Thunder Canyon
May 1, 2004
Ever since I read about Thunder Canyon in
Tim Ernst's online journal it has been at the very top of my
list of places that must be seen. He's probably been to as many
amazing places in the Arkansas wilderness as anyone, and he
says some impressive things about the canyon. You can read the
entire journal entry for his visit here.
I finally made it to the extraordinary spot
Saturday, but it was one of the toughest hikes I've ever been
on, and the joy of witnessing the falls was diminished by the
condition I was in by that time. I wasn't so much tired as I
was wet, cold, frustrated and out of patience.
I arrived at the Erbie Trailhead at 1:45. I
was only wearing jeans and a t-shirt but put on this
lightweight pullover jacket that is fairly water resistant
because the temperature was in the low 50s. I headed down the
Cecil Cove loop trail and immediately fell in love with the
trail. It went alongside Cecil Creek under a thick canopy of
green trees and through a lush forest floor full of plants and
wildflowers. There were plenty of times I wanted to stop and
set up the camera, but I was on a mission to see Thunder Canyon
and I could always take pictures on the return hike.
It wasn't long before I came to the first
of four creek crossings. I've never had to cross a creek on a
hike before, but I understand it's no big deal to a seasoned
hiker - just pull your socks and shoes off, roll up your pant
legs and walk right across. And that's exactly what I did. For
some reason the water at the third crossing was a lot deeper
than the others. The water came up over my knees and got the
bottom of my rolled-up pants wet. With each crossing, the water
on my feet made my socks a little bit more damp when I put them
back on, but it was still a lot better than sloshing around for
the rest of the afternoon with waterlogged shoes.
At the final crossing point I just had to
get the camera out. Across on the other side of the creek there
was a wide area where water was spilling in, presumably from
another creek, making all these tiny waterfalls (once I made it
to the other side I realized Cecil Creek had just made a split
somewhere upstream and was now coming back together).
At this point I picked up a spur trail
going off to the left towards Thunder Canyon. Soon I was
walking beside a stream like none I've ever seen. The stream
bed was a smooth narrow channel worn down into the solid bed
rock. As it turned out, the stream bed stayed this way the
entire trip up to Thunder Canyon - I'm guessing about 600
yards. The depth of the channel continually changed - at one
point it was about eight feet deep. There were several spots
where it suddenly dropped, created waterfalls that rumbled with
a loud hollow sound.
It started raining, which surprised me
because two different TV weather guys had said the rain would
end by noon. It's not their fault, but I was ticked because now
I was seeing all this cool stuff that I wanted to get pictures
of but didn't want to get the camera wet. Again I reasoned that
I could get pictures on the way out.
Several times the banks of the stream got
too steep to walk on and I would have to walk up in to the
woods until things leveled out again. It was real slow going up
in the woods. The plant growth was so thick I couldn't see
where I was stepping without first moving stuff out of the way
with my hands. And the forest floor was nothing but loose
rocks. And all of this was wet and on a slope!
Suddenly I came to another scene that I
just had to get the camera out for. It was pretty darn
difficult to get that picture. It was raining steadily, and
without getting anything wet I had to open up by camera
backpack, put the camera on the tripod, adjust all the settings
and take the shot. Man I hate taking pictures in the rain!
Right after I took that picture I had to
cross the creek again, and this time there was no avoiding
stepping in the water with at least one foot. By this time my
patience had worn thin and I wasn't up to the tedium of taking
my shoes off and putting them on again so I just
sacrificed one shoe. It was a big deal because once your shoes
get waterlogged your sense of feel and touch down there is shot
and it makes walking on all those slippery and loose rocks all
that more difficult.
I arrived at the canyon around 4:45 - three
hours after I set out. It was way too awesome for me to
describe so hopefully the picture below will suffice.
As I was setting up the camera for the
picture of the big waterfall I realized I really needed to get
in the picture for scale (this only partially worked though
because the falls are a lot bigger and taller than they appear
in the final photos). It was still raining but thankfully there
was the big rock overhang above.
The only way to the base of the falls was
to go around either side of the 14-foot-deep hole of water. The
path on either side consisted of a narrow ledge of solid rock
that not only slanted down toward the water but was smooth, wet
and slick. I had to consider the possibility that if I fell in
that hole, I wouldn't be able to get back out. The water was
swirling around in the hole reminding me of a whirlpool. Still,
I had to do it.
I started out standing up, holding on to
outward jutting rocks about chest level. Then those rocks kept
jutting out farther and getting lower until I had to crawl
under them. Before I reached a level place to stand next to the
falls, there were places I had to stick my foot way back under
the ledge to keep from sliding down into the hole.
The power of the water jetting out from the
falls was incredible. I was standing right there beside it and
thought that if I were to step out in front of it, it would
just push me away.
By the time I got back around to the camera
I was shivering. My pants were soaked from snaking around on
those rocks, and the waterfall created a strong wind. The place
was visually stunning and I could have taken a hundred
pictures, but all I wanted to do was get the heck out of there.
So I packed up the camera and started to head downstream. After
I passed several of the small waterfalls I turned around for
another look, and I stopped. "I just gotta get that
shot" I said out-loud, then took the backpack off for
another tedious photo in the rain. I was so cold that first I
ran in place real hard for a couple of minutes just to warm up!
It took me an hour to bushwhack the 600
yards back to the trail. I stayed in the woods away from the
slick water slide unless the rock path beside it was wide and
flat. For some reason the thought of falling in was scary.
Realistically I should have just hopped right in the middle of
it and followed it all the way down. I was soaking wet from the
waist down anyway.
When I finally reached the Cecil Cove trail
I took great pleasure in just ploughing through the creek at
the crossing. One thing worth noting is that once I was across
the big creek and was practically jogging toward the truck, I
realized that a 20-foot waterfall splashing down a bluff and
into the creek (I first noticed it on the hike in) was actually
coming from the water slide stream below Thunder Canyon. I
thought it was only fitting that such an awesome stream would
go out in such style!
