We’re pretty excited this morning, it has finally cooled off enough to
do some hiking and we are ready. I
decide to try and find Big Point Lookout, mainly because on the map it appears to be a fairly
easy hike, (we’ll see). I have a whole
list of other places I want to check out along the way, so we get an early
start out the door.
 |
Blue Hole in early autumn
|
On highway 123 south, our first stop is Blue Hole on the Buffalo,
this is Blue Hole #5, with Eddings Cave across the river up a little ravine (see: 57 Blue Hole). We want to see what this hole looks like
at the end of summer with low water levels and get a few pictures while we’re
here, the water levels certainly are ‘low’.
Other than a small area around the bend at the downstream end of the
hole, Blue Hole is only 3 or 4 feet deep, that includes under the rope
swing. |
vista from above Hell and Gone
|
About halfway back up to the highway, is a pull-off parking spot on the
east side of the road, we park deciding to check it out. On the west side of the road is an old trash
dump, mostly rusty cans and lots of glass, and just north of this is a trail
which heads down behind the dumpsite before a switchback north then continues
downhill. |
nice views from Hell and Gone
|
I soon find myself at the edge
of a bluff high above the Buffalo River, taking several pictures along the way
I continue down the trail which gets steeper and a little ‘treacherous’ the
farther I go. The footing along this
trail becomes precarious to say the least, and I’m wishing I had changed into
my hiking boots. I assume this has to be
the trail to ‘Hell and Gone Cave’ aka ‘Hard to Get to Caves’. At a spot where the trail descends through a
rocky crevice to a lower level, from there I can’t see where it goes, I
decide this is far enough. A slip would
most certainly result in serious injury or worse, I head back up the trail to
the truck, but I’ll keep Hell and Gone Caves in my ‘mental go-to list’ to check
out someday when I’m better equipped for climbing, as the name suggests these
two caves are known to be extremely
‘hard to get to’.
 |
Wildlife Campground
|
Continuing south our next stop is in the Bass area, namely Hurricane
Lake. Before actually arriving in Bass,
we turn off Highway 74 at the bottom of George Mountain, heading north a short way to a concrete low water bridge over Cave Creek. It’s a ‘round about’ route to get there but
we eventually pull into the ‘Wildlife Campground’ on the shore of Hurricane
Lake. My first impression of Hurricane
Lake is that it’s not as big as I expected, but still a beautiful little lake
with a very nice open parklike
campground. There aren’t ‘designated’
campsites so I’m assuming you just setup camp wherever you like. We walk around a little and after meeting the
campground ‘welcoming committee’ who doesn’t talk much but sure does wag his tail a lot, we
head back out.
 |
Hurricane Lake
|
Going
back through Bass then crossing Cave Creek again on the low water bridge south
of ‘town’ we notice construction work in progress, apparently a new bridge is
in the works, so ‘stay tuned’. We head
up the mountain to Richland Wilderness.
Passing by the parking and trailhead for Sandstone Castles is a new
trailhead sign, we continue to Iceledo Gap. |
on the road to Hurricane Lake
|
I pull in south on Hill Cemetery Road, we just want to see if we can even get
to the cemetery and trailhead for Big Devil’s Fork to Twin Falls. This road is rough and narrow but at least
today is dry, we scrape bottom on a few
big rocks and receive some new
pinstripes but arrive at Hill Cemetery in one piece. Hill Cemetery is fenced and has maybe fifty
graves mostly of Hill family members. I
poke around some along the overgrown
north side of the cemetery fence until I locate the signed trailhead. At some future date I’d like to hike from
here down Big Devil’s Fork to Twin Falls passing many other great waterfalls
along the way, but not today, we slowly make our way back up the rough road to
Iceledo Gap.
 |
Hill Cemetery
|
East of Iceledo Gap on Falling Water Road we soon pass Dickey Junction
then come to our parking area for Big Point Lookout. At a locked Forest Service gate on the east
side of the road is enough room for maybe four vehicles to park without blocking the
gate. Past the gate we hike on the road, which is uphill all the way.  |
Big Point parking area
|
At the top
we are on Big Point Ridge and in a big field which has recently been mowed, we
follow the ridge on the faint double track.
It’s easy hiking but with very little tree cover we are in the direct sun for
about a mile all the way through this big, big field. To the very end of the field in the
south corner where there’s a strip of pink ribbon tied in a tree with a small handwritten sign hidden in the woods. This is the beginning, trailhead for the Big Point Lookout
horse trail. |
on the ridge with loads of sunshine
|
Although the Big Point Lookout Trail doesn’t appear to get much use,
it’s a pretty good trail that only becomes faint in a few places, it is mostly downhill from here and the further we go the steeper it gets. Now on the narrow ridge of Big Point we
arrive at some big flat rocks and apparently the end of the trail. From here on the rocks, we can clearly see
Upper Big Point Lookout just 20 to 30 feet in front of us. Upper Big Point Lookout is a huge rock about
the size of a house and has a flat top which affords a panoramic 360°
view. But how to get on the top, Kat
says ‘no way she’ll wait for me here and hopefully won’t have to call in a helicopter to save my
dumbass.’
 |
south end of field at trailhead
|
We have come this far, I want to at least give it a try to get on top
of the lookout, but obviously I don’t want to get hurt trying. I carefully make my way down off our rock
perch on the west side through a couple downed cedars onto a narrow rocky
ledge and gingerly cross about fifteen feet to the edge of the Upper
Lookout. From here to the top of the lookout involves a
short climb straight up about 8 to 10 feet, it looks like I can do this, but
without a rope I don’t think I could get back down. Yeah, maybe wisely I chicken out and climb
down on the east side of the lookout rock to the bottom.
 |
along the base of Upper Big Point Lookout
|
I hike around the huge rock, then west along the base of the bluff where
Kat is patiently waiting thirty or forty feet above me. Less than 100 feet west, up a steep rocky
hill I see a tall narrow cave entrance and climb up to check it out. At the mouth of the cave, I continue climbing to the very back of this short cave only about 50 feet
deep. Not much of a cave really, but it
does have some very interesting ‘swirling’ designs in the rock walls, I can’t even imagine what forces of nature created these swirls. |
interesting rocks inside steep narrow cave
|
I head down out of the little cave and back out around Upper Big Point
where I find a little easier path
back up to the top of the bluff where Kat is waiting on the rocks. We look farther down the mountain below Upper Big Point Lookout for any signs of Big Point Lookout but can't see anything through the thick green cover of treetops. |
view near Big Point
|
Here we have lunch while I rest and re-cap my
‘adventures’ down below. Returning uphill to the trailhead then across the mile
long field on the ridge and back down the old road to the parking area, we have
had a ‘full day’ no doubt as its past 5:00 when we reach the truck. Other than the hot sunny trek through the
long field this was a great hike, our total distance hiked at Big Point was
just over 3 miles with an elevation gain of 620 feet.
Big Point Look Out: The parking area off Falling Water Road (FS 1205), on the east side
across the road from Richland Creek Wilderness at the forest service gate is about
2.1 miles south of Dickey Junction, or approximately 2.7 miles north of the
concrete bridge over Richland 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 |
Comments