It was starting to seem like summer would never end, Tuesday a storm
and cold front moved through and yesterday was the first official day of autumn. I
have been eager to go hiking for at least a month now, so with today’s forecast predicting highs in the low seventies...all I can say is
“finally”. We decide to go to
Woolum, and if possible, drive across the Buffalo River then check out The Narrows and Skull Bluff.
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Bat House aka Skull Bluff
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Getting to Woolum is easy enough and crossing
the Buffalo River upstream about 100 yards from the old ‘traditional’ Woolum Ford isn’t bad either. After a couple short
steep, sandy climbs and a couple big mud holes we come to a 4-way
intersection. Straight ahead the road
(Searcy CR14) continues south through Richland valley, left a cable
gate blocks entrance into a large field and right is a smaller field with an
open cable gate. We park here in a wide
spot at the side of the road. |
Woolum Ford (old location)
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We walk past the open gate following tracks in the tall grass recently
made by someone driving back into the field, soon we arrive at the small wooden
fence around Hamilton Cemetery. There
are no visible headstones in this overgrown plot, we keep going through the
field. Past the cemetery this is not a typical field like others we have hiked
through. A lot of the old fields in the National Park and National Forest are
leased to local farmers who cut and bale hay for livestock. |
Hamilton Cemetery
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This particular field hasn’t been cut for
some time and is impassable other than on the track we’re following, it is
overgrown with thorny vegetation so thick we can only see into it maybe five
feet, and so tall that I can’t see over the top.
Namely: thistle, blackberry, greenbrier and who knows what else, with
the thistle still in bloom with their purple flowers. The track we’re following soon ends and we
are forced into the woods and down the steep hillside onto a gravel bar along
the Buffalo River. |
fall wildflowers
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Checking the map,
I see we are at Blue Hole, by Ken Smith’s count this is
Blue Hole #6. And what a beautiful
swimming hole this is, as we’re checking out Blue Hole,
I notice a road along
the river heading in both directions. It
appears to be well used, not on any map this could be a ‘volunteer’ road created by
repeated use over the years, or maybe part of the old River Road, we follow it upstream since we’re going in that
direction anyway. |
Tall Thistle
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This is nice easy
hiking west then south for almost half a mile, first past orange and red
Cash Bluff across the river then along long Roughedge Hole. At the south end of Roughedge the road ends just before the gravel bar ends and we are forced against the muddy bank next to the water. Headed east we find ourselves in very thick brush and tall weeds,
it’s slow-going
weaving back and forth fighting with the weeds and pollen
as thick as smoke. We soon decide ‘enough is
enough’ and stumble toward the Buffalo. |
Blue Hole along volunteer road
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At the river’s edge we change into our sandals and cross the knee-deep
Buffalo. Here at the downstream end
of another gravel bar hiking conditions improve quickly as we head upstream. After about 100 yards we can plainly see Skull
Bluff up ahead probably another 100 yards.
We’re there in no time, easy hiking across clean sand and gravel. |
Blue Hole #6
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Skull Bluff aka The Bat House is a huge rock
or small bluff with a couple small shallow caves at river level, these are
round depressions in the smooth rock face of the bluff which Neil Compton
thought resembled the eye sockets in a skull.
Dr. Compton had a good imagination and yeah,
we can see it too. I have seen pictures of canoes floating
around in the ‘eye sockets’ but there’s not quite enough water today for that. After a few pictures and a short break,
we
continue upstream. |
Roughedge Hole along volunteer road
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As we make our way south towards the Narrows,
we stay pretty close to the
river, it would be easier hiking on the sandy gravel bar just to our west but
we’re trying to stay out of the sun.
In the woods near the river is
better scenery than out on the gravel bar and the hiking conditions aren’t too
bad, nothing like the jungle back on the other side of the river. Between the steep and grassy
bank and the Buffalo River we cross
four or five otter
slides and can
imagine the furry little fellows having races down the slides into the
water. Soon,
we’re directly
beneath the Narrows just across the river. |
overgrown area past Roughedge
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Our plan is to cross the river here at the downstream end of Leafy Hole, then climb up and over the lowest point of the ‘Nars’ to the road which is
probably less than 150 feet away (horizontally) but with the steep climb up and
then back down the other side probably closer to a distance of 300 feet, that was the plan anyway. The river is only about forty feet across here
below Leafy Hole,
and I was hoping it
would be on a nice shallow shoal. |
knee deep Buffalo between Roughedge and Skull Bluff
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Well, so
much for ‘the plan’ the crossing gradually gets deeper, deeper until almost to the
opposite bank where it’s easily over my head.
