele Creek Campground. At the bottom we head into a cane thicket and come to an intersection,
the BRT continues straight ahead. We
turn left on a short spur into the campground and right next to the restrooms. We stop here for a lunch break at a picnic table in the campground.
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signage at the spur
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There are only a few people around today and with the gentle sound of the Buffalo
River flowing past just beyond the west side of the campground it’s a peaceful,
relaxing setting. After lunch we head up
the road past the horse camp to the ranger station. A young park ranger is on duty, we talk about
campsite prices which just went up and vary by location and improvements
. She recommends the ‘National Parks Pass’ for
anyone who does a lot of camping. |
near Steele Creek Campground
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I ask
about hiking conditions on the Old River Trail compared to the Buffalo
River Trail between here and Ponca, I think following the river back to the
low water bridge would involve next to no elevation change compared to the
constant up and down on the BRT. She
agrees and also points out the three river crossings along the ORT.
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autumn foliage
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Although it did rain some the other day,
overall it has been a very dry summer,
so the river is about as ‘low’ as it
gets, and the water is still quite warm,
so we decide to try it out. After all, a loop hike is much more
interesting than the ‘in and out’ we had planned for today. |
Bee Bluff
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Back down the road we go, first past the horse camp on our left then
around the bend and the main campground on our right. All the way to the upstream end of the
campground (at the end of the road) is the trailhead for the Old River
Trail. Here near the campground are a
couple volunteer trails going towards the river, we stick with the most worn trail and in less than a quarter mile arrive at the first crossing of the
Buffalo. We didn’t bring our slip-on
creek waders; they would have been useless anyway as the river is knee deep. We do have our water shoes in the
pack and change footwear on a handy large tree washed downstream some time ago.
The water is nice and warm, the cool off
much appreciated, we continue upstream now on the west bank.
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along the road at Steele Creek Campground
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Soon we come to another trailside campsite, this one right on the bank
of the river with Bee Bluff on the other side, across Bee Bluff
Hole. Now the trail heads back a little
and joins the old road, much of the ORT follows the old River Road. For about 100 yards the trail is soft sand
which is nice on our feet,
but I can imagine in wetter times could be a muddy
mess. The old road soon swings back next
to the river on our left and a rock wall on our right. This is a long
rock wall, maybe a quarter mile.
Near the end of the wall the trail turns back away from the river and
soon arrives at an intersection, the Chimney Rock Trail heads uphill to the
right, we stay straight on the Old River Trail, and in another quarter mile
arrive at the next river crossing.
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trailside signage
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Actually,
both our second and last river crossings. Here the Buffalo River swings west against
the bluff then back to the east right away.
So we have two quick crossings, since there is no way to squeeze between bluff and river. Again,
these are
nice easy crossings, this time ‘two for the price of one’ as we only have to
change shoes once. From here we head
into the woods and the last quarter mile of the hike. Just before reaching the parking area, we
cross under the Hwy.74 bridge and then Ponca Creek right at the edge of the
parking lot. With all the waterfalls and
the river, this was a great hike of 4.5 miles and a total elevation gain just
under 400 feet.
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near Steele Creek (Oct. 2023)
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BRT- Ponca to Steele Creek: Statistics Chart 68A ORT- Steele Creek to Ponca: Statistics Chart 68B The access road to Ponca Low Water Bridge is just 120 yards
(less
than a tenth of a mile) south of the Highways 43/74 intersection and
is
well marked. Or you could start the hike
from Steele Creek Campground from the same Hwy. 43/74
intersection take Highway 74 across the river and up the mountain about 1.4
miles to the Steele Creek Campground entrance under the big arch,
follow
Steele Creek Road down the hill to the main campground parking area back around
to the west. The trailhead is at the far
south end of the campground.
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base map before fair use alterations is property of USGS Topo-
-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License
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