Back To The Buffalo

A few weeks back we headed up to the Buffalo River to do some camping over Jonah's Spring Break (his very first, as a kindergartner). And even with it storming and being cold, it seems like he had a good time. At least he had ready access to s'mores. We also camped with my Sister-In-Law and our three nephews, who I took hiking one day to Lost Valley.

Lost Valley is one of the most popular trails within the Buffalo River, and maybe even Arkansas. It's short, and incredibly scenic. We were there before the storms hit, so there wasn't much water in the creek. But there was enough for a bit of flow at the 53-foot tall Eden Falls.



Later on we headed back into Boxley Valley, one of my favorite places in the state. It's an incredibly scenic and photogenic spot filled with many old barns and churches. One of those churches is the Beechwoods Church, which was built in 1918.



The cemetery by the church is actually the oldest in the Valley, with graves dating back to 1842.



This was taken the morning after some heavy storms dropped huge amounts of rain (which quickly extinguished our little campfire). The rain got the Buffalo River running high and muddy, and also left behind some big rain puddles. This puddle was by an old barn in Boxley Valley.



The barn was built way back in the 1920s.



Nearby is this old structure, which may have once been used as an old root cellar:



It was fairly quiet in the Valley that morning, considering it was Spring Break. Which was nice since there wasn't too much traffic while I stopped constantly to take pictures of old barns:









This old building near the trailhead to Lost Valley may have once been used as a school:



And down the road is another great old barn, which was built in 1915:



While heading back to our campsite we passed through Ponca and stopped again at this covered bridge, where the creek below was running high after the storms.



The big storms left behind plenty of rain to get waterfalls going, so my oldest nephew J.T. and my Brother-In-Law Casey decided to do the hike to Hideout Hollow to see the waterfall there. The hike was short and fairly easy. Unfortunately, it was a bit tricky to get down to the bottom of the falls. The only way there involved crossing the creek right above the 37-foot waterfall, and then making your way across a slick and narrow bluff to a spot where you can drop down. It seemed a little sketchy, so we just enjoyed the view of the falls from the top:



There were a few small waterfalls along the creek above the falls, including this one that had an overhanging bluff with enough room to crawl back inside for a few pictures:



After finishing that hike, we decided to hit another waterfall nearby - Sweden Creek Falls. The falls are located just outside of the Buffalo River boundary, but are protected by the Arkansas Natural History Commission. The trail to Sweden Creek falls runs downhill and then soon meets up with a small creek that has several neat smaller waterfalls.



The waterfalls are along a smaller creek that runs into Sweden Creek. As far as I can tell, none of these waterfalls are named.



But since the creek runs into Sweden Creek, I recommend that these falls be named either Norway or Finland Falls.



I actually tried to do some research into who named this area Sweden Creek Falls. I didn't have much luck, so I'm guessing it was named by this guy:

via GIFER

But we made the short hike to the base of the falls, which are over 80-foot tall.



The falls are scenic, but they are difficult to photograph. There are lots of trees around the base, so it's hard to get a clear view of the entire waterfall. And it also started pouring rain while we were there.





We hiked back to the car in the rain, and started to drive back to the campground. Along the way we passed by this old truck, which seems to have been parked here for quite awhile.



I've gotten a few pictures of this old truck over the years, and not much has changed (besides some unfortunate vandalism). The first picture I have was taken 15 years ago - back in 2007:



We took the scenic route back to the campground and went through Boxley Valley again, and made one last stop to get a picture of the resident elk herd out in the fields.