Friday, March 11, 2011

Dewey Canyon Falls & Bumpers Falls

Our tour of the waterfalls of the Leatherwood Wilderness continues, with a visit to Dewey Canyon Falls and Dale Bumpers Falls. These two falls are both quite tall, and also amazingly easy to visit. Although you can't see them from the road, they are reached via a short and easy hike.

You get there from parking along Hwy. 341, about 9 miles or so north of Big Flat. You just have to park along the side of the road, and walk just .02 miles to the falls. There is a trail that starts out next to the guardrail alongside the road. You follow this trail down a hill, meeting up with the creek that makes Dewey Canyon Falls. The trail and creek both run up to the side of the bluff, providing you with views of the 88 foot tall waterfall.

Dale Bumpers Falls is just a short stroll away along the same bluff line. This is a shot with both Dewey Canyon Falls and Bumpers Falls. Bumpers Falls is the one closest to the foreground, which is split into two waterfalls. The falls first drops down 27 feet, and then tumble over the bluff into another 71 foot tall waterfall. The 88 foot tall Dewey Canyon Falls is in the background.
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This is a shot of the lower Bumpers Falls, which were named after former governor and senator Dale Bumpers. Since a good number of my family is from Charleston, I feel obligated to mention that Dale Bumpers is a proud native of Charleston, Arkansas.
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This is a view of the upper Bumper Falls. The damage from the 2009 ice storm wasn't all that bad in this particular area, but I assume this fallen tree was a casualty of the storm.
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After hiking back over to Dewey Canyon Falls, I set up the camera just at the top of the falls. The winds were a bit heavy that day, and would occasionally send up spray from the falls over me and the camera. This was the only shot I got from that spot that didn't have water on the lens.
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From there we went back to the jeep and headed to yet another waterfall...

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