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| Lower Long Pool Falls |
I was really lucky this weekend-- I not only snuck in a little solo trip to
Sausmann Falls on Saturday, but I got my boyfriend Tyler out on Sunday for another trek around Long Pool Rec Area! I was just here last weekend, but I only got the chance to see Lower Long Pool Falls. This time I came prepared to see a few more of the falls in this area! Rick Henry, per usual, has some great directions with photos and GPS coordinates for the
upper falls and
lower falls on his blog, so I won't reiterate all of that here.
For such a gorgeous spring Sunday, there didn't seem to be hardly anyone camping at Long Pool when Tyler and I arrived! It
was pretty chilly, but that never stops me! We paid the $3 day use fee and parked at one of the campsites on Loop B. Tyler and I initially started down the well-traveled trail to the lower falls, but a group of ten or so folks had gone down right before us, hooping and hollering. We backtracked a ways and headed up to the upper section instead, hoping we could then catch the lower falls in some peace and quiet later on! Turns out this was a good decision, as the upper falls are much harder to get to.
There are a lot of intersecting trails and ATV tracks around the Long Pool campground, and it can get a little confusing. From campsite 16 on Loop B, we followed an ATV track up a slight hill to an intersection. Turning left would take you along a ridge above the Big Piney and down to the lower falls. We continued straight, huffing and puffing up a steep hill away from the river. At the top of the hill, we came to a level spot where there's a new water tank and a big clearing where a power line cuts through. This is the only place we had any difficulty finding our way; the power line access area is fairly thick with brambles and underbrush, and you have to go farther uphill than you'd think. About a hundred yards up from the water tank, another ATV track crosses the power line access-- we followed this to the left, back towards the creek. From here it was fairly easy hiking along the road trace, and we were treated to some lovely views of Big Piney Creek and the lush green hills below.
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| View of Big Piney Creek from the ATV trail to the upper falls. |
After hiking along the ridge a ways, the ATV track starts heading steeply down the hill, eventually coming to the creek that feeds the waterfalls. Cross here and head upstream to access the upper falls. Also near this stream crossing is an interesting landmark-- the "Bigfoot Campsite," as Rick Henry calls it. Whoever put this campsite together had a lot of time on their hands! There are several armchairs, a couch, a footstool and a fire ring, all made from big ol' slabs of rock. It proved to be a nice spot to rest for moment, because it's all bushwhack upstream from here.
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| Me lounging at the Bigfoot Campsite |
The bushwhack up the creek from the Bigfoot Campsite is pretty easy at first, though we did have to cross the creek a couple of times, which proved a task as the water was up and some rocks were very slick. Soon we came to Unnamed Falls #1 (Rick Henry's title) or Six Tier Falls (Takahik name), a cool little tiered waterfall with plenty of flow. It was obvious a lot had changed since those blog posts were written-- there were lots of trees down on this section of creek, including one right over the top of Six Tier Falls. Still, it looked pretty neat.
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| Close up of Six Tier Falls, mostly obscured by a fallen tree |
The bushwhack got much rougher upstream from Six Tier, and unfortunately we couldn't make it all the way to Twister Falls like I had hoped. Every corner we turned there seemed to be a huge tree down, making it difficult to pass through. We made it a little further up the creek and were probably not far from Twister Falls, but seeing that many obstacles ahead, we decided it wasn't worth it. I did get a few nice pictures of Tyler hanging out in the creek here, though.
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| Tyler in the creek |
Soon we decided to head back down to the Bigfoot Campsite and make our way back out of the drainage on the ATV track. After retracing all of our steps, we headed down the lower trail towards the falls at the bottom of the creek. We had successfully avoided the loud family, so I counted that as a win!
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| Lower Long Pool Falls |
Lower Long Pool falls is just magnificent. It's very easy to get to and always seems to have some flow. All the mossy boulders and ferns around make it feel very lush, and the spring greens of everything were popping today. I could sit at the base of these falls for a long time and just enjoy. Tyler was fairly spent from the bushwhack around the upper creek, so he chilled out while I decided to navigate my way upstream to Long Pool Falls. It does require a little scrambling, but in places there is a well-worn footpath along the boulders up the left side of the creek. Less than 100 yards from the lower falls, 44-foot tall Long Pool Falls comes into view just around a corner.
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| Long Pool Falls |
This waterfall was going strong today. I love waterfalls in box canyons like these-- they feel so secluded, so magical. Getting around the base of Long Pool Falls is a little tricky because the creek bed is full of car-sized boulders and the sides are steep and covered in scree, or loose shale. That made getting in front of my camera in time for the ten-second timer a challenge, but I managed!
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| Me at the base of Long Pool Falls |
By this time, we were about ready to pack up and grab a greasy burger at Whattaburger, my favorite place to eat lunch in Russellville. (I'm talking about the original, local Feltner's Whattaburger, y'all!) A pretty successful day of waterfall chasing, all in all. I'll definitely be back to the lower section of this creek, but I don't know about the upper section. The Bigfoot Campsite is neat, but the waterfalls upstream from there just don't seem worth the bushwhack, especially with all the trees down now. Give it another year or two and maybe it will become more accessible. The lower falls are plenty beautiful and require only a mile round trip hike, so I highly recommend visiting these if you're at the rec area.
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