When
looking at any map of the Buffalo River, Seven Mile Bend better known as ‘The
Duck Head’ is familiar and really stands out, therefore a major point of
interest. Being in the Lower Buffalo
Wilderness and right across the river from popular and easy to reach Rush
Historic District, I would look at a map and say to myself, ‘so close and yet
so far away’. But that’s not true at
all, an easy drive to the end of Cozahome Road provides great access to the ‘Duck
Head’.
 |
The Mystic Hole
|
I
get to Jackson Ridge Trailhead aka Cozahome Trailhead (the same trailhead used for 153 Devil’s Tea Table), at about 9:30 and meet five or six turkey hunters. All are completely decked out
head to toe in camo gear, even their shotguns are camo. They have been here since before sunrise and
are getting ready to move on to ‘somewhere else’, they tell me they heard a
few gobblers but haven’t seen a turkey all morning. Starting their trucks, the hunters head out as
I hit the trail. |
| Jackson Ridge Trail |
 |
view of Buffalo and bluff from Jackson Ridge
|
Today’s
plan is to hike into the top of Silver Hollow to check out what Danny Hale in
his book ‘TAKAHIK Wilderness Areas of Arkansas’ describes as many sinkholes and
The Mystic Hole. Danny documented a
bunch of interesting sinkholes and rock patios in a pretty small area, his
roundtrip hike was only 2.6 miles. So
I expect to be back to the truck by noon at the latest, that should
give me plenty of time to do a thorough exploration. |
| Cut-thru Road |
 |
rock patio @ Rock Chairs 25
|
Past
the trailhead billboard and around the cable gate the trail is in fine shape, This
is ‘Jackson Ridge Trail’ since the old road it follows was Jackson Ridge
Road. Although it’s pretty obvious this
was once a road, it has been a long time since any kind of vehicle has used it,
many of the trees growing in the road are close to ten inches in diameter, all
in all an easy walk in the dense woods. |
| white fringe tree |
 |
deep sinkhole 26
|
Just
a couple hundred yards, is the first intersection, branching off to the right is
‘Laffoon Bottom Trail’ again named after the road. This would be the way to go
if I wanted to take the shortest route possible to the top of Silver Hollow. But I stay on Jackson Ridge which makes the
hike only slightly longer, I’ll come back later on Laffoon Bottom Trail
to make today’s a nice short loop hike. |
| typical rock outcrop |
 |
low bluff with wet weather falls
|
About
0.7 miles further on Jackson Ridge Rd. brings me to the next trail junction, where I turn right on ‘Cut-thru Road’, once again an old road now a trail. Pretty much all downhill Cut-thru Road soon
ends at Laffoon Bottom Road, with another old road branching off left to the
northeast, I’ll call this one ‘Silver Hollow Road’. An obvious road and easy trail this
gets me right to the top of the sinkhole area, all hiking so far has been on clean easy trails. |
| approaching sunken grotto |
 |
sunken grotto with hole in the roof 28
|
Slightly
downhill on Silver Hollow Rd. soon another road intersection, I follow the
left fork which continues downhill but quickly fizzles out in the woods. Not a problem though, from here I see bare
rocks down in the little drainage west and head that way, landing on a small
rock patio after about 200 feet. Here on
the scenic patio is a little rock ledge with a three foot waterfall
below and evidence of a campfire. |
low bluffs and easy bushwhacking
|
I
circle around and cross the little creek just upstream, and on the other side I
find a much bigger turtle rock patio complete with ‘rock chairs’. North
around a rock outcrop and west under 200 feet is a deep sinkhole like a
vertical shaft. It looks like it might
have a cave at the bottom, bring climbing gear if you want to check out this
wet twenty foot deep shaft. From here
it’s north and east to a small sinkhole with a short bluffline behind. |
| lots of fringe trees |
 |
deep sinkhole with tree in it 29
|
Back
west then south I’m just zig-zagging around in the open wood, all bushwhack but
very easy. Some of the sinks are easy to
find being just below a short bluff or grotto, but others would be chance
encounters without Danny Hale’s GPS coordinates. I stumble onto one tiny sinkhole under a
mossy low bluff, the rest that I visit are documented in ‘TAKAHIK
Wilderness Areas of Arkansas’. |
grotto with waterfall and low bluffs
|
To
the north, next is a good sized sunken grotto with a hole through the roof,
then around a rocky corner and uphill continuing mostly west is another deep
shaft sinkhole, this one with a big tree growing up through the
shaft. This sink is at the east end of
the biggest rock patio yet, crossing the back of the turtle shell still
headed mostly west I pass another small sinkhole and into a side drainage with grotto at its head. |
waterfall/shelter/grotto
|
Another
nice grotto this one has a waterfall, lots of sharp mossy rocks
and reportedly a spring. Down the
drainage and east about 150 yards is a small sink with a bigger one just uphill
behind it. This ‘bigger’ hole could be
considered two separate close together sinkholes. Then around the corner east and further
uphill is the biggest of the bunch, ‘200 feet in diameter and 30 deep’. |
@ deep sinkhole 33
|
Standing
at the access on the north side I can see into the low rocky shelter on the
south side, it doesn’t look too risky to climb down from here but
the four foot drop off a wet ledge here at the top would not be easy climbing
back out, I decide to just view from the top.
