Bear Skull Falls

The Ozarks got a goodly dose of rain from Tropical Storm Hermine last week, but the weather report for the weekend looked like a bust for waterfall shooting – mostly sunny skies. So I was taken aback when I was awakened by a workman on the roof Saturday morning and found the sky completely overcast. Because it was my birthday, Gina said I could do anything I wanted and she wouldn’t protest, so I headed out for the hills to see if the waterfalls were still running. I drove up to Russellville, turned left onto Highway 7 and pulled over to consult the waterfall guidebook. Bear Skull Falls in northern Johnson County looked doable. I threaded my way along a couple of twisty state highways and then onto a dirt road until I hit the Ozark Highlands Trail. The waterfall was about a mile and half down the trail. It was a nice level hike for about three-quarters of mile and then the trail headed down, down, down to the bottom of the drainage. There wasn’t much photo worthy material until I hit the waterfall, which you can’t miss. It’s right next to the trail.

The waterfall itself is pretty typical of your Ozarks waterfalls. A small creek that’s probably dry 90 percent of the time runs off one of those shaley ledges into a green plunge pool. It’s decently tall, but not a lot of volume. I spent about an hour and a half shooting the thing as the weather switched back and forth between overcast and bald blue sky. I heard a rumble of thunder a couple of times and caught a brief rain shower. By the time I was ready to leave, the sun came out for good and the humidity climbed to about a million percent. The temp was only in the mid-80s and I was barely moving around, but the sweat poured off me like I was fighting malaria. The uphill hike out of there was about as sweaty a thing as I’ve ever experienced.