Camping at Richland Creek

Well now that it is mid July I figure it is time to post about my trip to Richland Creek Wilderness over Memorial Day weekend, better late then never I guess.

After exploring the Big Piney Creek on Saturday Julie and I headed down to road to the Richland Creek Wilderness Area to do some camping and hike to some waterfalls.  Richland Creek Campground is one of my favorite places to camp and is one of the most remote drive in campgrounds in the state of Arkansas which, coincidentally, may be one of the reasons I like it so much.

 We arrived after dark and had to set up camp in a pull out on the side of the road as the campground was pretty full with the holiday weekend crowd.  Luckily the next morning several campsites opened up and we were able to pick a nice spot near the campground entrance.

Breakfast in Camp

After getting our camp set up we headed up the trail toward Richland Creek Falls located about 2 miles away.

Julie along the trail to Richland Creek Falls

The trail along Richland Creek is very primitive and on this day it was also really wet and muddy.  By the end of May most of the forest under-story had fully leafed out and the trail was becoming pretty overgrown.  We were getting whacked in the face with wet leaves for a lot of the hike and after about a mile we looked like we had be walking in the rain.

Julie crossing a short section of narrow bluff trail above the creek

This narrow section of trail is only about 30 feet long but that may be 30 feet to many for people who don't like heights. 

About half way to the falls the trail crosses along a bluff line and gets pretty narrow for short stretch.  The trail is about 20 feet above the creek.  This type of exposure isn't near as bad as some of the 14ers I have climbed in Colorado but it was apparently too much more a group of hikers that we meet earlier on the trail that had turned back when they reached this point.

 After the bluff line the creek comes up to meet the trail and then the trail actually disappears below the water for a ways.  This water can be anywhere from ankle deep to over your knees to impassible depending on how high the water is.  On this hike it was only about calf deep.

 Once we passed the underwater trail the creek makes a sharp turn at a pretty nice swimming hole.  This is also were the side trail to Twin Falls take off up the Devil's Fork of Richland Creek.  This is a neat hike to one of the most recognized yet seldom seen water fall in Arkansas, however today we were headed on up Richland Creek to see the falls of the same name.

After wading up stream for quite a ways not realizing that there was actually a pretty good trail on the other side we finally made it to Richland Creek Falls.

Looking up steam toward the falls

Richland Creek Falls isn't very tall at only about 10' but it makes up for it in width stretching all the way across the valley.  It difficult to get the entire falls in one photo without a extra wide angle lens.

Richland Creek Falls

Julie and I at the Falls

After taking a few pictures of the falls, which were the first water fall pictures with my new Canon 6D, we headed back to the campground trying to make it back before it got completely dark.

We spotted this woodland phlox along the trail on our way back to camp

We made it back to camp wet, sore and hungry right after sundown.  So we made a fire and made some deer chili for dinner.  A pretty nice way to end a fun trip up Richland Creek.  My next trip to Richland Creek will most likely be this fall to capture some fall foliage photos.

Deer Chili next to a campfire, a pretty good way to end the day.

I wish that a night enjoying some deer chili around a warm fire was the happy ending to this story but some of the other deer must have seen us eating their fallen friend because the next day they sprang a surprise attack on my Jeep's left fender on the way home.

Deer chili revenge