The saying goes ‘third
times a charm’ or is it ‘three strikes you’re out’ we’ll see which one holds
true today. Sixteen months ago, here in Bowers Hollow we
got wore out on the bushwhack to the old homesite and never made it to the
falls (see: 33 Bowers Hollow), today we’ll skip the homesite and try a different approach, a more
direct route to the top of Bowers Hollow Falls.
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Bowers Hollow Falls
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Today the drive in on
FR1410B is much worse than on our last two visits, it’s one mud-hole
after the next. Waterfalls should be
looking good though, with the heavy rain just yesterday, it brings to mind
the waterfall chaser's conundrum: the best time to view waterfalls is the worst
time for getting to them. We don’t have
a problem with all the mud, thankfully we drove the truck, I back up into
the same parking spot we have used in the past.
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near the top of Bowers Hollow
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The parking conditions here at Kapark Trailhead aren’t the best, without
blocking-in anybody there's only room for three vehicles: 1- back 75 feet at
the turn-off to the cemetery, 2- through some really deep mud to the dirt berm,
and 3- (this is where we park) back-up into the steep parking space and pull the parking brake. |
rockpile on by-pass
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From our parking spot we
can see the old sign-in box, and head past it down the old road. The very
muddy old road, in fact much of the trail is either flowing water or
standing mud holes. This trail stays on
the road for the most part, except for the many detours around fallen trees, large patches of briars or bigger mud holes.
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Rue Anemone
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Today we notice lots of wild rose along the
trail with swollen buds, these should be in bloom soon. We also notice someone since our last visit has cut down lots of small
trees, I can’t help but wonder if this was done legally, this
is a ‘wilderness’ after all where everything is supposed to be left to natures designs. |
upper Bowers Hollow
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Just over a
mile from the trailhead is an intersection with what appears to be a new trail to the east down into the
hollow, we leave the road to check it out.
The cut saplings continue down this new trail, which is easy to follow,
we soon come alongside an old rock wall and realize we’re back on another road.
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wind damage in the woods
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This trail re-joins the main trail
after about 100 yards, at the closest spot on the trail to Bowers
Hollow creek, just 20 feet down the bank to a pretty little
waterfall/cascade. This would be a good
place to access the creek if someone wanted to bushwhack down the hollow to the
top of the falls, I’m sure it would be very scenic but rough. |
little feeder drainage to top of Bowers Falls
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Back on the main trail we continue down the
old road another half mile to a rock cairn and rusty bucket (now laying on
the ground near the cairn). This cairn is the first spot to leave the road and head downhill to the top of Bowers Hollow
Falls, we take the next exit just 30-40 feet past the rock cairn, on the other side of the little
creek is an obvious trail that heads east down into this feeder
drainage, we turn left here. |
Bowers Hollow Falls from the top
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This trail is easy to
follow most of the way although it does get faint occasionally, soon we pass a
pile of stacked rocks above the trail that might have been a well or maybe just
a pile of rocks, who knows but there must have been a homesite nearby
once. A little further we cross the
creek and come alongside a nice cascade
with a lovely little emerald pool at the base, and 50 yards past that cross
back to the east side of the creek.
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Bonus from the top
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The trail levels out some and this is where it gets faint, more like a bushwhack but you can’t go wrong just
continue downstream. Now we can hear the falls and soon arrive at the top of
the bluff with Bowers Hollow Falls to our left about 50 feet away. |
First Bonus Falls
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Finally, it
took us three attempts but here we are, Bowers Hollow Falls truly is awesome
and well worth all the effort getting here.
We snap a few photos then take a break on a nearby tree I believe is a
beech, laying almost horizontal but still alive and with a view of the falls.
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in front of Bowers Hollow Falls, feel the power
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After a little rest we head east on the good
trail that follows the top of the bluffline about a quarter mile to a bluffline
break. Along the way are many nice vistas
of the hollow below and three little creek crossings with waterfalls off the
bluff. I’m sure these three falls dry up
pretty quick but today they look fantastic, I’ll refer to them collectively as
‘Bonus Falls’.
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Bonus Two
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There are actually two
bluffline breaks right next to each other, the first one involves a little
climbing (or sliding on your butt), the second one only 30 feet farther is much
better, an easy short walk down the gentle slope passing the first break along
the way. Down in the hollow we make a beeline for the creek, this is a mistake with lots of big rock everywhere,
very rough and slow going.
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a 'bonus' from above
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I end up on
the ground after slipping in some loose rock covered under
dead leaves, by the time we’re getting close to Bowers Hollow Falls we have gradually made our way back up close to the bluffline and notice here at the base of the
bluff is easy hiking and even a good volunteer trail, absolutely the way to go.
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Third Bonus
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Now at the base of
Bowers Hollow Falls we are immediately impressed by the power of the awesome
waterfall, the sheer volume of falling water pushes wind and mist directly
outward from the falls, a cold wet wind in our face we stand in front of the
pool at the base of the falls in slack jawed amazement.
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Bowers Falls Grotto
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So much more than a visual experience, the roar of the crashing water,
the mist and wind in your face, the height and width of this large waterfall,
well there is just no way a picture could ever do it justice (and neither can a video) you got to see it for yourself, preferably when the water's high.
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Bowers Hollow Falls
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We snap a bunch of pics anyway, and I notice
it looks like there may be room behind the falls to hike around to the other
side. It’s an easy scramble up and
around behind Bowers Hollow Falls and quite cool, literally. We see what looks like a couple shelter caves
along the north side of the hollow and about halfway up the bluff between them
a cave with a small waterfall pouring off from above right in front of the
mouth of the cave. But we leave these
for another day and begin our hike back to the bluffline break. Going out we stay right
up close to the bluffline, pretty much all the way. This is definitely the way to go, easy hiking
and the beautiful bluffline. We hike behind two of the gorgeous
little Bonus Falls that we had passed earlier up on top, we pause at each one to
take more pictures. Somewhere between
two of the Bonus Falls we encounter three women hiking the other way toward
Bowers Hollow Falls.
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rocky terrain below bluffline
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They’re down below us bushwhacking through the rocks and
looking a little worse for the wear. One asks,
“Did you make it all the way to the falls?”
I reply, “Oh yeah, you’re almost there”, and I add “it’s a lot easier hiking
up here next to the bluffs.” They thank
us and slowly pick their way through the rocks and up the hill to the bluffline. We continue on our way and realize this is
the first time we have seen anybody in our three visits to Bowers Hollow. |
cascade in little feeder drainage
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Back on top the bluff we
retrace the route we came in on all the way back to where the ‘new’ trail
branches off near Bowers Hollow creek.
We stay on the ‘main’ trail having already checked-out the ‘new’ trail
on the way in. This section of the trail
is a mess with downed trees everywhere, I would suggest using the
new trail to by-pass this deadwood jam.
We’ll call the new trail section the ‘By-pass’.
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in Bowers Holow
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From here it’s another mile and a half back to the trailhead/parking area and the end of today’s hike. And what a great hike it was, we finally made
it to Bowers Hollow Falls, seeing it in its prime after yesterday’s rains. If not for all the mud on the main trail (old
road) this really is an easy hike, we
hiked 5.2 miles today with an altitude gain of 454 feet.
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below Bowers Hollow Falls
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Bowers Hollow: Statistics Chart 87 To get their go up
Cave Mt. Road approximately 8.7 miles southwest from Hwy.21 or approximately 4.25
miles northeast from Hwy.16 then south on FR1410 another 1.2 miles before
turning east on FR1410B and approximately 0.8 miles to the meager parking area
at the trailhead on FR1410B aka Kapark Rd.
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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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