So, over the weekend, Dana and I celebrated our 11th anniversary a week late and ventured WAAAAYYY over into Arkansas to some cabins near Yellville. (Yup, there's really a town with that name!)
We stayed in the
Silver Run Cabins, which were great. Not brand new, but not old.
Very clean, very quiet, semi-secluded, and best of all, only a very short distance to some great trails!!!
Saturday, we tackled a nice loop in the Buffalo River State Park.
This loop took us by several attractions....at least they were attractions for us...well for me.
The ice storms from the past couple of years had done tremendous damage to the trees. (Is there a pun in there?)
We ran the loop counter-clockwise, against the advice of the people at Wild Bills Outfitters. They seemed to think we would not want to do a lot of climbing at the end of the loop, but hey, we are TATURs and not afraid of some wimpy little Arkansas hills. Truth be known, the map they gave us seemed to indicate going the directions we did would make for each attraction being a little more interesting than the previous one. (And in the interest of being interesting, I had better get moving along with the story, right?)
Attraction 1.
This sinkhole was a huge crater in the hillside. I was not sure why this hole was here...maybe it was a wash from heavy rains? Of course, I had to climb down to the bottom to check it out. The sign says something about an icebox. Now Saturday, it was near 70 degrees, and humid. I was wearing tights, as I thought the weekend was going to be a little on the cool side, and I was mistaken. I was hot, but this hole was at least 15 degrees cooler as I descended the 30 feet into it. There was a small bit of a cave filled in with washed out mud. Nothing really to see here once I was there. I did have my feet slide out from under me and hit my bum and my right arm
pretty hard. A couple of bruises are sure to surface, and I am quite sore.
This pic was taken one nano-second before my fall, hence the blur. Just for the heck of it, I climbed up a 30' moss covered rock face instead of coming back out the same way I entered. Stupid....maybe. Dana votes yes.
Attraction 2. This waterfall.
I suppose one could take a shower here although the water was pretty cold.
Attraction 3.
This old abandoned mine site. These hills were once mined for silver, but soon after, but soon after Zinc was found and mined. Somewhere in the late 1800s, the zinc market bottomed out and the mines were vacated. I am sure there are a few wild animals....mountain lions, black bears, bobcats that find this little cave to be a nice winter home.
With a sign that warned of the danger of entering, and having no headlamp, I did little more than peek inside to take a quick pic.
Attraction 4.
Not so exciting, but we ran along Panther Creek. It was a dry creek bed, and the trail at times ran right down the middle of it. Pretty rocky, lots of roots when the trail was on the creek bank. I was loving the run so far.
Attraction 5.
A nice cave....not too big, no long passages, just big room under a rock bluff, with a sandy floor....
....and a nice skylight. It was amazingly cool in this room. Very refreshing on a warmish muggy day. Another cool thing, over to one side, I could hear rushing water below the floor of the cave. there was a small crevice where I could almost get my body contorted down enough to see where the sound was coming from, and then Dana threw out the idea that there might be a wild animal in there, and I decided I would just let it go.
The next mile or so was nice runnable trail, almost like a 4-wheeler road. Just a perfect day to be out in the wilderness.
Attraction 6. The next item of interest was supposed to be an Indian rock house. I almost skipped this, thinking it was just some old stone and mortar dwelling abandoned in the woods. Glad I did not blow it off!
The Indian rock house was a huge cave! A whole tribe of Indians could have lived in this cavern.
The opening in the side of this rock bluff was about 80 yards wide, and 30 feet tall.
This passage in the back of the huge cave led deep into the mountain. I would have loved to explore it....but again, no headlamp.
In the previous cave, I had mentioned an underground stream. This cave had an underground water supply, and it was more accessible. this cave had a lot going for it for dwellers in years past. Good shelter, a good clean water supply....and even an opening in the ceiling for their campfires.
But I was taken by another part of the cave walls. Over the water supply, the wall had a face watching over it.
I am pretty sure I would not want to be here at night.
Attraction 7. This was an outcropping of rocks, that someone who drew the map thought was worthy of mention.
Being the ham that I am, I also thought it was worthy of a picture.
Attraction 8.
This was actually a pretty cool thing. I did not bathe here, but if I were camping, this would have worked for me.
I am sure these are not soap suds, but rather just foam form the churning water.
Attraction 9. Not on the map, but a nice picture I thought.
Most of the run done, it was time to start the climb out. We had a few switchbacks to negotiate, but the trail was still runnable and we pounded it out.
After the run, looking out over the Buffalo River. The plan is to come back next spring and kayak the river along with a few more days on the trails.
