169 Lost Valley

     Once an Arkansas State Park, Lost Valley is now part of the Buffalo National River, and one of the most popular day-hike destinations in the state.  Today is Tuesday so hopefully it won’t be too crowded, I’m joined today by daughter Jema and grandchild Julz who are visiting over spring-break.

Natural Bridge 

    After a quick stop at Ponca low water bridge to see the river level, we head down Highway 43 less than a mile to Lost Valley Road and arrive at the big parking lot around 10:00 to find maybe ten cars and a small bus already here which isn’t bad, I have seen this lot full to the brim with seemingly hundreds of vehicles.  Starting out west on the handicap accessible Lost Valley Trail first to the picnic pavilion and restroom area, then across Clark Creek.

below Ponca low-water bridge

    Still headed west on the wide, manicured trail going upstream along mostly dry Clark Creek we pass a couple trails to the right.  These provide access to the creek and up a couple steep feeder streams to the north, one containing Armadillo Falls.  We continue up into the valley passing a few wooden benches and some interpretive displays.

wet weather falls east of Natural Bridge (Julz image)

    It’s about ¾ of a mile on the nice wide wheelchair ready Lost Valley Trail to the signed intersection where the Lost Valley Loop begins, and handicap accessibility ends.  We take the right fork down to Clark Creek which has plenty of water flowing up here (unlike downstream), along with many large, impressive boulders and a couple small yet tall wet weather falls streaming off the bluffline.

Julz on the Jigsaw Blocks

    At the head of the lovely blue-green pool is a beautiful waterfall in the entrance to the Natural Bridge which in my opinion (worthless of course) is a tunnel not a natural bridge.  The best thing at ‘Natural Bridge’ is this wonderful waterfall that some folks (online) refer to as ‘Natural Bridge Falls’ others call it ‘Lost Valley Falls’ whatever its ‘real’ name is doesn’t matter.

north side of Clark Creek to Natural Bridge

    This gorgeous waterfall is about ten feet tall and almost as wide, we climb up on the right side of the falls into the tunnel (Natural Bridge).  The exit out the back that appeared to be pretty small from down below the falls is actually just as big or bigger than the entrance was.  Along the way through, climbing across smooth irregular rocks is a fast-flowing water confluence where about half the flow of water comes in the north side of the tunnel from underground through a narrow chute.

Natural Bridge Falls or is it Lost Valley Falls

    Out the back we’re in a small ‘box canyon’ with a little cave to the north, Julz climbs down through the low entrance a short way into the cave finding the fast-moving underground stream that emerges maybe fifty feet downstream inside the Natural Bridge.  We climb out of the box canyon up a good little trail headed southwest back onto the ‘main’ trail.

tall bluffs near Cob Cave

    Continuing west we soon come to a short side trail that takes us down across the creek then up into Cob Cave.  A large dry shelter, Cob Cave got its name from the small corn cobs discovered before and during various archeological digs conducted throughout the nineteen thirties.  Just past Cob Cave we come to the base of Eden Falls.

little 'wet' cave in box canyon

    This is Lower Eden Falls, 41 feet tall by Tim Ernst’s measurements and breathtaking today after the storm that rolled through late last night.  Two friendly photographers here offer to take some shots of the three of us posed in front of beautiful Lower Eden Falls.  There are four ‘Eden Falls’: Upper, Middle, Lower and in the dark is Eden Cave Falls.  The Middle Falls below the mouth of Eden Cave though flowing good today is hard to get a view of, and Upper Eden Falls the tallest of the bunch further up Clark Creek is apparently dry.

stacked stonework up in back of Cob Cave (Julz image)

    We head up the steep trail with lots of stone steps to the entrance to Eden Cave, almost five years ago when I was here last, we didn’t get far inside the cave (see: 22 Lost Valley).  Entering Eden Cave, we hop across the creek which is rapidly exiting out the mouth of the cave made of smooth wet rock.  Everywhere inside the cave is actually smooth and wet, we fire up our lights and cautiously make our way through the big ‘entry chamber’ back to the southwest corner.

Julz in the back Clark Creek in the front

    Here in the corner of the room begins a very narrow (usually less than two feet wide) passage that gradually curves around to the left where it splits, to the right is a little taller but even narrower, I can’t fit.  Instead, we go left crawling through a low tight jagged hole and of course it’s all very wet, once back up on our feet there’s more of the narrow passageway back into the ‘back room’ and the apparent end of Eden Cave.

Lower Eden Falls

    The back room is oval shaped at a little over a hundred square feet, with roaring Eden Cave Falls plunging 35 feet (Kenneth Smith) from a ledge up near the roof.  With our phones and flashlights, we try to get enough light for a picture of the waterfall.  The echoing roar of the falls makes it near impossible to communicate and water droplets are bouncing all around off walls floor and even ceiling, I decide against getting my old EOS Rebel out of its ‘almost waterproof’ case.

Dwarf Crested Iris (Julz image)

    Going out from the back room Julz takes a different route which involves about a forty-foot crawl on the wet floor (not recommended), Jema and I go back the way we came in.  In ‘Buffalo River Country’ Ken Smith wrote it is 200 feet from the mouth of the cave back to Eden Cave Falls.  Quite an adventure, I’ll probably never do again, I can cross this one off the bucket list.

entrance chamber of Eden Cave

    Now heading out of Lost Valley first it’s down many stone and concrete steps, and before getting back to the wide manicured trail we take a short little side trip with a downed tree across the trail to lovely little Moss Falls which I always try to remember to check out when visiting Lost Valley, then down the hill to the main trail and back to the car.

Moss Falls

    Today turned out to be a great day to visit popular Lost Valley, sure there were others out enjoying the trails but nothing close to the swarms of people encountered on my last visit here, on our way out today the parking area had about the same number of cars as when we arrived.  The distance hiked today was 3.4 miles with 508 feet of elevation gain, and we had a great time.

above Moss Falls (Julz image)

Lost Valley: Statistics Chart 169     It’s easy to get here, the big parking lot is at the end of Lost Valley Road (NC 1015) about 0.3 miles from the turn off Highway 43.  This signed intersection is 1.0 mile south of the Highway 74 intersection, or 3.3 miles north of the end of Hwy. 43 at Highway 21.

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