It’s Christmas Eve and the weather is just beautiful, so
nice in fact it would be a shame not
to get out and do something. We go for a drive around the Buffalo scouting possible parking spots for future hikes. A little over 3/4 of a mile on Tyler Bend Road, Peter
Cave Road heads off west and down into a Calf Creek drainage. At the bottom after crossing a little creek
we notice an old house in ruins off to the south in the woods near the creek, and just beyond an intersection.
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short trail to vista
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We pull
off Peter Cave Road and park on a side road at a cable gate that’s
open, this looks to be a possible hike for the future. Just about 100 feet farther on Peter Cave
Road the OHT/BRT heads off the road northeast up to Collier’s Homestead,
going the other way northwest from here, Peter Cave Road is the Ozark Highlands/Buffalo River Trail. We are now driving on the trail and soon cross Calf Creek which is
about twenty feet wide and very pretty. |
Luther Arnold Homesite
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From Calf Creek,
it’s about a quarter mile to Luther
Arnold's old house. The
frame house has three or four rooms downstairs, since it’s in pretty bad
condition I don’t risk going inside. South of the house is a small structure that may have been a shop, or maybe a guest house. Right on the side of the road across the street I assume is a small barn or maybe a big carriage house,
whatever it is, it too is in poor shape. |
mother-in-law quarters?
|
Another quarter mile at a road intersection, next to the road is another old
barn this one has some windows, maybe it's a house? Across the road
a cable gate blocks access to an old road north which may be the Old
River Trail. 200 yards further is Old Arnold Cemetery, a good-sized
graveyard enclosed
by a wood fence, we park at the west end of the cemetery. Old Arnold Cemetery has quite a few large, quarried
stone gravesites but I am unable to find any legible headstones. |
Old Arnold Cemetery
|
Walking back to the car I see a hiker coming down the road towards
us. It turns out
he started his hike in Lake Fort Smith State Park at the very beginning of the
Ozark Highlands Trail, by his estimate here in front of Old Arnold Cemetery is
about 180 miles into the hike. He plans to finish this trek in two or three more days at Dillard’s
Ferry where Hwy. 14 crosses the Buffalo River and the trail ends (for now anyway). |
large stone scattered in Old Arnold Cemetery
|
He relates a harrowing tale: Six days ago,
it was near dusk when he
slipped and fell into Greenhaw Creek, the temperature in the low forties and a
cold front blowing in he knew he had to find shelter and build a fire to dry
out. As darkness fell,
he strapped on his
headlamp and trudged on in the dark 2-3 more miles to Moore CCC camp where he
took shelter in an old stone building on the edge of the trail. Building a fire in the
old fireplace he was able to dry out and spend the night in relative comfort. |
first vista along Peter Cave Road
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He does look a little worse for wear hunched over from the weight of his pack and wearing a knee brace, he says he
should get moving, he plans to get cleaned up at Calf Creek before
hopefully making it past Grinders Ferry before nightfall. I wish him a ‘merry Christmas and good luck’ as
we continue on our way. |
Peter Cave Overlook
|
Another quarter mile is a cable gate blocking a road to the
north and 100 feet farther another road and a sign reading ‘New Arnold
Cemetery’ we
turn here and under half
a mile is ‘newer’
Arnold Cemetery with a lot of the Arnold family and many others as well,
the cemetery seems to be well cared for. Back to Peter Cave Road and
another side road in about a quarter mile going left, no gate but we keep going to another old road this one to the right, more future adventures. |
Tie Slide Vista
|
Half a mile more brings us to the top of Peter Cave Bluff with three impressive must stop
vistas. The first has no name that I’m
aware of, the second just 100 yards further south is Peter Cave Overlook, the third a good quarter mile south is Tie Slide Vista. All three are short walks from the edge of
the road and have marvelous views of the Buffalo River over 200 feet
below. About 100 yards south of Tie
Slide Vista the OHT/BRT leaves the road following the top of the bluff
off to the west, the road curves to the south and soon crosses the boundary out of the BNR. |
Tie Slide Vista
|
Now out of the national park we begin seeing homes and small farms,
Peter Cave Road ends at Gateway Road where we turn right (north) and after
about a half mile back into the BNR and down a hill where the OHT/BRT crosses
the road. We keep going now north and
pass three more road intersections, at the third Gateway Road swings around to
the west as we gradually head downhill toward the Buffalo River. |
on the gravel bar beneath Love Hensley Bluff
|
At the river the road curves back to the
north on the gravel bar along the river with
dead wood piled up all around. This bend
in the river evidently catches lots of debris when the river is flooded. The road has ended back probably
100 yards or more so we find a place on the gravel bar clear of downed trees
where we can turn around. We walk around on the gravel bar a little and admire Love Hensley Bluff
directly north of us. Backtracking out
on Gateway Road to River Road takes us into Snowball,
the end of
today’s driving adventure along Peter Cave Road in the Buffalo National River.
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