92 Little Cow Creek

    Over two years ago when we were here last, the area was ‘thick’ with sportsman for spring turkey season, the air was pretty ‘thick’ too (hot and humid).  On top of that, Pine Ridge had a tornado rip across the top just a couple months earlier.  It was a mess with downed trees everywhere, we decided to move on to ‘plan B’ but knew we’d be back.  Today we are, and the weatherman promises cool temps and low humidity, though the clean-up from the tornado seems incomplete.  We park off Pine Ridge Road in a big open area with plenty of room for lots of cars.

little tumbling stream

    We start out west on a logging road with lots of storm damage and debris, watching for anything resembling a trail, without any luck.  After only 100 yards or so we leave the logging road angling our way down into the drainage on the south side of the road, it’s wide-open forest once we get through the downed trees near the top.  At the bottom is a pretty little stream tumbling downhill over little falls and cascades, we cross this creek several times as we slowly descend towards Little Cow Creek.

Big Rock

    Down below a big rock on the north side of the creek about 100 feet is a lovely little waterfall grotto, the falls is 10-12 feet tall and looks good today with plenty of flow.  It’s pretty steep getting down into this little grotto but worth the effort, worthy enough in fact that I decide to name the place Big Rock Grotto for that ‘big rock’ up on the hillside that marks the location.  About 100 feet further downstream brings us to the top of Queenie Falls where this drainage drops into Little Cow Creek.

Big Rock Grotto

    Here on top the bluff at Queenie Falls you can’t really see the falls very well.  We only catch glimpses of the waterfall as we inch closer to the edge trying to get a good view.  We need to get down to the bottom, just 50 feet or so north of the falls we slowly head down a steep slippery bluffline break.

along Little Cow Creek

    At the bottom, Queenie Falls is fantastic, it doesn’t actually drop directly into Little Cow Creek, below the initial 20 foot drop it then tumbles down a rocky cascade about 30 feet further to Little Cow.  As we marvel over Queenie, I assess our options for crossing the creek to head south upstream on Little Cow Creek.  We could pass behind Queenie Falls but the loose shale looks pretty slick, so we decide on crossing below the falls just above Little Cow Creek, this works out fine.

farther down little tumbling stream

    Right away as we head south away from Queenie Falls, we notice slivers of glimmering falling water up ahead through the trees, this must be Cincinnati Freedom.  Then suddenly a deer bolts past us heading north out of the box canyon only 10 feet from where we stand, moments later another one runs past on the other side of Little Cow Creek.  By now we’re getting close to Cincinnati Freedom which is only 200 yards south of Queenie.

Queenie Falls

    Yes, Queenie Falls is fantastic, so what words can I use to describe Cincinnati Freedom Falls?  None of the usual adjectives do Cincinnati Freedom justice, and neither do photos, you just must see this waterfall which was first documented by Rick Henry.

spring flowers

    Personally, I would place Cincinnati Freedom Falls third on my list of the top ten most beautiful waterfalls I have visited in Arkansas, with only Bowers Hollow Falls and Twin Falls higher on the list.  Cincinnati Freedom isn’t all that tall, about the same as Queenie, it’s the power and the glory of this amazing setting that place it above so many other wonderful waterfalls.

Cincinnati Freedom Grotto

    Today there is a second fall just 15-20 feet west of Cincinnati Freedom Falls, that along with the big emerald pool at the base of the falls completes the scene, a veritable paradise.  Of course, we spend some time here, at least half an hour for some picture taking, but mostly just ‘ooh-n-awe’ time.  Eventually we pull ourselves away and head back north out of Cincinnati Freedom Grotto.

Cincinnati Freedom Falls

    We climb back out at the same steep and slippery break we used coming down, hindsight and all, I guess we could have avoided this bluffline break and hiked downstream along Little Cow Creek instead.  Up on top the bluff may be easier going though, without all the big sharp slippery rocks that are everywhere down at creek level.

at the base of Queenie Falls

    In no time we cover the 200 yards north to another little side drainage tumbling down over lovely little falls and cascades before plunging off the bluff into Little Cow Creek.  This fall is East Little Cow Falls and just like Queenie Falls it’s hard to get a good view from here on top.  We backtrack a little up the little ridge on this east side of the drainage, then angle down a relatively easy bluffline break which lands us at Little Cow Creek right at the top of Little Cow Falls.

small falls east of Little Cow Creek Grotto

    Across the grotto in plain view is Little Cow West Twins, a good-sized rock splits the little drainage coming down from the west just as the flow falls off the bluffs into Little Cow Creek creating Little Cow West ‘Twins’.  So, by my count that’s three significant waterfalls within 50 feet of each other all dropping off the bluffs into Little Cow Creek Grotto, first East Little Cow Falls at the end of the east side drainage.

slot at the top of Little Cow Falls

    Then 50 feet to the south on Little Cow Creek itself is Little Cow Falls, followed by Little Cow West Twins just 20 feet back to the north on the west side drainage.  There may be more, I have read that there are as many as five waterfalls here, maybe that count requires even more water flow than we have today or maybe we just haven’t found the others.

Little Cow West Twins

    Little Cow Falls is spectacular all by itself, quite powerful with the water flow of Little Cow Creek funneled into a narrow slot at the top of the falls then jets out as it drops 10 feet to a large rock wedged in the slot before dropping another 10 feet into the pool at the base of the grotto.  Today the pool is pretty much wall to wall whitewater froth with the entire grotto flooded.  For this reason, we decide not to climb down into Little Cow Grotto although there are a couple bluffline breaks just downstream.

Little Cow Creek Grotto from above

    Instead, I cross Little Cow Creek above Little Cow Falls where the creek flows over solid bedrock.  From here it’s a short steep scramble about 100 feet up to the base of Elsie Falls which is on the same small west side drainage as Little Cow West Twins.  Elsie Falls is yet another lovely fall of about 20 feet, similar to Queenie but not as powerful.

crossing Little Cow Creek

   This is where we ‘call it a day’ and climb back up the easy break on the east side of Little Cow.  Since there are many more waterfalls in the Little Cow Creek drainage a return trip is in order.  On the way back I decide to take a more direct route.  This is a mistake, although the climb isn’t all that steep it's a long continuous climb through lots of undergrowth, following the little creek probably would have been easier.  The Little Cow Creek area has no trails, that’s right a bushwhack all the way, so a GPS unit is very helpful.

Elsie Falls

   Eventually we make it to the top of the ridge smack-dab in the middle of a thick ‘dwarf forest’ consisting of thousands of tiny pine trees each less than 10 feet tall, what a jungle.  Once through the dwarf forest it’s easy going the rest of the way on the debris cluttered logging road.  Even though this is a pretty rugged hike we still had a great time visiting some of the best waterfalls in the Ozarks, our hike today was 3.6 miles with 554 feet of altitude gain.

Little Cow Creek

Little Cow Creek: Statistics Chart 92Statistics Chart 92     While not hard to get to, it is pretty remote, coming from the north the easiest way to get to the parking area off Pine Ridge Road (JC 5680, NC 7471) is to take Parker Ridge Road (NC 7410) from Deer almost 12 miles to Big Piney Road (JC 5881).  North on Big Piney Rd. just about 1000 feet to the narrow concrete bridge over Big Piney Creek, the road is now (NC 7471) Pine Ridge Road.  From the bridge go just over 1.5 miles up hill on Pine Ridge Rd. which changes to (JC 5680) at the county line and turn west into a cleared area (FR 92107A) and park there is lots of room, this is the trailhead for Little Cow Creek.

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