I circle around ‘The Big Sinkhole 35’ in a counterclockwise direction
and take a lot of pictures, seeing these pics later, I know now a big sinkhole is
something a photo can’t do justice to, you must see it for yourself. |
looking into the Big Sinkhole 35
|
From
here at the southeast edge of the Big Sinkhole it’s almost 100 yards southeast
to the top of the low ridge and a big hole in the roof of Mystic Hole. After peering down into the hole, circle
around in either direction down to the grotto entrance, once inside you’ll be
standing at the bottom of ‘Mystic Hole 36’ which looks a lot deeper from up
top. Today Mystic Hole has water flowing in through the entrance from the top of the little drainage. |
Mystic Hole 36 from the top
|
Mystic
Hole marks the end of ‘the Sinkholes tour’ from here head south back up to Laffoon
Bottom Trail and back to the car. But
curiosity gets the best of me, I head north instead over a low ridge hoping to find a
‘spring’ where the water flowing into Mystic Hole makes an ‘exit’ back to the
surface. I don’t intend to go far though
since this is off script from the original plan, no spring in
sight as I continue down the gentle hill and suddenly land on an old road. |
| entrance level @ Mystic Hole |
 |
just inside Mystic Hole
|
I’m
thinking to myself that maybe this is the road that forked off to the right not
far below Laffoon Bottom Road, further down ‘Silver Hollow Road’ if you
will. This is too good to be true, I
can’t just turn around now, and besides I still haven’t found a spring. I start down Silver Hollow on this good easy
to follow old road, the creek now on the right side of the road consists of
lots of big white rock and completely dry. |
| almost under 'the hole' |
 |
looking out from the bottom of Mystic Hole
|
But
soon down at creek level about thirty feet below the road is a good sized
sycamore tree with water flowing up through the white rocks and roots of the
tree. Well, one mystery solved, now I
wonder if this road is ‘passable’ all the way to the Buffalo? Looking at my map it looks to be about ¾ a
mile to the river, all downhill, of course that means ‘all uphill’ coming
back. I continue down the road, stoked
onward by this awesome ‘sense of discovery’. |
| back outside of Mystic Hole |
 |
looking for a spring
|
Along
the way down, the road crosses the creek two or three times and naturally is
washed out in a few places. About 200
yards from ‘sycamore spring’ is a nice 8-10 feet wide cascade coming down from
a side drainage to the east on smooth bedrock, and just below that a very
pretty grotto with a waterfall off the top and another small fall in ‘Silver’
creek. Almost 100 yards further a side
drainage comes in from the southwest. |
| white rocks in Silver Hollow with old road to the left |
 |
spring in Silver Hollow at base of sycamore
|
I
head upstream not 100 feet on this side stream to another gorgeous grotto with
waterfall, on the east side of the grotto are the remains of a barbed-wire
fence. Back out on the other side of
Silver Hollow is a tall bluffline with some massive rocks that have fallen into
a jumble. Continuing down the road for
the next almost 200 yards are five or more old tree falls across the road, none
of these are difficult to get around. |
| along Silver Hollow Rd. |
 |
Waterfall Grotto off Silver Hollow Rd.
