Tim Ernst has a new book out called "Arkansas Waterfall Guidebook". I ordered mine online from www.cloudland.net as soon as I found out about it. It only took about two days to arrive and he even autographed it. That's just so cool!

I've been bushwhacking around looking for waterfalls too. Not so much down in Arkansas where there are some really tall ones, but closer to home, in and around the Mark Twain National Forest, and then Tim shows me how to get to all these cool places. I just had to pick some out and go find them.

I'd already taken a few hikes down to Hemmed-In-Hollow to view the tallest waterfall between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. It's over 200 feet tall. It is a beautiful hike down from the trail head near Compton Arkansas and I do mean down. 1200 feet down. It's pretty coming back up too. Pretty long, pretty steep, and pretty hard to do with a 40 pound backpack strapped to you. I was also pretty sore after climbing out. But it was all worth it. It's incredibly beautiful and I found it because I had bought one of Tim's other books, "Buffalo River Hiking Trails".

So, I was pretty excited to get this new "Waterfall" book. Of course, the first thing I looked for was the second tallest waterfall. I was amazed to read it was right next to Hemmed-In-Hollow. Darn, I was right there too! But I read on...

Tim's books contain wonderful info if you read them in detail. In the waterfall book he gives each of the 133 waterfalls he describes a "Beauty Rating". It's a 1-5 stars rating. He also provides a "Hike Difficulty" rating of "Easy, Medium, Difficult" and Lat/Longs for GPS users as well as driving directions and where to park your car. He even tells you which are best for taking the kids to. Some of the waterfalls on his list you can just drive right up to and see from your car. Some require a long and difficult hike off trail. Those are the ones I want to see. None of these are like "Niagara Falls" or "Victoria Falls". These are trickles compared with those, but many can compare on a "Scenic Beauty" scale with just about anyplace on earth.

I started going back to the falls he rated the most stars and looking for those that were grouped close together. I wasn't going make the same mistake I did when I climbed down Hemmed-In-Hollow. After pouring over his maps in the book and my own maps of the areas he described I decided I wanted to go to the Leatherwood Wilderness. I had read a little about it before and it looked like it must have some scenic places tucked in it's hills and hollows which the topo maps showed were deep and steep. Tim's maps showed it was full of waterfalls and he provides pictures of each one of them in the book too. So I called up Randy, my trusted hiking partner and Jay, my other trusted hiking partner and told them of my plan.

I went into my "Sales Pitch" and made it sound luxurious, "We'll visit over 10 waterfalls in 4 days"...

And exciting, "We'll camp out,"

Then I gave them some details...

"Somewhere, I'm not sure where, but we'll find a spot. There's no trails to any of the waterfalls, so we get to bushwhack to them. We'll leave after the next good rain and if we're really lucky it will still be raining when we get there!".

Lot's of my friends tell me they have a lobotomy scheduled for that date when I call them with my plans, so now I wait until after the "Sales Pitch" to tell them exactly when we're going. Some of them got "Caller ID" and now they won't even take my calls in February. But not Randy and Jay. Randy said, "Cool, maybe we can get Jay to carry extra beer", and Jay said, "Cool, maybe we can get Randy to cook dinner!". You got love friends like that....

Randy, Jay and I watched the weather forecasts for Big Flat, Arkansas and started wishing for rain. Since it was February, and that is the "Monsoon" season around here, it didn't take long for our wishes to come true. After a few days of good rain we loaded up and headed for the Leatherwood Wilderness to search for waterfalls.

On the way down we stopped at the "Super Wal-Mart" and got some steak, fish, onions, potatoes and other good stuff to eat and loaded it into the cooler. Since the daytime high temps were forecast to be around 40-45 degrees we didn't need much ice.

When we got to the Leatherwood Wilderness boundary outside of Big Flat we stopped and took a look at our map. The Leatherwood Wilderness is over 15,000 acres and it's bordered by the Ozark National Forest and the Buffalo River National Park. Altogether, it's a huge tract of public land. It was already near 2:30 p.m. and would be getting dark a little after 5:00 p.m. so we needed to find a place to set up camp.

We found a dirt road that led down into a creekbed in the Ozark National Forest and drove as far as we could with Randy's Ford Ranger. Then we parked and hiked down to where the road crossed the creek and found a perfect camping spot. Flat, not far from the creek, and it already had a mortared rock fire pit. Even better, it was warmer than the ridges we'd been driving on. It was windy and cold on the ridges and there was frost and ice all over and patches of snow here and there, but it was all thawed out and calm down in the hollow where we setup camp. It was easy to see why others came here before us.

