As October winds down, it’s shaping up to be one of the hottest on
record and also one of the driest.
Evidently the lack of rain has an adverse effect on the fall colors, well they still seem pretty
awesome to me, so we have decided to go for a ‘country drive’ to admire the
autumnal display. I have picked Richland
Road for our little tour since the lack of rain should ensure easy crossings of
both Buffalo River and Richland Creek.
 |
out on The Narrows
|
We head for Woolum, planning to drive down North Richland Road (SC 14)
from north to south. Taking N. Woolum
Road out of Pindall is the way to go since the S. Woolum Road out of Saint Joe
has fallen victim to High Banks of
the Buffalo. If you do come down S.
Woolum, detour around the road closure on Oakland Road, it’s a little rough
with multiple creek crossings see: 129 Robertson Hole. |
N. Richland Rd. near Buffalo Richland confluence
|
Passing through Woolum we see loads of horse trailers over in the
campground, and after a quick ‘pit stop’ take North Richland Road down to the
Buffalo River. The old or original river
ford appears shallow and easily ‘doable’ but I head west (upstream) along the
river to the new ford knowing there,
the crossing is even easier. And
besides, this is the crossing we’re familiar with see: 128 Benton’s Pond. |
knee deep at old Woolum Ford
|
Today the Buffalo is only about six inches deep across the ford, a piece
of cake, but you still probably want something with high ground clearance and
4-WD doesn’t hurt either. I have crossed
the river here when the water was close to two feet deep and moving fast, that
is about my limit for our little 4X4 pickup.
Everybody and every vehicle is different, and river conditions change
all the time, don’t trust my experiences you’ll have to evaluate then decide
for yourself. |
deeper at Richland Creek OHT crossing
|
Across then up the sandy bank we turn left back onto North Richland
Road, and just over a hundred yards east the road ends at the old Woolum ford. We park in the high grass off the road and
get out to find the Ozark Highlands Trail heading east crossing Richland
Creek. Formerly Woolum Ford marked the
end of the OHT at 164 miles. Now with
the addition of the BRT/OHT continuing from here to Dillard’s Ferry the overall
continuous distance of the OHT is approximately 207 miles. |
new fence in the works at overgrown Narrows Cemetery
|
I remember seeing a picture online once of an old wooden sign stating
‘Lake Ft. Smith 164 miles’ with an arrow pointing west, but we can’t find a
sign today not even any blazes. Where
the road enters the Buffalo we head upstream across dry round river rock in
Richland Creek, but stop right away to watch a group of close to twenty
horseback riders cross the Buffalo River (about knee deep on a horse) then
disappear up the road. |
access up to the Nars
|
They soon reappear on the bank of Richland Creek and head across. Kat and I are standing in the middle of
Richland Creek near the confluence with the Buffalo, Richland is dry as a bone
here, but fifty feet upstream where the BRT/OHT crosses the stream is up to the
horses belly’s. So, now we have found
the OHT or more accurately the trail has been pointed out by twenty horses. |
| base of The Narrows along Richland Rd. |
 |
looking down from top of access
|
If not for the horse traffic that just passed I would never have noticed
a trail at all, it’s very overgrown.
Back in the truck we turn around and head west soon passing a big green
wooden sign that I don’t read (something to do with Gene Rush WMA), the road
turns to the south. We stop at a small
pull-out parking area at the base of a steep hill. At the top is Narrows Cemetery, Kat loves an
old cemetery, we head up the hill. |
Buffalo River from top of Narrows access
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It isn’t ‘steep’ all the way to the cemetery, only the first 100 yards
are a little rough. The trail though is
pretty faint, the dead leaves don’t help either but just past a big old oak we
reach the southeast corner of Narrows Cemetery.
