Saturday Ramble

Hurricane Gustav parked itself over Arkansas most of last week and dumped a whole bunch of rain, so I hoped enough water would be left running on Saturday to have the waterfalls at full glory. Perusing the Arkansas waterfall Bible written by Tim Ernst, I picked out Tea Kettle Falls to visit.

Tea Kettle is in the Madison County Wildlife Management Area south of Eureka Springs about a mile off a gravel road. It’s a pretty good hike, about a mile down Warm Fork Creek with no official trail. You just follow the creek through the woods. The picture above is a waterfall on a side creek visible from the main creek. The Warm Fork probably only runs during wet weather. Despite there being plenty of water in it, I didn’t see a single fish or other water creature. And the water was clear as gin. Creeks and rivers in the Ozarks normally have an emerald green tint from mineralization, but this water was as clear as any I’ve ever seen.

The waterfall is unique because the water has drilled a big hole in the rock like Glory Hole Falls but then forced its way out the side so it looks like a big toilet bowl. The area got 6-8 inches of rain and I bet the waterfall did look like a toilet in mid-flush at the height of the runoff. The waterfall itself is on a creek that obviously only runs after a sizable rain. When I got to it there was only a trickle in the creek. (Go here to see the waterfall at full-tilt boogie two days earlier.) In fact, water was only on the surface about 50 yards upstream from the waterfall and 0 yards downstream. The water flowing over the fall dropped about 50 feet and went underground immediately. There was no pool below. I had reached the fall by following a trail I found through the woods that ended at the top of the waterfall. Below was a small canyon with sheer sides and I couldn’t immediately see a way down.

I was pretty bummed out. But because I’m essentially still 12 years old, I figured out a way to make the waterfall run a little better so I could try for a decent picture. The creek pooled about 20 yards upstream from the toilet bowl and after I dug a bigger channel in the gravel it doubled the stream flow, but only temporarily. I went back to the pool and made a dam and then channelized some upstream to get the pool to fill quicker. Then I had to figure out a way to the bottom. I had to go about 100 yards downstream before I found a spot where I could climb down. It was a pretty good scramble and halfway down I realized I hadn’t told Gina exactly where I had gone. A nasty fall would have not been ideal. I knew I could never undam the creek and make it to the bottom before the flow was back to normal. That’s when my plan achieved its true brilliance. I would set my camera up to be fired by my little remote control and I would fire it from the top of the waterfall. I set the camera where the remote could hit the sensor and climbed back to the top.

I undammed the creek. The water rushed to the precipice and I sat on the edge and pushed the remote button over and over. I did create a bigger flow, but the photo results weren’t great. The remote and camera were too far apart. I only got six frames despite pushing the button probably 50 times. The angle is not that interesting and there’s a weird flare at the mid-point of the stream. Oh well, I didn’t have the gumption to set it all up again. Below are high-flow and low-flow pics for comparison. Click the photos to see larger versions.

Warm Fork Creek was beautiful. I passed several small bluffs, some of which were undercut by the water. I wanted to put on a diving mask and go up under them to see what was there. (I didn’t bring a mask with me.) On the way back I just walked right up the creek bed in the water. It was easier going and fewer spiderwebs.

After hiking out I headed over to another nearby waterfall, Eagle’s Nest Falls. The book promised a short hike to it and it was. The hike out, however, was another story. The trail leads down to the top of the falls and I set up and took a shot from there. It was a good thing, too, because I never made it to the bottom.

Like at Tea Kettle, the creek drops into a deep canyon with sheer bluffs on either side. I started off downstream looking for a way to the bottom. The fact that there was no trail should have tipped me off that it was a fool’s errand, but I kept going. The way was rough and the ground was covered in brambles. I was wearing those long pants with legs you can unzip and make into shorts, and I had done just that because the bottoms were wet from the first hike. At one point I got into some rocks that were slick from spring water and I slipped and tangled my legs up in those damnable brambles. My calves look like Kunte Kinte’s back. After awhile there was a bluff above and below and I started to worry about getting ledged out. But I wasn’t going to backtrack. Eventually I did get ledged out — on a cliff about 200 feet above the Kings River. I couldn’t go down to the river on one side and I couldn’t go down to the creek on the other. I walked along the river bluff until I hit a road and followed it back to where I started.

I shot these fungi at the spot where I parked.