I'll get a report on the trails we ran on Sunday on the blog tomorrow.
We stayed in theSilver Run Cabins, which were great. Not brand new, but not old.
Very clean, very quiet, semi-secluded, and best of all, only a very short distance to some great trails!!!Saturday, we tackled a nice loop in the Buffalo River State Park.
This loop took us by several attractions....at least they were attractions for us...well for me.
The ice storms from the past couple of years had done tremendous damage to the trees. (Is there a pun in there?)We ran the loop counter-clockwise, against the advice of the people at Wild Bills Outfitters. They seemed to think we would not want to do a lot of climbing at the end of the loop, but hey, we are TATURs and not afraid of some wimpy little Arkansas hills. Truth be known, the map they gave us seemed to indicate going the directions we did would make for each attraction being a little more interesting than the previous one. (And in the interest of being interesting, I had better get moving along with the story, right?)
Attraction 1.
This sinkhole was a huge crater in the hillside. I was not sure why this hole was here...maybe it was a wash from heavy rains? Of course, I had to climb down to the bottom to check it out. The sign says something about an icebox. Now Saturday, it was near 70 degrees, and humid. I was wearing tights, as I thought the weekend was going to be a little on the cool side, and I was mistaken. I was hot, but this hole was at least 15 degrees cooler as I descended the 30 feet into it. There was a small bit of a cave filled in with washed out mud. Nothing really to see here once I was there. I did have my feet slide out from under me and hit my bum and my right armpretty hard. A couple of bruises are sure to surface, and I am quite sore.
This pic was taken one nano-second before my fall, hence the blur. Just for the heck of it, I climbed up a 30' moss covered rock face instead of coming back out the same way I entered. Stupid....maybe. Dana votes yes.
Attraction 2. This waterfall.
I suppose one could take a shower here although the water was pretty cold.
Attraction 3.
This old abandoned mine site. These hills were once mined for silver, but soon after, but soon after Zinc was found and mined. Somewhere in the late 1800s, the zinc market bottomed out and the mines were vacated. I am sure there are a few wild animals....mountain lions, black bears, bobcats that find this little cave to be a nice winter home.
With a sign that warned of the danger of entering, and having no headlamp, I did little more than peek inside to take a quick pic.Attraction 4.
Not so exciting, but we ran along Panther Creek. It was a dry creek bed, and the trail at times ran right down the middle of it. Pretty rocky, lots of roots when the trail was on the creek bank. I was loving the run so far.Attraction 5.
A nice cave....not too big, no long passages, just big room under a rock bluff, with a sandy floor....
....and a nice skylight. It was amazingly cool in this room. Very refreshing on a warmish muggy day. Another cool thing, over to one side, I could hear rushing water below the floor of the cave. there was a small crevice where I could almost get my body contorted down enough to see where the sound was coming from, and then Dana threw out the idea that there might be a wild animal in there, and I decided I would just let it go.
The next mile or so was nice runnable trail, almost like a 4-wheeler road. Just a perfect day to be out in the wilderness.Attraction 6. The next item of interest was supposed to be an Indian rock house. I almost skipped this, thinking it was just some old stone and mortar dwelling abandoned in the woods. Glad I did not blow it off!
The Indian rock house was a huge cave! A whole tribe of Indians could have lived in this cavern.
The opening in the side of this rock bluff was about 80 yards wide, and 30 feet tall.
This passage in the back of the huge cave led deep into the mountain. I would have loved to explore it....but again, no headlamp.
In the previous cave, I had mentioned an underground stream. This cave had an underground water supply, and it was more accessible. this cave had a lot going for it for dwellers in years past. Good shelter, a good clean water supply....and even an opening in the ceiling for their campfires.
But I was taken by another part of the cave walls. Over the water supply, the wall had a face watching over it.
I am pretty sure I would not want to be here at night.Attraction 7. This was an outcropping of rocks, that someone who drew the map thought was worthy of mention.
Being the ham that I am, I also thought it was worthy of a picture.Attraction 8.
This was actually a pretty cool thing. I did not bathe here, but if I were camping, this would have worked for me.
I am sure these are not soap suds, but rather just foam form the churning water.Attraction 9. Not on the map, but a nice picture I thought.
Most of the run done, it was time to start the climb out. We had a few switchbacks to negotiate, but the trail was still runnable and we pounded it out.
After the run, looking out over the Buffalo River. The plan is to come back next spring and kayak the river along with a few more days on the trails.I'll get a report on the trails we ran on Sunday on the blog tomorrow.
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