Apparently Narrows Cemetery is in the process of receiving a new wood
fence, the new posts are in the ground around the perimeter but much work
remains. What this cemetery needs much
more than a new fence is weed removal and clean-up, most headstones are knocked
down and broken, lots of work remains. |
Robertson Hill northeast of Richland Valley
|
Continuing south on North Richland Road we soon come alongside a
bluffline on our right, this is the base of The Narrows. A hundred yards or so further we park at the
side of the road, it’s pretty tight but I manage to get out of traffic. It’s a good thing too, a long caravan of
Jeeps pass by heading south. N. Richland
Rd. which ‘is’ the Ozark Highlands Trail from just short of mile 160 to the
afore mentioned mile 164 is often referred to as the ‘loneliest road in
Arkansas’ but today with the low water conditions it seems to have gained some
popularity. |
looking down on Richland Rd.
|
To get to the beginning of the walk on the ‘Nars’ first I have to climb
the nearly vertical rock access, it’s
maybe twenty feet up with many little ledges for foot-holds, easier going up
than down. At the top the vistas just
get better and better the farther out on The Narrows I go, to start its maybe
five feet wide and narrows down to about two, I don’t go all the way to the
pinnacle at the end. |
pinnacle atop The Narrows
|
Views are incredible in all directions: The Buffalo River below on my
left and N. Richland Rd. below on my right, vistas all across Richland Valley,
the top of Skull Bluff, a mysterious cave mouth up on the side of the bluff,
beautiful Leafy Hole down to the southwest even otter slides on the bank of the
Buffalo below... Definitely a great place to see the world, just be careful a
fall from here most likely wouldn’t end well.
For me the hardest part of the Nars is the descent back down the
vertical access, slow and steady I reach bottom. |
note the otter slides down the bank
|
North Richland Road effectively ‘dissects’ the mountain side to the west
from Richland Valley to the east, with many heavy steel gates on both sides of
the road keeping all the off-roaders on the road. And the road is pretty narrow, opposing
traffic does manage to squeeze past each other, parking spots are few and far
between. We stop at the next ‘spot’ we
come to near another ‘dry’ creek crossing. |
ruins are out there, sometimes you just have to look twice
|
Roughly 100 yards north of the creek crossing is where the future
Buffalo River Trail will someday
provide hiking opportunity from here to Pruitt.
Portions of this future BRT already contain trails and much more follows
faint old road traces, including this proposed ‘end point’ at Richland Road
where I can see an old road heading up the hillside to the west (for portions
of the route I have explored see: 137 to the mouth of Cave Creek, and 138 Ed Clair Hollow). Just south of the dry
creek is a curious trail heading up the mountain blazed with orange fluorescent
flagging. |
old barn at side of road (a good parking spot)
|
Onward south we go, soon arriving at a more substantial creek crossing
south of Scott Hollow. With heavy gates
on both sides of the road we pull in and park being sure not to block the
gate. Walking up the old roadway are at
least six structures, two are side-by-side houses both in poor condition, a
couple more are equally dismal outbuildings, and one complete with water and electric
a metal NPS maintenance building clearly labeled ‘authorized personnel
only’. The faint road continues up the
little valley but we turn back to N. Richland Rd. |
well-kept Hall Cemetery
|
This is a ‘lonely’ place, even with all of today’s Jeep traffic we still feel a sense of solitude and serenity here in
Richland Valley which before the Civil
War was a rich productive farming area.
We cross four more dry creeks, pass an old barn next to the road a
couple more parking spots, all very peaceful.
Just a tenth of a mile south of mile marker 160 the OHT heads west
leaving the road. Then Richland Creek
ford, this is a wide crossing somewhat diagonal about 100 feet across, and
today dry as a bone. We cross easily
dodging a few basketball sized round river rock. |
Kat picks up a hitch-hiker
|
Now south of Richland the creek, Richland the road runs parallel above
the banks before turning back south at another of those large green wood signs,
again something about Gene Rush WMA and all caves being off limits. In a big sweeping s-curve N. Richland Rd. (SC 14) ends at Richland Rd.
(SC 12) continuing around the big curve we stop at Hall Cemetery. This is a very well kept cemetery of good
size and interred are some of the areas Civil War casualties. |
the same butterfly as above
|
From Hall Cemetery we climb up Point Peter Mountain over McCutchen Gap
and down into Snowball, then out to Highway 65. North toward home to Grinders
Ferry where we park out on the larger than normal (thanks to low river levels)
gravel bar. Here we drop the tailgate
for an enjoyable lunch next to babbling Buffalo River, only about ten feet wide
here today. While the fall colors took a
‘back seat’ to all the other incredible sights/sites of the day the ‘autumnal
display’ was the icing on the cake. |
| our lunch stop spot at Grinders Ferry |
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