Dripping Springs Drainage,
Mount Magazine
April 21, 2006
During one of the many times that I’d
gazed out across the vast forested landscape beneath Cameron
Bluff, I heard the rushing sound of water below. Though I had
previously recognized several small draws running down the
mountain, it never occurred to me that there might be
waterfalls down there. Were there any? Suddenly I had another
place on my list that just had to be seen.
I did my usual research using topographic
maps and GPS software, which resulted in my storing directions
in the GPS receiver to several drainages that crossed a forest
service road below the mountain. I first visited the small
stream below Dripping Springs with Grant late one warm Sunday
afternoon in March. I saw enough to know it was worth further
exploring during a rainy season. So when the first decent
rainfall of Spring tracked across Mount Magazine, Joey and I
left work early to explore my stream.
The surrounding woods sloped down toward
the stream, but were nice and open, and the forest floor was
fairly even. However the stream seemed to always have one bank
that was too steep to navigate, so we did a lot of zig-zagging
from one side to the next. It was warm and muggy, and Man! was
I out of shape. I’d only been on two other hikes in the
last five months. This bushwhack was uphill all the way.
There really weren’t that many pretty
spots on the stream. The water tended to flow between countless
large rocks. In a couple of interesting places the water had
carved deep curving undercuts into solid rock, but trees had
fallen next to them and wrecked my desire to take pictures.
That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a
great hike. I’d never seen so much Virginia Creeper in
one spot, and it was nice not to see as much Poison Ivy as
usual. I spotted the leaves of several early spring
wildflowers, including Trout Lilies, Bloodroot, and
Dutchman’s Breeches. I’ll have to come back another
spring when they’re in bloom.
The stream seemed to alternate between
steep drops and relatively flat sections. Every time we saw a
steep section up ahead I’d say “This could be it...
looks like a good spot for a waterfall”. But time after
time it was just another area where the water ran between
individual rocks. One thing that kept us going was the
knowledge that we were only going to hike three-fourths of a
mile from the truck.
Finally we heard a rushing of water much
louder than anything else so far, and an excited scramble
uphill revealed the first real waterfall of the season.
It was around 20 feet tall, including a
12-foot lower section that was actually a gentle cascade down a
layered rock face.
It would have been a steep climb to get up
above the falls, and it looked like there was more steep
terrain above that, so we turned around and slowly hiked back
to the truck. I was gratified to know that, yes, there was a
waterfall down there below Cameron Bluff.
