Lost valley of ice
Lost Valley, a spectacular canyon in Buffalo River country, offers everything a hiker’s heart and feet desire any season of the year.
A clear mountain stream pours through Lost Valley. Two waterfalls dazzle explorers while cliffs rise high above the grandeur. Caves and room-sized boulders are seen along a 1.2-mile trail through Lost Valley.
Lost Valley gets even more beautiful in winter when conditions add up. Rain, followed by freezing temperatures, create veils of icicles in this box canyon.
Rain pattering on rooftops lulled people to sleep the night of Feb. 17. After showers totaling two inches, the temperature took a nose dive. Thermometers registered 16 degrees at dawn under a sky that had cleared. The morning was perfect for a Lost Valley icicle safari.
A trio of hikers, including Tom and Karen Mowry of Nob Hill, parked at the Lost Valley trailhead, which was renovated some years ago. It’s located off Arkansas 43 about two miles east of Boxley in Newton County. A sign at the turn off the highway points to Lost Valley.
Not far from the trailhead, hikers cross Clark Creek, the clear stream that flows through Lost Valley. Much of Clark Creek disappears underground on its mile-long tumbling journey. Even after two inches of rain, the group found several spots to cross without getting wet feet.
Hikers trek up the valley through hardwood forest along the creek. Interpretive signs along the way highlight some of the area’s history and natural wonders. It’s easy walking along this crushed-gravel trail that’s suitable for wheelchairs. The rest of the way is along rugged soft-surface dirt and rock, lots of rock.
One of the hikers stopped and gave a close listen. Is that wind or a waterfall, the group wondered. Not many steps later, they arrived at the first big splash of a Lost Valley hike. Here a waterfall pours out of a natural rock bridge into a clear, shallow pool. Boulders are everywhere, as if the hand of a giant had rolled them like dice.
Drapes of small icicles on the surrounding bluffs dripped under the sunny sky. With each footfall along the rocky trail, ice became more prevalent and magnificent.
At Cob Cave, fangs of icicles hung from the lips of cliffs that soar high above the trail. This bluff shelter cave is the size of an auditorium with a ceiling high as a cathedral. An interpretive sign says the cave got its name from small corn cobs found inside. Archaeologists from the University of Arkansas found the cobs while studying Cob Cave in 1933.
The day quickly warmed, loosening daggers of icicles that cartwheeled to earth in the bright sunshine. Hikers took care to watch for falling ice the short rest of the way to Eden Falls. The waterfall spills some 30 feet from Eden Falls Cave near the top of a bluff in the back of the box canyon.
While the group admired this jewel of a cascade, crashes and booms jarred the landscape as melting icicles toppled from dizzying heights. They watched as ice crashed to earth creating mounds of icicle graveyards.
The trail through Lost Valley is laid out so hikers leave the valley on a different path. This route visits more natural wonders before it connects back with the wider crushed gravel trail on the way back to the trailhead.
A show of ice made for more Lost Valley memories.
“I think this is the best hike I’ve ever had here,” said Tom Mowry, who has trekked through Lost Valley dozens of times. “I’ve never been here in February. The forest is so open you can see so much farther. And those icicles, wow.”