Arkansas Canyoneering (seriously)

So this all kind of starts off with me travelling west from NC after I found out about my job in Kings Canyon this summer. I felt like this needed to be shared here.

Stop #1 on my trip west was Arkansas. I had considered stopping through last time I traveled across the country, but didn’t have anyone to explore with. Fortunately, my friend Megan moved out there recently, and apparently during her time in grad school in Delaware, had drank enough beer to forget all about when I got us trapped in a slot canyon in Italy overnight during a rainstorm in January with nothing to eat but a few spoons of Nutella. Also the time we swam through 6 inches of decaying pine needles for a hundred yards in the San Rafael Swell. And the MIA trail in Zion. Yes despite actually knowing me, she quite willingly decided to go check out some canyoneering in the Ozarks for which we had zero beta for.

(Hanging out in Italy… I think the Nutella was long gone by this point)

So I met her in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and we drove West passing the antique capitol of Northwestern Arkansas along the way, as well as this:

Seemed out of place.

Eventually we got to the Buffalo National River. This place is awesome, and you should go. Maybe if you live in Utah or somewhere with lots of awesome places it doesn’t need to be at the top of your list, but some time when you’re driving across the middle United States thinking about how bored you are, go to the Ozarks.

The first place we went was Eden Falls. It was pretty neat. There was a waterfall inside a cave. We rappelled off some waterfalls below it, and the rock was really sharp.

Actually looking at that picture, Eden Falls was an amazing spot… it’s just that Shop Creek was SO DAMN COOL that it seems less exciting.

Day 2 of the Buffalo River area, after some ridiculous thunderstorms, Megan and I woke up to clear skies. We took our time to get moving, and enjoyed the nice weather long enough for it to disappear and then started hiking up to the top of Shop Creek. By the time we were heading down into the drainage another thunder storm was on top of us. So we hid under a rock at the head of the drainage (not ideal lightning safety) until it passed, then threw on some minimal cold water gear and waded on in.

Even when we were hiding under the rock, it was apparent that Shop Creek was going to be strikingly beautiful. Unfortunately, my camera was broke, and Megan forgot her phone. So you’ll never believe me. You can just assume I’m making all this up and that high quality canyoneering in Arkansas is a myth. But is it? (I’ll link some pictures hikers have put up to give you some idea. Follow the url if you want to get to the pages I got them from.)

We rappelled in off a tree. I think it was just after the first rappel where I really looked down and fully realize that this was not messing around. There was probably 3-4 cubic feet per second of water cranking through a 4 foot wide slot that dropped a few hundred feet of elevation fast. The drops were somewhat less than vertical, but on rock that was as slick as ice. The canyon twisted back and forth along the drops to where the water would swoosh up onto one side and then the other, occasionally lifting off of the surface of the rock to smash us in the face while we rappelled. It was kind of like a slide in a water park but with significantly less pee and no safety features.

The second rappel dropped us deeper into the slot. It was obviously committed. Once we pulled the rope behind us, the only way out was down. Fortunately enough, that was where we wanted to go, and there was a great spot for a knot chock to rappel off of. The slot slid back and forth for another rappel before dropping us down a steep chute with some intense pounding from the water, off a small waterfall and into a 6 foot deep pool around a big corner. The corner we had turned fortunately posed no issues with the rope pull, and we continued down.

(from the Arkansas Waterfalls blog, the drop into the deep pool. Here there is less water and the pool is not as full, but it gives you an idea of the canyon. I guess when the water is low like this, you can hike up this far from the bottom)

We were next faced with a drop of about 6 feet that looked pretty reasonable to climb down, except for the slipperiness of the downclimb. I decided to give it a shot. I carefully lowered myself off a chock stone, but as soon as my feet hit the ground I was on my butt sliding down the canyon, which was almost completely flat here. I stopped in a shallow pool ten feet away, and stood up to walk back up to the drop to spot Megan. When I got there, I fell on my butt and slid back into the pool again. So I went back again, a bit more prepared, and managed to find somewhere where I felt stable. I helped lower Megan probably 75% of the way down before we both ended up on our butts sliding down into the pool, laughing the whole way.

At this point the canyon was less steep. In fact, below the shallow pool I could see around a little S-corner that it was mostly flat and only dropped around 4 cumulative feet. The rock was entirely too slippery to allow walking though. It was smooth, and ramped nicely around the first left hand corner we could see. Megan and I agreed that it would probably hurt, but would also probably be really fun and worth it to slide this rather than rappel. As it turned out, we both picked up a surprising amount of speed, and the left turn right turn thing happened so fast that we slammed pretty hard into the wall. So it hurt a lot more than we thought it would, but honestly… still worth it. Megan agrees, and I think she smashed the bursa sack in her knee pretty hard. Life experiences and all…

(Chelsea Johansen put this shot of Shop Creek up on Pinterest. It gives you an idea of the twistiness.)

The next drop was equally small and sloped, but we decided to switch back to rappelling before something bad happened. Below there the canyon opened up and we were done. Overall it was a short canyon. 4 (should have been 5) rappels. No longer than 50 feet. But the twisting waterfalls through the canyon were incredible. As someone who has been through probably a hundred canyons in Southern Utah, Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, the Sierras, and elsewhere, let me tell you, that this was not just a good canyon. It was amazing.

I do think that flowing water was important for the fun and beauty factors… so it’s probably best for December through April if my understanding of Arkansas seasons is on. I don’t think you want to be out there in summer anyway.

We hiked out, both ecstatic about our adventure. A trail led us back to camp, where we took our car and drove to Jasper Arkansas, where Megan’s roommate Patrick, an Arkansas native, had told us we could get delicious elk burgers and learn about Space Jesus at the Ozark Cafe. Sure enough, the elk burgers were fantastic, and they had a small cabinet with a picture of Jesus in a space suit devoted to a religion so obscure that I can’t seem to find any information about it with Google. I think the basic idea was that God rules over lots of worlds, and aliens wrote a 3rd book of the bible. There was this pamphlet where the aliens interviewed Jesus, and he explained that the reason there is pain and suffering is that we live on an experimental world where God figures out what works and what doesn’t to implement it on other worlds that are perfect. Makes sense.

The ridiculousness for the day was not over. We got back to our campsite, to find that the women camped next to us had taken down their tents and lashed their kayaks to an outhouse because tornadoes were coming. We eventually conceded and took down our gear as well, shoving it into our cars. There were no tornadoes, but it did storm really hard again.

Fortunately, these awesome guys from Kansas City (not afraid of tornadoes) invited us over to their giant white tent “the bunker” which they had not taken down and gave us beer, whiskey, and short ribs. We passed out drunk in the front seats of Megan’s car later that night. I guess those guys do that on the first April of every year. So, that’s a good time to head to the Ozarks. Kyles Landing Campground. Look for the giant white car port tent. Just walk over and say ‘Hi’, they’re some of the friendliest people I’ve met.

So that’s Shop Creek. I was a bit sad we didn’t have more time to hang out… I’m pretty certain there are more canyons out there. If you’re (still) reading this, and you want to go do some canyoneering in Arkansas, just shoot me an email and I will give you all the beta you need for Shop Creek.

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