Red Bluff and Falling Water Falls
Memorial Day weekend provided us with an opportunity to explore some areas of the greater Ozarks and Buffalo River region to our east. The highlights of our trip were the Red Bluff overlook along the Buffalo River and Falling Water Falls near Richland Creek. As a part of a new format I’m experimenting with for sharing images, here is a short log of our trip with a handful of my favorite images from the day!
We started our day early on Saturday (May 26) with a short hike (almost entirely uphill) to Pam’s Grotto near Haw Creek. We were slightly bummed that more water wasn’t flowing over the falls in spite of recent rainfall. This realization that water flow may not be high enough for some waterfalls tempered my expectations for the day and I decided to hold off on visiting nearby Pack Rat Falls, opting to save it for another visit. There was just enough water flowing over Pam’s Grotto that I was able to photograph a soft exposure of the water hitting the rocks below.
Following Pam’s Grotto we made our way to Haw Creek Falls for a short lunch. With temperatures already in the upper 80’s and humidity above 90%, the falls were a popular destination for families looking for a way to beat the heat over the holiday weekend. We spent some time taking in the falls and wading in the water before we started making our way to Richland Creek.
While en route to Richland Creek, we stopped at Falling Water Falls, which was also packed with people. Not having a convenient place to set up a tripod, I took the above image with my arms pinned between two trees for stabilization (not too shabby if I can say so myself). We later spent some time just above the falls sun bathing and sitting in shallow water.
Upon arriving at Richland Creek, our plan was to make our way to Richland Falls and Twin Falls, however the prospect of fording the river (which was waist deep) before making a 2.5 mile hike wasn’t sitting well with either of us or our dog, so we opted for some more time sitting by the water.
We eventually made our way north and east, stopping briefly at Tyler Bend along the Buffalo River. We were biding time until sunset and so we ended up sitting along the river watching floaters pass by. The beach at Tyler Bend was admittedly the best of the day with a short sandy stretch that provided easier walking in bare feet.
We finally made our way to Red Bluff, which provides a small clearing and overlook of a horseshoe bend in the Buffalo River east of Gilbert. We stuck around until just after sunset so I could take the above image in the advancing blue hour light under a nearly full moon.
The Red Bluff overlook has been growing in popularity over the past couple of years. If you do decide to seek it out, be aware that while it is fairly easy to reach by car, the overlook itself is in a fairly “natural” condition (i.e. undeveloped.) The short ~25 foot trail to the overlook is steep and almost entirely gravel right up to the edge. I myself was sitting down when the above photo was taken and there was not enough space for me to comfortably set up a tripod for this particular perspective. In short: watch your footing and be very careful. This is probably not the best place to bring children or pets.