"It's a difficult thing to try and find your way down into this hollow, and I won't tell you how, but if you make it, you are in for some wonderful stuff."

Tim Ernst, Buffalo River Hiking Trails

The descriptions Tim Ernst provide in his book "Buffalo River Hiking Trails" are so accurate that I've grown to rely heavily on his written word when deciding where to take my next hike in the Buffalo River National Park. The quote above intrigued me. Tim tells you in his books how to get to all kinds of places so that sentence kind of stands out and grabs you. I just had to find that "wonderful stuff".

Hideout Hollow is located in a remote corner of the Buffalo River National Park in Arkansas. For those of you not familiar with the Buffalo River, simply put, it is a national treasure. One of the last "Wild Rivers" remaining in the continental US, there is not a single dam from source to mouth anywhere on the Buffalo River. Deer, elk, bear, fox, and other wildlife share the rugged Ozark mountain forests and streams that surround and feed this wild river.

There are many miles of wonderful trails for both hiking and horseback riding throughout the park and many of these will lead you to spectacular scenery. I've done quite a few of the shorter trails on day hikes and I'm always surprised at the beauty of this area.

One good trail for a day hike leads you to the top of the "Falls" at Hideout Hollow. To get to the trail head you drive South on Hwy 7 from Harrison, Arkansas to South on Hwy 43 all the way to Compton and turn left at the Post Office (I know that sounds hokey, but those are really good directions ;). There's a sign pointing to the trail head. At the first intersection turn right, you'll see a small sign with an arrow pointing the way if you look close. From there keep going until you see the sign for the Schemerhorn (Hideout Hollow) trail head.

This trail winds along a hillside for about a mile and ends at a limestone bluff where a creek creates a waterfall that drops around 30 ft into the Hideout Hollow creek bed. From the top of the bluff you can see down into the gorge created by this creek where huge, "apartment" size boulders lie with cracks big enough to walk through. It's a beautiful site and you can't help but want to go down and explore the area. And therein lies the rub, as the saying goes, "You can't get there from here". There is no way, except to repel with ropes, and that's illegal, (I think) and even if it's not, it's not something I've done before so it's not an option.

I looked around for quite awhile and just could not see any safe way to hike down into the hollow from anywhere near the Schemerhorn Trail. I crossed the falls and followed the bluff around as far as I could before I could clearly see that I would have to cross into private property to continue my quest to find a way down. Since I did not know the owners and since I will not knowingly trespass when I'm out hiking, I decided to go back to my little Suzuki Samurai and enjoy a cold "Sam Adams" while I looked over my "Trails Illustrated" map of the area. Hmm... This would not be easy, from what I could see, the only way to get there would be a long off trail bushwhack! Cool :)

Now, an off trail bushwhack hike like this one requires a little planing and forethought. Besides the usual stuff needed for a day hike, I like to bring along some extra food and warm cloths, a cell phone, and a buddy when I'm going into a remote area. A quick call to my good friend, Randy Dunn, and I had just the pal I was hoping would come along. Actually, Randy is the only person I know who'd come along. Most of my other friends seem to have all kinds of big emergencies when I call and ask them if they'd like to go for a hike. It's almost as if they really don't think that rambling around in the forest is the best way possible to spend your time. I think that I may have real scientific proof that my phone calls for hiking partners actually causes many people to require an emergency root canal. One of these days I'll make a graph that shows the relationship. Anyway, Randy (who seems to be immune to the affliction mentioned above) came over and we sat down to look at some pictures I'd taken from the top of the falls and plan our route to Hideout Hollow. My topo map showed the Cecil Cove Loop Trail passed right across the creek bed that leads up to Hideout Hollow. If we used this route, I was sure we'd make it to the falls with plenty of time to return before it got dark outside. We agreed to meet at 5:00am and leave after checking all of our gear.

Randy was outside my door at 5:00am on the nose and we were soon driving the Samurai to the Buffalo River. The Cecil Cove Loop trail head we were looking for meets the road just a mile or two past the Schemerhorn trail head and it takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to get there from Branson, Mo. We arrived well after sunrise and parked the "Zuk", laid the map and compass out on the ground and took a look around.

Our adventure would begin by hiking a bit over 2 miles on the Cecil Cove Loop Trail and then we'd turn left at the second creek bed. Sounds easy enough, but after just a few minutes on the trail we crossed water running over the trail in what looked like could be a creek. Randy asked me if I thought it was the first creek we were looking for. I looked around and saw a big bluff right above us and decided that this could not be a creek, but probably just a spring runoff that flows after a rain. I told Randy that we were looking for a big creek bed that would lay between two big hillsides and that it should be pretty obvious when we crossed it. We looked at the map again and Randy agreed this was not the creek we were looking for, so on we went.

The Cecil Cove Trail loops around a huge valley that makes up a small part of the Buffalo River watershed. There are great views and plenty of wildlife to be seen for those who hike it. This is a big park, and the features we were looking for were big too. I figured we'd cross the first creek bed at around 20-30 minutes of hiking. Randy and I were keeping a good pace while chatting about whose lawyers would win the presidential election when I realized that I wasn't paying enough attention to the landmarks and features that I'd be looking for on the way out. I noticed that we were passing some more big limestone bluffs on the left and kept hiking. After a bit we stopped for a rest and some water and sat by the trail side. We were both carrying about 20 pound backpacks and it felt pretty good to take them off.

