Rough Hollow 2/25/18

Towards the end of February this year we had a good bit of rain and fairly mild weather, so I knew I should get out to some hollows while the gettin' was good. I had read about Rough Hollow on Rick Henry's blog, and it looked like a great place to explore that wasn't too far from my home base of Little Rock. Sometimes I want to get up at 5 a.m. and drive three hours to go hiking, but other times I just want to jump in my car and get to the hike already. This was one of those times!

There are several access points into Rough Hollow, and both Rick Henry and the folks at TAKAHIK have some fabulous resources for exploring the area, including maps, GPS coordinates, and photos. You can find their posts on Rough Hollow here and here. I used a combination of their maps and GPS tracks to plan my own exploration of the area, and chose only a small section of the hollow I thought I could cover solo on a Sunday afternoon.

My Google Map markers labeling highlights of lower Rough Hollow.

I parked my car alongside the road to Long Pool Rec Area/Forest Road 1804 (parking area "C" on the TAKAHIK map) and headed up the hill after trying to get my bearings. I was able to follow an ATV track up the ridge, then a deer path down into the creek bed towards Ten Tier Falls. At this point, high in the drainage, it was very easy going and felt more like a stroll than a bushwhack.

Ten Tier Falls is absolutely lovely, and had a good amount of flow. I was actually surprised at how much water there was this high in the hollow, and had some difficulty getting back and forth across the creek while taking photos.

Ten Tier Falls

From Ten Tier Falls, I headed straight down the creek, picking my way along the eastern side as Rick Henry advises. This path eventually leads to a break in the bluff line and access to the next waterfall, Rough Hollow Falls. From Rick's post, I had imagined this to be a fairly straightforward maneuver, but in reality it took some searching and backtracking to locate a way down. Once I finally did get down, I wasn't really looking forward to having to get back out of this grotto, so I stayed a while, had a snack and took some photos. Rough Hollow Falls is the one of the tallest in the drainage, and was flowing fast.

Rough Hollow Falls

Getting out of the drainage of Rough Hollow Falls and back on the bluff line proved to be a task. It was much harder to detect the bluff access from below, so I scrambled up a steep slope of mossy boulders and climbed through some fallen limbs, which was tough with a backpack and tripod strapped to me. It was around this point I started to wish I'd brought a buddy!

Still, I felt pretty exhilarated, and continued on along the bluff towards the side drainage containing Rat Snake and Trigg Falls. There is a trace road or old ATV track that follows this ridge, so I walked along that until it came to a creek crossing. This is directly over Rat Snake Falls, so I figured I might head upstream to Trigg Falls first, and then hit Rat Snake on my way down. However, looking up the creek towards where Trigg Falls should have been visible, I only saw an enormous, tangled mass of fallen trees. It looked completely impenetrable. Rick Henry's post about the area had been published in May of 2015-- a lot had obviously happened in the woods since then. I decided I was definitely not equipped to deal with that kind of obstacle, especially alone, and headed down the hill to the base of Rat Snake Falls.

Rat Snake Falls

Rat Snake Falls are a pretty pour-off with a very unappealing name. Don't ask me what the story is there.

At this point, I thought about continuing upwards along the main creek, towards Big Rock Falls, but by now I was a few miles from my car and the sun was already dipping below the high canyon walls. I figured I should probably play it safe and start making my way back towards the parking area. However, that was high up on the ridge I'd been descending and was now at the very bottom of. Remembering how tough it was getting out of the Rough Hollow Falls drainage, I didn't relish the idea of trying to retrace my steps back towards the car. Instead, I figured I'd just head down the creek towards Long Pool Road, and walk the road back to the parking area. Easy-peasy, right?

I hiked down the creek, towards the slot canyon area Rick Henry details in his post from 2015. It was gorgeous, but I soon found myself in at an impasse: the water was higher here towards the bottom of the drainage and rushing by swiftly, eliminating any walkable creekside and leaving only steep slopes to maneuver. I followed a narrow deer track out onto the steep bank, and from there had to drop to my butt and scoot along the edge til it became more level. After I stood up and looked back along my route, I kinda couldn't believe I'd made it. Maybe Rick Henry was right to just backtrack!

This only left a sock-soaking creek crossing and one last push through some fallen trees before I broke out onto the paved road leading to Long Pool. By this time I was exhausted, but still had half a mile of uphill walking to go to reach my car. I was so pleased when I finally collapsed in the car!

Rough Hollow certainly lives up to its name. There are a lot more waterfalls in the area, but the high water made maneuvering the creekbed difficult, and I just didn't have it in me that day. Knowing how close this area is to Long Pool, I imagine I'll be back with a friend when I'm in the mood for a challenge.