We hiked back to the cars and loaded as much as we could into my Suzuki Samurai and Randy and Jay hiked down with all they could carry and I drove the "Zuk" behind them. In a just a short time we had camp set up, a fire started, and we were drinking Little Yeoman Beer and grilling fish and frying potatoes with onions. After dinner Randy and Jay told lies for awhile and we laughed and joked and then I imparted a few tidbits from my wealth of knowledge. It's hard to do a good job imparting tidbits when people are rudely snoring at the top of their lungs so after awhile I decided to get into my tent too and go to sleep instead. I still had several days to impart tidbits and they would have to wake up sooner or later.

We woke up to a perfect morning. There had been a soft rain almost all night long and it stopped about 7:30 am. We got out of our tents around 8:00 and I started to make fresh ground coffee on my camp stove for us all while Jay got the fire going. Soon, Randy started toasting buttered cinnamon raisin bagels in a frying pan for breakfast. During breakfast we looked at our maps and Tim's waterfall book and decided to find "Crosscut Falls" first. Tim wrote that he named it after an old loggers crosscut saw he found while hiking in the area and I hoped we could find the saw too.

We drove to the place Tim suggested to park and bushwhacked our way down into the South Prong of Middle Creek. From there we would follow the hollows that led from the creek to the waterfalls above.

In February the Witchhazel that grows along the edges of the creek bottoms is in full bloom with tiny yellow flowers casting a scent so sweet and wonderful that you just have to stop and take it in with long, slow, deep breaths. Most people have never experienced it. Most never will. You must be deep in the forest during the middle of winter to receive in this alluring gift from nature.

We spent the entire day bushwhacking around. We went to Cougar Falls, China Falls, Little Glory Hole and then ended up at Crosscut Falls. All in all we probably hiked around 4-5 miles that day. We even found the "Old Crosscut Saw" Tim mentioned. That's one big saw too! We also found a few other old artifacts from loggers in the area. It's all still down there, waiting for the next visitors.

We spent the next few days exploring the Leatherwood Wilderness. With Tim's book always at hand, finding waterfalls was easy. We even spent a few hours hiking one night with our new "LED" headlamps on some ATV trails near our camp. I love to 'Night Hike" and we were all impressed with how well the LED headlamps worked. Our last morning we cooked a big breakfast and got a late start on our search for waterfalls. We decided to go to a spot Tim called "Dewey Canyon". He listed four waterfalls that were close together and we figured we could take them all in and play awhile at each.

The first on our list was "Bumper Falls". We hiked about 1/2 of a mile down the side of a steep mountain until we came to an enormous bluff line with a sheer drop of 100 feet in places. Like a great wall, it runs along the mountain side, in and around every arm and elbow as far as we could see. It is absolutely breathtaking. We sat on the top of the bluff and consumed our lunch in reverent silence while gazing at Dewey Canyon. I took several pictures, but I knew that a photo would never capture the beauty of this place. It requires a panoramic view and there's too many trees in the way and, well, you just really have to be there to really take it in and absorb it all.

We continued along the top of the bluff to explore Heuston Falls and Dewey Canyon Falls. With a little time to spare we decided to hike over the ridge above Heuston Falls to the next hollow west and to our delight we found yet another waterfall, this one wasn't even listed in Tim's book. It was a pretty tall one too! Probably close to 60 feet. We decided to name it "Jay Falls" because Jay was the first of us to see it. Jay and I explored around and found a spring that supplied the water for our new discovery and then we went down to the top of the waterfall to see what Randy was up to. We found him hiking back along the bluff top from where he said he found an easy way down to the creekbed below. We sat for awhile near the bluff's edge and discussed hiking down but finally decided against it because our time to get back to the car was running low and we didn't want to bushwhack our way out in the dark.

It was extremely hard to resist going down into Dewey Canyon. It's got a strong magic that pervades both the sensual and spiritual sides of a person and literally pulls your body and soul with significant force. It's an enchanting place that invites you to explore and appreciate. It promises wonderful surprises and hidden, seldom seen beauty that can only be experienced here, in the middle of the Ozark winter. It whispers softly and humbly that if you come visit it will enrich you with some of the very best that life has to offer.

Randy, Jay and I are going back to explore Dewey Canyon next fall or winter (or both). We have too. It's pulling at me now as I write this.

While a digression from the subject of waterfalls, our journey was not quite finished. I swear the following is mostly true and relate it to the reader as best as I can...

On the way back home we stopped near Big Flat, Ar. to gas up and take a look around. Big Flat is pretty sparse. There is one gas station/minimart there, a place to buy beer, a few small houses, and that's about it. After filling our gas tanks we walked inside the minimart and there was a scruffy old hillbilly behind the counter and a quite attractive young woman sitting at a small desk doing homework for a college algebra class.

I said "Hi" to the scruffy old hillbilly. He looked me over and sort of snorted back at me, "Grmphh".

