Mar 5 Big South Fork - Hippy Cave & Fiddlers Rock

 

Next up on our tour is a short hike into Hippie Cave. The road leading here is full of mud puddles which were deeper than I liked. The pull off hold one, maybe two cars. 

Hippy Cave is a rockhouse with a large overhang, so it can be called a cave. 

After Hippy, we drove back on the pot hole road to another small pulloff where we could access Fiddlers Rock. 

Fiddlers Rock has some carvings. One of a fiddler. There is also a story of a fiddler named Martin Stone who fiddled atop a rock, first attracting and mesmerizing rattlesnakes, then shooting them. That went on until the snakes killed him. I'm not sure if that is this or another Fiddlers Rock. The story Keith told was a bit different. A local fellow fiddled here because of the acoustics. It became a local hangout as a result. 

Mar 6 Big South Fork - Indian Rockhouse

 

The trail to Indian Rockhouse is less than a half mile roundtrip.It is in Pickett State Park. 

The rockhouse is very close to Hazard Cave and is also one of the spots with Cumberland sandwort. We saw a few more spots with it, always protected. 

Snakewort 

A Chestnut Oak the could not decide which way to grow. 

Mar 6 Big South Fork - Twin Arches

 

Twin Arches is the most visited feature in the park. The arches are part of the same eroded wall. They are just a couple hundred feet apart. The road heading to the trailhead is dirt and narrow. Careful driving out there, some drivers travel this road way faster than they should. Pulloffs are very limited. The parking area looks like it fills often during more popular times. The trailhead has a vault privy. 

It is best to walk the 1.6 mile loop in a clockwise direction even though it's quicker to go the other way. Seeing the arches from below is more dramatic than approaching them from above. These steps are a cross between stairs and a ladder.

Arches are around the corner

Big Leaf Magnolia has found a home in Big South Fork. The trees are abundant here. The fallen leaves are easy to spot since they turn a very light color and contrast with the other leaf litter. They also look a little like toilet paper on the leaf litter. 

These two arches are among the largest in the world. The one above is known as the North Arch and is the smaller of the two at 62' high. The first photo of this entry is of the South Arch which is 103' feet high with a 70' high clearance and 135' ground span. 

After exploring around the two arches, we slipped into a tunnel in the South Arch. It looks narrow above but opens up just beyond Nanci. We were told it was 77 feet long.

Looks like brand new stairs

This place gets a big thumbs up. You can climb to the top of the South Arch and get a great 360 view. The return trail to the parking area, accesses a wooden staircase between the two arches and then travels over the top of the North Arch. 

Mar 5 Big South Fork - Island Arch

 

I'm calling this Island Arch because it is on the Island Trail. The trail crosses the top of the arch to an island. That island was created by a dam (below) which is within a stone's throw of the arch. Again, this trail is short, about a half mile total. 

This would be a great place to kayak and get better photos of the arch. 

A view of the dam from atop the arch.

Looking through the arch with the dam being just out of sight through the arch.

Prolific Reindeer lichen through this area

At lakeside level next to arch.

Mar 5 Hidden Passage and Crystal Falls

 

Crystal Falls

Next up on our tour through Pickett State Park is a short hike on Hidden Passage Trail to Crystal Falls and back, about 1.5 miles total. Although, Crystal Falls seemingly is the big attraction here, I found Hidden Passage to be quite cool. The trail heads slightly down until you're closer to the bluff. There you drop down steeply, closer to Thompson Creek. 

An unnamed feature

Just before reaching the waterfall, it appears the rock bluff comes right up to the creek with no real estate to pass. That is where the hidden passage come into play. 

To the far right is the unpassable bluff but somewhere hidden among the rocks next to Nanci is our passage. 

The hidden passage makes an appearance. There is an easy way through there.

And the hidden passage opens up to a big exit. This is a fun place to explore.

A couple tiers are visible here. there is another higher up which you can't see. 

Mar 5 Big South Fork - Natural Bridge

 

The previous feature we visited, Hazard Cave is along a 2.5 mile loop trail with Natural Bridge on it too. After visiting Hazard cave, we continued hiking to visit Natural Bridge. Every access trail to the feature was closed with caution tape. So we abandoned trying to see it. After a brief visit at the park office to inquire on other rails, we were told that we could access the Natural Bridge from a 2 car pulloff just down the road. So, we ended up in the pulloff and walked less than 30 seconds to this!

After walking on top, we scrambled underneath. At every angle it looks different. 

Mar 5 Big South Fork - Hazard Cave

 

Our first hike in the area is in Pickett State Park. The walk to the rockhouse/cave is about 10 minutes from the trailhead. It is a huge sandstone overhang. There was evidence of a fire having smoked the top of the entrance. Native people who came through here had wonderful shelter in these rockhouses. 

It was fascinating to see all the ways the sandstone has eroded. This Swiss cheese effect was very common. Another feature we often saw, were slight ridges 1 or 2 inches high which formed hap hazard lines and patterns on the rock surface. We're told these have a high iron content. Sedimentary layers are evident on the walls.  

The fence is protecting Cumberland sandwort a rare plant found only in this area with 28 occurrences. The green you see behind the fence is the plant. It only occurs behind the dripline of these rockhouses.

The overhangs can continue for great distances and create all sorts of interesting formations.

This being our first feature to see, we were awed by it but had we seen it later in the day, it would have been just another rockhouse in a long day of rockhouses.