We’re going back to Sam’s Throne Special Interest Area in the Ozark National Forest, it’s
finally starting to feel like fall with temps this morning in the low
forties. Pulling in at the main entrance, we
notice there are lots of people here, it’s Monday morning, it turns out most
of these folks are packing up getting ready to go. Past the entrance we turn north and in 100 yards or so park in a
big campsite which could probably be three campsites.
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looking south at 2 Rock Vista and beyond
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West of the campsite we
head down a rocky trail which is a dry creek bed, soon we come to the end of
this little spur at the top of the bluffs. Turning right we follow the bluffline north,
mostly on a good volunteer trail, it does fade out here and there, we
just keep heading north along the top of the bluffs stopping occasionally at
some of the many fabulous views. At one
vista stop, on the edge of the bluff are side by side boulders, we name this spot
‘2 Rock Vista’ and continue north.
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approach to The Point
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This
isn’t a very long trail and before you know it, we’re making the approach to The
Point, this is slightly downhill through a rock garden of large
boulders strewn about creating a gorgeous maze of rocks. We weave our way through the
boulders to The Point which is where the west facing bluffline that we have
been following, meets the north facing bluffs.
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beginning of autumn
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The Point has fantastic views of Big
Creek valley northwest, Kent Mountain to the north with some apparent pedestal
rocks, and even glimpses of Hwy. 123 winding its way along George Mountain to
the east. It is a fabulous view,
and we spend some time here checking out the
houses and farms far below, in fact down there somewhere along Big Creek near the
confluence with Dry Creek is where Sam Davis (for whom Sam’s Throne is named)
lived in a cabin he built way back before the Civil War.
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base of bluffs
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After reminiscing in the
past for a while we head back the way we came along the top of the bluffs,
eventually passing the rocky spur trail we came down. Continuing south we soon arrive at a trail intersection, the
Dog Walk (aka Dog Trot).
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small shelter/cave
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The Dog Walk is
a short spur or connector trail that leads from Sam’s Throne Campground
Road downhill to four different trails, midway is the trail we’re on: The Point
Trail, continuing just up the Dog Walk a short ways is south bound Chickenhead
Vista Trail, down from here to the end of steep, zig-zagging Dog Walk is
Chickenhead Wall Trail to the left and to the right we follow Hangman Trail downward and back north along the base of the bluffline that we just came off the
top.
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The Hangman
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Right away this lower
trail goes around through and down, some big rocks then along the base of
the bluff where we meet a couple young climbers. ‘She’ is belaying (on the ground) ‘he’ is
ascending at the other end of the rope near the top of the bluff, I comment to
her that if he falls, she’s going for a quick trip up. He overhears, chuckles and claims she’s a lot
heavier than she looks. She’s pretty tiny, couldn’t weight more
than 90 pounds soaking wet. We smile and wish them well as we continue north.
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in Shelter #6
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Down here along the base is not
even close to the leisurely stroll we experienced up on top, not that it’s
overgrown because it’s not, but we’re going up and down little rocky hills one after the next. But it isn’t bad, we
soon pass a couple small shallow caves and then at the apparent end of the
trail is a small shelter cave about twenty feet high and maybe twenty-five wide, it has some good-sized flat rocks inside that we use for a little break before heading back.
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long narrow bear crack
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On the way out we count
three separate climbing areas with bolts up
the face of the bluff, a very tall wet weather waterfall and a long very narrow
bear crack with a curve in it, which may
reach the top of the bluff (I turn around about halfway to the top). Reaching the Dog Walk we turn and
head uphill zig-zagging our way to Campground Road, turn north on the
road back to the truck north of the Sam’s Throne entrance in the big
campsite, and the end of today’s hike.
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modern rock art
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We got exactly what we were looking for today; an easy
leisurely hike with no undergrowth, poison ivy or bugs and had a
great time in the process. The Point (top and bottom) was just over 2.6 miles with an elevation gain of 352
feet. For past hiking adventures at Sam's Throne see: (26 Chicken Head Wall) and (91 Valley of the Blind...)
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unique vista near the point
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The Point: Statistics Chart 102 Sam's Throne is easy to get to, from Mt. Judea at the intersection of Highways 123 and 74, go south on Highway 123 up the mountain around numerous switchbacks approximately 4.3 miles to the signed Sam's Throne entrance. Or if coming from the south at the intersection of Highways 123 and 7 in Lurton go north on Highway 123 about 10.3 miles to Sam's Throne entrance road west.
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| 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 |
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