Hemmed In Hollow

Fee: Free
Hiking difficulty: moderate-difficult
Hiking length: 5.5 miles round trip to falls



Located in Compton, AR within the Buffalo National River Ponca Wilderness Area, Hemmed-In-Hollow Falls was unanimously added to our favorites list of hikes in the Ozarks.

As the Buffalo River website states:
There's no doubting that Hemmed-In Hollow is one humdinger of a waterfall.  Even when its long, billowing cascade is of modest volume, the geology of the fall alone is worth seeing.

(They also have a trail map on their website, along with some other quick tips for the hike.)

The Compton Trailhead is located on a rough, red-dirt Arkansas road just off 43, and the trailhead parking lot is not overly large. Considering this is noted as a heavily-trafficked hike we surmised that the parking lot must reach over-flowing pretty often in peak season, though parking along the back road is also an option.

Fortunately for us we happened to pick a wonderful day over Christmas break to tackle the almost 6 mile (there and back) trip to the waterfall. We passed a couple other small groups who were heading out as we headed in, but essentially had the place to ourselves -- and with plenty of rainfall from the day before to get the water up to an impressive volume. Much more rainfall might have made some of the water crossings impassable for us (at least with children who needed help across).

The trail quickly descends 2,000 feet to the Buffalo River, which means that the trip back up is a long, tiring one! The Buffalo River website does not recommend this trail for "young children or folks who tire quickly" (and in fact we did gently discourage some elderly folks who were part way down the trail just before dusk as we were heading back, and were thankful to see them make it safely back to their car before we left). However, our children are proof that, with some experience, young children are up to the task, and they excitedly nominated it as one of their favorite hikes as well.

The waterfall itself can be seen from an overlook 1.6 miles down the trail, but it looks much smaller from that perspective! The kids showed a good deal of disappointment at how little it was from that vantage point -- but they changed their tune when we were at the bottom looking up the 209 ft high falls. In fact, Hemmed-In-Hollows Falls is the tallest falls between the Rockies & Appalachians, according to the NPS.

From the overlook (which has a rather high, steep drop off along the edges -- be fore-warned if you do travel with children!) the trail quickly drops down into the beech woods along the river. This was our favorite part of the hike and afforded several fun creek crossings and a few smaller waterfalls to enjoy.





Do come prepared to get your feet wet, if you come during higher water. We came prepared with extra socks and sweaters (& snacks) for the kids, and we were indeed thoroughly soaked by the end of it. Thankfully, it was a warm winter day and this posed no problems for us. The earlier part of the trail before the overlook was essentially one long puddle that we had to walk along the edges of (though there are also several nice stone stairways built into the trail).

After the overlook the trail was drier, except for the water crossings. We managed all of these with the use of stepping stones, but we did have to bridge some gaps and pass children across them. Good thing Clay has a long reach!




In order to actually get up to the falls we had to do one last river crossing that was a little more challenging. Once again, Clay's long reach came in handy. But going up to, and behind, the falls was well worth any inconvenience to get there. The intensity of being surrounded by that much water, and roaring power, and beauty was an experience we all treasured. With the wind just right Clay and I could even step out from behind the falls to look straight up at it, and it was an awesome feeling.

Unfortunately the wind didn't favor us as we left the safety of the little grotto behind the falls and we got pretty drenched on our departure! All part of the fun adventure since the warmth of the day and the brisk hike back up to the car quickly dried us off. We would not recommend this activity on a colder winter day, however. :)




Everyone was pretty happy to tumble into the van when we made it back, and the day was successfully concluded with a warm ride home in dry socks, eating Dominos pizza from Harrison & belting out some newly learned rounds. (Thanks to Auntie Annie for sharing this CD with us. It's provided a few fun new ones to add to our family favorites.)