Randy and I are both over 40 years old and we do this for fun. I do it for exercise too but I don't think Randy needs to exercise. He's one of those people who gets up early and works hard because he thinks it's fun. I sit on my rear and write code all day and half the night most of the time. I was beginning to think this adventure was going to be a lot harder on me than him. After a few minutes we got up, put on our packs and began to hike again. I took a look around and let the scenery soak in. Huge boulders were strewn in the bottom of a creek bed in a big valley. They must have been pushed and rolled by violent storms sometime long ago. Hey, wait a minute, huge boulders in a big valley? I told Randy to stop, this is our first creek bed!! Sure enough, after a map and compass check we decided that we had made our first landmark. We almost passed it by without realizing it. The next creek bed would be where we turned and started our bushwhacking.

The map had showed that we would enter an area that was less steep and it looked like the next creek bed should be larger than the first. After about 20 minutes of hiking along the hillside things did flatten out and water was running through small channels that cut their way down through the hillside. Surely the creek bed we were looking for was nearby. Arms of the mountain side were reaching out and trees obstructed the view so it was hard to tell where exactly the creek bed really began. We sat and rested again while looking around. This was indeed a very beautiful place we were in. We decided to leave the packs where they were and walk around a bit to get a feel of the area. We knew we were near the creek bed we wanted to hike up into, but we needed to find the main channel. We found it just a few hundred yards past where we left our backpacks. This is where our bushwhack would begin.

The map showed this creek would fork about 1/4 to 1/2 mile up the hill from the trail and we wanted to take the left fork. The fork looked clear enough on the map and we both figured it should be easy to find. This wasn't really the case. The terrain in this canyon was hard to read. The trees, boulders and arms on the hillside made it difficult to tell what the real lay of the land was. This was a perfect example of it being hard to see the forest for the trees. I had also not really paid much attention when reading the map to how high we must climb to reach the bottom of the falls from the trail. I knew it would be uphill but had not realized how steep the climb would be. It's steep, very steep, and rugged, with all the huge boulders and fallen trees, the wet and slippery hillside was difficult to climb. I looked at Randy to see if I could tell what he was thinking. I was hoping he wouldn't tell me I was crazy and that he'd suddenly remembered that he had a dentist appointment he had to get to. I didn't need to worry, Randy just smiled at me and said "I think we should try and climb the right side of the creek bed first".

This was the beginning of a very tough hike. I don't want to sound like it's climbing Mount Everest, but I've done a bit of bushwhacking and this is one of the toughest day hikes I've done yet. We climbed from one side of the creek bed to the other, wherever we could find a place to make progress, that's where we went. After about an hour of uphill bushwhacking Randy finally asked if I was sure there was a waterfall up here and if I was sure we were in the right creek bed. The truth was, no, I wasn't positively sure. I couldn't be, I hadn't been there before. It seemed like we'd hiked a long way already and we couldn't see anything but more uphill climbing for quite a distance. But I did "think" we were where we should be. I'd studied my map in detail before we began and tried to picture what it would look like. The creek bed should run almost due South from where we started all the way to the falls and this one did run due South. I spotted what I was sure was the fork in the creek bed after some more climbing and now was convinced that we were on the right track.

While I may have been guiding this hike, Randy was leading it. His bushwhacking skills are unsurpassed. He found ways to get us through some of the toughest spots I've ever encountered. We never came close to a dangerous situation because of his careful selections in where to climb. He avoided climbing steep ledges and boulders and instead found ways to switch back and forth to the safest path at all times. There were more than a few times we both just stopped (usually gasping for breath) and wondered if there was a safe way to continue. Randy always found it. That's also when Randy noticed that the fallen trees and giant boulders stacked on top of each other created uncounted nooks and shelters that looked like they'd be a perfect place for a bear to live. Hmm.. I'd hadn't thought about that. The last time I'd seen a bear was 20 years ago in the Sequoia National Forest. I made a mental note to bring pepper spray on my next bushwhack if a bear doesn't eat me on this one.

I had told Randy that I had seen the "apartment size" boulder from the top of the falls that Tim Ernst described in his book and that we should spot it before we could see the falls. As we climbed around a small waterfall Randy pointed and said "Hey, that looks like a pretty big boulder, definitely apartment size". You don't see rocks that big everyday so I knew we were now close to the falls. There was a huge crack in the boulder and Randy and I climbed up and through it. From the other side I could see the limestone bluff I had stood on while looking for a way down. To the left, I could just barely see the falls in the distance. We'd made it!

It took about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to make it to the falls from the trail. It was hard work to get there and Randy and I were ready to enjoy the lunch we'd packed in. We earned it, we'd carried it up and over some very rugged terrain and we were both really hungry. We'd both packed one beer each and lots more food than we could possibly eat in a day and so, we sat down and savored the beer and devoured as much food as we could want.

After a restful lunch we started to explore Hideout Hollow. I don't know if there's a story connected with the name. There certainly could be. I can't think of a better place to "Hideout" if a feller had a hankerin' to hide. There were spots everywhere to hide in. Some of the cracks in the boulders went deep into the rock and were plenty big enough to walk into. You could see that there could easily be places the size of a small room inside some of them.

The limestone bluff that the water falls over is cut back deep under the waterfall. Rocks have fallen from the ceiling of the cave that is forming and piled up on the ground for years and years. Standing on these rocks looking out from behind the waterfall and down into Hideout Hollow, Randy and I experienced a view of a very special place that I imagine few people have shared.

I hope this account of our hike to Hideout Hollow will inspire you to take advantage of our public land. It's there for all of us to use and enjoy. It is indeed, "Wonderful stuff".

By the way, Randy and I lost two, year 2000, 25 cent pieces and one, year 2000, penny while there. Keep them if you find them, but be sure to let me know ;)