|
In
another 100 yards or so, just off the road on the left is a neat little
cave. The entrance is about eight feet
wide and just as high, the cave has a flat ceiling which leads me to wonder if
this may be a mine shaft. Not very deep,
maybe 30 feet and muddy in the very back, I get a couple quick pics before
heading out to the road and continue to the Buffalo. As the descent decreases I know I must be
getting close to the river. |
scenic beauty in Waterfall Grotto
|
About
150 yards further I’m surprised to find a road junction, the road I’m on
continues down the west side of Silver Hollow, the fork to the right crosses
the creek and heads around a gentle hillside to the east. Not much farther the road becomes harder to
distinguish from the surrounding woods now with lots of cane. Also the ‘Silver creek’ no longer has the big
signature white rock, now instead it’s mostly mud. Somewhere along here I spot the Buffalo
River. |
bluffs east of Silver Hollow Rd.
|
The
road seems to have disappeared in the muddy undergrowth, across Silver Hollow
the east bank looks like sand. I make my
way down the wet muddy west bank (only falling in the mud once), through more
mud at the bottom then up the sandy east bank.
At the top I leave Silver Hollow behind, now I’m headed downstream on
the Buffalo River. The Buffalo is
running high and green/brown, somewhere up there on the other side of the river is
Laffoon Cemetery Trail but I can’t find it through all the spring greenery (see: 135 Clabber to Cedar). |
looking out from small cave, or is it a mine shaft?
|
Up
here above the river on this nice clean sand bar is a relief, I
knock as much mud off my boots as best I can and continue downriver some
200 feet. Back to the south a little
above me is what appears to be a road, I climb up the little hillside through
some ‘flood deposited trees’ to a very faint road trace. This takes me back to the southwest toward
Silver Hollow, losing the road at a large fallen tree as I’m nearing Silver
I detour through the woods only 60 feet or so to where I’m back on Silver
Hollow Rd. |
| on a sandbar at the Buffalo |
 |
'pedestal point' vista above the Buffalo
|
Now
headed back, yes it’s all uphill but never steep, and the trek goes pretty
fast, near the top of the hollow after the creek is basically gone I just keep
heading south and eventually land on Laffoon Bottom Trail. From there I’m in the shady woods the rest of
the way to the trailhead/parking at the end of Cozahome Road. Today I had a great time with a high sense of
discovery finding a good old road I never would have believed existed going the
entire length of beautiful Silver Hollow. |
| a great day at the Buffalo River |
 |
on Laffoon Bottom Rd.
|
Silver
Hollow Road may be impassable after real heavy torrential rains, we had over
3.5 inches of rain in the past two days, I barely got my feet wet and while all
the waterfalls had some flow they could definitely use more. The fascinating sinkholes and turtle rocks of 'Mystic Hole' are a very special treat and so easy to get to, but don’t
pass up Silver Hollow which completes this scenic outdoor adventure in the
Ozarks. Today I hiked 5.9 miles with 840
feet of elevation gain, needless to say I wasn’t back at the truck by noon. |
| obstructed views of Buffalo from Laffoon Bottom Rd. |
 |
back at Jackson Ridge Trailhead
|
Mystic Hole/Silver Hollow: Statistics Chart 198 Jackson Ridge Trailhead is at the end of Cozahome Road. From the
Buffalo River/Hwy. 14 bridge it’s 4.4 miles south or from Harriet at the
intersection of Hwy. 14/27 it’s about 3.35 miles north. Head east on Cozahome Rd. (SC 61, MC450) the
first 2 miles are paved, then around 3.5 miles in, the road curves to the north
and passes through Cozahome. At about 5.2
miles is signed Big Creek Rd. keep going 3 more miles to roads end (8+
miles total from Hwy. 14).
 |
| base map before fair use alterations is property of USGS--licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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