I’m wearing my sandals sure, but a lot of good that does, my boots, socks hanging around my neck, along with everything in the backpack are all soaked. I climb out of the water against the sheer
rock west face of the Narrows, Kat hesitates about halfway
across the river
(waist deep). |
sandy approach to Skull Bluff
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I scan up and down the
‘cliff’ for any possible route to the top, and I do see what appears to be a possible diagonal ascent along a very
narrow ledge. But this is way too
overgrown to even consider climbing, maybe in the winter when there will be
less vegetation, even then it would be dangerous. I tell Kat ‘Forget
it, this is crazy I’m
coming back’. Back on the gravel bar
below Leafy Hole I pour the water out of my pack and boots, wring out my
socks and take a break for lunch sitting on a large, downed
tree. |
Skull Bluff
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While lunching and drying out we discuss our options, which at this
point aren’t many: we’re definitely heading back the way we came but
want
desperately to avoid the thick ‘jungle’ on the other side of the river. We start north across the gravel bar assuming
we will make better time walking on the cobblestone, gravel and sand. This works out well and soon we’re west of
Skull Bluff at the long shallow section of river east of where we crossed
earlier. |
some color on the gravel bar
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Crossing here is quick and
easy, my plan now is to hike along the east side of the ‘thistle field’ just at
the edge of the woods, if this works out it will be a big short-cut. The edge of the
woods are thick with greenbrier and small saplings, we end up down
in a gully in the flood plain of the river heading west. Flood waters seem to keep this gully pretty
clean other than occasional downed trees pinned across other trees but
generally easy hiking. Not a short cut though we are soon at the south end of the gravel bar along Roughedge Hole and
back on the volunteer road. |
The Narrows above the Buffalo
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Up ahead about the midpoint of Roughedge Hole we see a Jeep and in another 100 yards meet a couple having lunch in the shade of their
vehicle. They are very friendly, and we immediately strike up a conversation about our adventures on the Buffalo and Ozarks discussing some of our favorite
locations. Since they’re ‘getting up in
years’ they keep the hikes short and easy, but also just like to get out to remote and beautiful places like this, (sounds like us), after a long visit we
wish them well and continue north on volunteer road. |
Skull Bluff
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At the river bend and upstream end of Blue Hole we make our way up the
bank to the edge of thistle field and the track we followed in. From here it’s a short walk past Hamilton
Cemetery and back to the truck. Although
we fought with some rough jungle conditions, we
still had a great time on this our first hike of the season. About half the time on the old volunteer road
and the other half a bushwhack, today we hiked just over 3 miles with an elevation gain of just 217 feet.
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Armadillo hide on Volunteer Road
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The Narrows-Skull Bluff: Statistics Chart 100 This area can be reached
from either Woolum to the north, Dickey Junction from the south, or Snowball
from the east. Whatever way you choose can
be challenging and impossible if the rivers are high, chances are if you come
to the first river crossing and it’s too high for a safe crossing then the
others are probably the same, occasionally the only way to Skull Bluff is by boat. To
our parking spot (Narrows parking area 3) from the south at Dickey Junction is
definitely the longest and most challenging, go northeast on Richland Road (Searcy CR12), turn left on N. Richland Road (SC 14) and cross Richland Creek for the second time, continue approximately 12.75 miles total to the parking. This route has been described as 'the loneliest road in Arkansas'.
A little easier and shorter, from Snowball go west first up and over Point Peter Mountain on Richland Road (Searcy CR12), then right on N. Richland Road (SC 14) cross Richland Creek and continue about 9.3
miles total to the parking. GPS coordinates for the intersection of Richland Road (SC12) and North Richland Road (SC14) are: 35.92538, -92.88837
By
far the easiest route is from Woolum, just go down
North Richland Road (Searcy CR14) from the Woolum parking area at the vault
toilets, west along the Buffalo to the ‘new’ Woolum crossing then up the bank and up another sandy hill and turn right, back on the ‘road’ and after a curve to the left (south)
is the 4-way gated intersection at Narrows parking area 3, a distance of only
0.7 miles. If your car isn't up for river crossings, then begin the hike at Woolum, and wade across the Buffalo River, stay on ‘Volunteer Road’ back
to Blue Hole and head south to Skull Bluff from there (this route adds about 1.5 miles to your hike).
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