Lynn Hollow
April 25, 2004
Sunday morning Charles and I headed out
towards the Mulberry River east of Highway 23 with no
particular agenda, except of course to see waterfalls after the
monster rains we had Wednesday through Saturday. The Mulberry
crested at 18 feet Friday afternoon, and they had to shut down
part of the highway because the water flooded the road North of
the Turner Bend bridge. To put things in perspective, normally
when the water is up to 3 feet, solid intermediate canoeing
skills are needed to float the Mulberry.
There's a nice little waterfall on the hill
beside the Turner Bend Store on the Mulberry that I've been
waiting six months to photograph, so that's the first stop we
made.
Next we took off down Highway 215 so
Charles could check out the High Bank Twins. Somewhere past
Redding campground we passed a tall waterfall right beside the
highway. Once at the Twins, Charles hiked all the way up to the
base of the falls, while I with a stupid "been there, done
that" attitude stayed back and snapped photos downstream.
Besides, I assumed the trees would block the falls in any
pictures this time of year (as it turned out, Charles got some
nice shots of the entire height of the falls).
I continue to be impressed by the little
stream that tumbles down the mountainside and joins the main
stream below the big twin falls. I posted pictures of this
stream on January 25th and again on March 14. Charles followed
it uphill while I concentrated on taking the horizontal photo
shown below of the water going over several small rocks. Once I
caught up with him I suggested we go a couple more hundred
yards uphill to a pretty 9-foot tall waterfall I remembered
from back in March. At first I didn't think we were at the
correct falls, because I remembered a big 12-foot-long log near
the base of the falls. I convinced myself this had to be the
right place, then was amazed to look downstream to see the log
a good 50 feet downhill! It's hard to imagine the volume of
water it took going over the falls to move that log so far.
I've posted a picture from back in March with the log in the
foreground.
March 14 - log in foreground
April 25 - no more log!
We made the short walk back to the truck
and headed for a new place we've been trying to get the
opportunity to visit - Lichen Falls and Lynn Hollow. We'd read
about them in Tim Ernst's Arkansas Waterfalls guidebook. Even after all the rain we've had, the
double-decker falls were just right, instead of gushing. These
falls were on my list of "easy waterfalls to get to"
and yes it was a short walk down the Ozarks Highland Trails to
the top of the falls, but it was a real booger to get down into
the canyon to an adequate shooting position. Further down the
trail, a spur path took off to the right to a fantastic area
called Lynn Hollow. The picture at the top of this page was
taken there. Water from a side stream came in from the
left and made a couple of nice falls as it spilled down the
side of the canyon and in to the main stream. Thanks to all the
recent rains a temporary waterfall was also pouring down the
right side of the canyon at this spot. We had to wade in the
ankle-deep water to take pictures, but it was worth it.
After I climbed up out of the canyon and
took my boots off to pour the water out of them, I spotted a
bunch of wild Crested Iris nearby. While I was trying to get a
close-up shot of them, a butterfly showed up and got in the
picture.
On the way home we pulled off the road when
I spotted a cluster of Ox-Eye Daisies rising up from a field of
Crimson Clover that I thought might make an interesting
picture. There were a couple of butterflies dancing around
outside the truck so I took their picture too.
