Waterfalls etc around Buffalo River and the Boxley Valley

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of moving down to Kansas City, and given I have a week after I move before I start my new job, I am planning to go down to the Buffalo River/Boxley Valley area either Saturday or Sunday for about 4 days (I'll be staying near Jasper, AR). I was wondering if people could post some locations/directions for some of the scenic areas around there. I've been reading through the forum a lot today, and have gleaned some information, however it'd be nice to have some local knowledge summarized in a single post. I know where to find elk and such, so am really looking for scenic waterfalls to visit (unfortunately I don't really have the time to hike all the way to twin falls), and other scenic places to go for fall colors, whatever else.

So far places i've discovered from reading:

Six Finger Falls - About 45 miles from Jasper down AR7/16 to Co 1205
Hawksbill Crag - about 27 miles from Jasper just south of the 21/43 split, heading down Co Rd 5 to Co rd 406 I think...At least that is what google maps says...

Since i'll be coming down through Branson, places around there are welcome to that might be on the way. Are there places just west of Branson in the Mark Twain National Forest worth exploring? Seems to be quite a decent sized river there... How is the drive down 13 through that area?

Thanks much for any and all advice,
Chris
soon to be in Lenexa, Ks

Lost Valley in Boxley would be worth exploring. Quite a few waterfalls, easy to find and very beautiful. I'm sure it is past peak fall color and it will most likely be busy over the weekend.

I do not think you will have any problems finding waterfalls around Ponca/Boxley/Jasper on Saturday. We are under flash flood and it is raining like crazy in Newton County right now. Buffalo is already at 7 feet at Ponca and going straight up. Ideas - visit Triple Falls around Kyles, Steel Creek, hike the trail from Ponca to Steel Creek.

It will be harder to find fall colors - we are past peak here(still spectacular -just past peak)

edited to add that while I was writing this message river rose another 5 feet to 12 feet at Ponca. WOW!

It seems from everything I am reading that the fall colors were very wierd this year. As I started researching this a few weeks ago when it looked like I was going to be moving, it seemed that area hit peak the last week of October or the first week of November, but this year I guess it was both earlier and not as spectacular as it normally is?

You could head down the hill from Jasper on Hwy. 7 and hit Longpool Falls and Haw Creek. I heard Longpool is looking good this week. I don't know about Haw Creek. You can google both for directions. I recommend getting Tim Ernst Waterfall Guide if you are serious about searching out waterfalls in the area. You can pick it up at the Elk Center in Jasper or the Chamber of Commerce or order it online at www.cloudland.net. Hope this helps!

Third week of October is pretty typical peak week for the Buffalo River area, a few days to a week later for the rest of the Ozark National Forest. Missouri Ozarks are usually a week or so sooner but Don Kurz reported them to be peaking last week. The last two years were weird with the peak happening in November. So this year has been about right as the Buffalo area was blazing last week and the rest of the Ozark National Forest seems to be blazing this week. I think our fall color has been quite spectacular this year - you just have to have the right light in the right places at the right time - same as always. The hue has shifted from reds to yellows due to all of the rain we had in September.

Two things about fall color here or anywhere else - there is really no "normal" year since it can vary wildly from year to year to year; and you can almost always find great color for photographs within a certain time period if you have the right light. We've had just wonderful light every day this week here, with the exception of that one horrid day with blue skies and bright sunshine...

Karla: Thanks for the advice, i'll definitely look both of them up. I also was planning on looking for Tim's book when I got down there. Just figured I could also gather some early advice from here as well :)

Tim: Thanks for the info. I was just reading reports from http://www.ozarkmtns.com/foliage/index.asp where he says "Fall 2009 has had the lowest color levels we have seen in years.".

Peak is relative. I find most fall color reports to be mostly useless. Worst color here in years? Hardly. The forest service in Ozark is telling callers that the trees are "all mostly brown." Yet I found some of the most incredible colors yesterday I've ever seen in that area. Petit Jean was saying their "peak" was going to be this past weekend - it was far from it. I once watched a special fall color report on The Weather Channel when the weather lady got so excited to report that "The lodgepole pines across Colorado would be peaking this weekend!"

Perhaps it is just my optimistic outlook on life in general and my thoughts are skewed, but from a strictly photographic standpoint, I believe this fall color season in Arkansas will go down as one of the best in history. After all, the pines are the best I've ever seen...

It has been a weird autumn in the MO Ozarks. The western side of the state turned brown fast so I headed to the eastern side of the MO Ozarks the same day and found the peak of color at the same latitude! Plus, a five-inch rain the week before saturated the soil and a week later, a 1 inch rain, brought on some great waterfalls and rapids.

The western side of the state had an early frost that didn't affect the eastern side so maybe that accelerated the turn to brown.

Tim's observation on rain influencing yellow vs red in colors is correct. Too much rain washes out the water soluble anthocyanins so leaves with thin cuticles like sugar maple will show yellow instead of red. Leaves with thicker cuticles like oaks, flowering dogwood, black gum, and sweetgum can shed the water leaving the red to purple colors intact. Plus, the more sunshine during the day, the more red color is created during the warm days and trapped in the leaves during cool nights. There were a lot of cloudy days in Oct. plus a lot of rain, which is a double attack on anthocyanin production. So, rain and temperature can influence the reds and purples in leaves.

In Missouri, the third week of Oct. has been good for fall colors in the past but recent years, maybe because of summer droughts, there have been staggered, drab colors with weak peaks ending in the last week of the month. This month has been more typical of years past with the third week in peak.

Fall predictions rarely hold true because of so many variables. It is best to just block out some time and be flexible in Oct. I made an early commitment to a book signing in Illinois not thinking that fall would be early this year so I missed a couple of optimal days of shooting in the St. Francois Mountains of the Missouri Ozarks.

Best,
Don

Friday morning update - we had some major flooding in the upper Buffalo River area last night - much of the road through Boxley Valley was underwater and it looked like flood waters reached over the top of the Hwy. 21 bridge over the Buffalo River. By first light this morning the river had dropped quite a bit to just normal flood levels (still very muddy) and the road through Boxley is open. There should be tons of waterfalls flowing well all weekend, although if we have clear skies they will look pretty bad on film.

Thanks for the update, Tim, I think much of the state may be flooded this morning. Now if we can just find some fall color in the morning or evening this weekend to go with it...