"Hmmm..." I thought, he probably thinks I'm a "City Slicker" and that I think all "Hillbillies" are stupid. That's certainly not the case. I moved to the area because I love both the land and the people. I consider the "Old-timers" one of the Ozarks greatest treasures and resources. But there are those who do come here with that attitude. I've met more than a few myself. Whatever the case may be, "Scruffy" knew I wasn't a "Local" right off and he didn't seem glad to see me.

I tried to break the ice a little by saying, "You sure have some pretty country around here." This time he didn't even look at me, he just snorted at me again, "Grmphh".

"I'll get this old mountain man's respect with this one", I thought, so I said, "We just got back from the Leatherwood Wilderness. We hiked to 13 different waterfalls up there. Camped the last 5 nights out in the forest. I can't wait to come back and do it again. There's still a bunch of waterfalls around here we haven't got to yet."

"Scruffy" suddenly perked up and I saw a little gleam in his eye, he looked straight at me, twisted up his face and said in the thickest Ozark accent he could muster, "Yew ain't from around here are ya. Yew better be watchin fer bears out there.... and snakes too, there's Cottonmouth, and Copperheads and Rattlers all over them hills".... He was now looking intently at me, waiting for a reaction. I was thinking about what he was saying. I knew he was trying to scare me and I was still working out my reply. He quickly went on, "But the Wild Hogs is the worst, why I'd really hate to git one a them mad at me, they're the rippingest, tearingest critters out there. They'll mess a feller up good". The gleam in his eye was now sparkling as he waited for the shock and fear to well up inside me when I finally comprehended the serious danger we'd been in.

I had my answer ready. I looked at Scruffy and said, "I live up near the beginning of Bull Shoals Lake. You know, I've only seen one wild bear in the 30 years I've been hiking. That bear didn't pay any attention to me at all, just went walking on to wherever he was going to. Well, he stopped for a minute to take care of some business and when he was finished he shot me a glance that I took to mean it was all meant just for me. I was kind of insulted by that. Do the hunters get many bears around here?". Scruffy's gleam started to fade and he poked hard at some buttons on the cash register. I decided to go on a bit more, "And those "Razorbacks", man I'd love to see some of them. When's hunting season for them? I don't hunt, but I'd love to do a pre-season scout for them sometime." Scruffy's gleam was about all gone now. He took my money and said, "Grmphh".

The young woman looked over at us and smiled. She said, "They get a few bears and wild pigs now and then. One of my neighbors killed a bear last year, or maybe it was the year before. I've never heard of anybody getting attacked by one, though I suppose it could happen."

I asked her if she had been to any of the waterfalls in the area. She said she'd been to a few while in high school, but since she started college she didn't have time. Then I asked "Scruffy" if he'd ever been to the waterfalls. "No. I'd rather stay inside where its warm and dry and watch HBO on a day like today. You're crazy to be camping out there in weather like this." His thick Ozark accent started to wind up again, "And yer kind of scruffy too. Geez, my wife wouldn't even let me in the house looking like that. I'd have to hose off outside in the cold first."

I looked at Randy and Jay and realized they really were scruffy. I compared them to the guy behind the counter, and sure enough, they had him beat. After 5 days of bushwhacking around the forest they were way scruffier than "Scruffy". I guess I just overlooked it since it happened to them gradually. I was sure I'd managed to maintain my natural good looks throughout the adventure. It's a gift I have. I've honed it by adhering to this one simple rule, "Never look at a mirror until after you've got home and taken a shower."

Jay said, "Wow Bill, you really are scruffy". Randy looked at me, laughed and said, "Yeah, you are getting kind of ugly". The college girl just smiled a little (Ok, she might have laughed a little too) and the guy behind the counter got the gleam back in his eye. He twisted up his face and fired up his accent again and said "Jist go and take a look at yerself in that there mirror in there." while pointing his finger at the rest room. "Buddy, yew are one scruffy hillbilly". I searched for a quick and witty comeback but stumbled on it and only managed to say, "Grmphh". You see, he caught me off guard with his compliment. I was truly honored when he called me a "Hillbilly". I figured that was pretty high praise coming from him, but I still declined his suggestion and stuck with my rule. Some things you do need to take serious because they really can scare a fellow pretty bad. I once heard about a guy that went camping for 17 days and when he got home and looked in a mirror all his hair turned white. I'll spare you and resist the temptation to digress into that story too.

I highly recommend you get Tim Ernst's new book, "Arkansas Waterfall Guidebook". His books will guide you to some of the most scenic places on the planet. This one is now my favorite and I still have over 100 waterfalls to explore!

If you'd like to see some more pictures of our adventures in and around the Leatherwood Wilderness click here.

If you go there yourself keep an eye out for the money I lost near the waterfalls we visited there. I think there were at least a few quarters and a dollar coin too.

Bill Stephenson