Road Blocked to Richland Creek?

Planning a fall visit to Richland Creek. I know the landslide is still there blocking the road to the campground from the south, but I have heard that the forest service has also blocked the road from the north. Does anyone know how far from the campground the road from the north is blocked? A friend and I are planning to park and hike in and camp near Twin Falls. Anyone have any info of the situation? Are they closing the WHOLE wilderness area? Can they do that? Maybe I just need to pick another place. Thanks!

The campground is closed. Not the whole area. I would contact the forest peoples and ask? I can get you some coords of another way in to twin falls, other than up the creek. One from above and one from the road coming in from the north... cuts off the hill on the way down before the bridge. I may have read about the road needing help at the bridge, not sure on that.

Am sure I read that the south road is being surveyed for work. Have to figure best way to clear and repair it.

Thanks Clif, any info on alternate routes would be appreciated. Feel free to post here or send me a message. Thanks!

oops.. tryin to hunt this up for ya and...

"the hike down to Twin Falls via Hill Cemetary is pretty much impassable.

We tried to go down there over the weekend and it took over an hour to get
to the cemetary and then once there could barely identify, much less
follow the old logging road that is supposed to bring you out between
the falls. We ended up turning back rather than try to guess our way down the ravine."

I fergot 'bout ice debris. This was posted last March. Hill Cemetary Is above the falls and one could get down there from that direction. I would imagine it is still full of down limbs.

Sent a request for the other trail point. Will let you know when I hear.

"the lower "ice line" elevation is somewhere around 1650' to 1700'."

below this alt one should not encounter as much obstacle. You have topos of the area? A gps?

Is the road still not open or is it just the Campgrounds? I was thinking about hiking down the OHT and bumming around Lawyer Hollow. Can you get to the OHT trailhead near Stackrock?

Here's what I know for sure: The campground is closed and the road FS 1205 coming up from the south is blocked by a large landslide about 2 miles south of the campground. I have heard that the Forest Service has also blocked the road NORTH of the campground, but I am not sure where along the north road is blocked. I plan on parking at the roadblock and hiking THROUGH the campground if it's not too far, so I'm trying to find out where that northern roadblock is in relation to the campground... I am going to make some calls and try to find out.

OK, just got off the phone with a lady at the National Forest office in Russellville and she said: 1. The road block on the North side of the campground was very near the campground and was just there to keep people out of the campground, but that you can park right by the roadblock and it's ok. 2. She also said that in March the repairing of the road at the landslide would be up for bid and that a contractor would be awarded the bid to do the work in April and work to repair the road would begin soon after. Great news! She said the project had been turned over to the Federal Transportation (Authourity?) or some fed department like that. (can't remember the exact name she used).
Maybe some stimulus money kicking in????

I just found out also, from a friend over there, that one can drive to the campground.

Some stimulus $ doin some good?

zenlizard wrote:Is the road still not open or is it just the Campgrounds? I was thinking about hiking down the OHT and bumming around Lawyer Hollow. Can you get to the OHT trailhead near Stackrock?

I've heard the trail is in REALLY BAD shape in that area. Trees down everywhere, 6-foot high bushes growing out of the TREAD itself, signs missing, trail unrecognizable, etc... I just hope this is the worst part of the OHT.

We are considering camping, fishing, and hiking, etc...in Richland creek area, however, we are confused as to if that is possible. Therefore, I am asking any information on camping (with kids) and lots of gear with cooler...would you chance it? Basically any ideas what we are going to run into to. Thank you and God Bless:)

Richland campground is officially closed. Reachable but no camping.

With water levels low, Longpool @ Big Piney, Buffalo upstream of hwy 7..Steele Creek has water, Illinois Bayou.

Some of the hunting seasons are kiciking in and gonna increase activity at some spots.

I talked with someone at the forest service about a month ago. She said that the area was closed indefinitely. I guess you can drive down FR1205 for a little ways, but if they see your car parked on the FR at Richland creek, they will ticket you! So i said, "I guess there is no chance of me seeing twin falls anytime soon?" She said it may be another year before they allow access again. Not too surprised. Forest Service doesn't really have recreation on the top of their list.
However, stack rock trailhead is still open. You can take the OHT east towards Woolum, but not west to Richland wilderness.

Hum, I've been to Twin Falls three times in the past few weeks - it is not blocked in any way and you can access the entire wilderness area and the waterfalls there from anywhere you like, including hiking through the campground. The only thing that is closed is the campground itself to vehicle traffic and camping, and about a mile of FR#1205 from the campground to the south. You can drive into the campground from the north and access the wilderness area all along the way, including two official trailheads (one at Hill Cemetery, which is the quickest route into Twin Falls; and also at the tiny parking area right on FR#1205 just north of the campground). You are also allowed to park anywhere that you like along the forest road - just as long as you are not blocking traffic. You won't be getting a ticket. I suspect if you parked directly in front of the locked gate to the campground they might not like it, but otherwise you are fine.

A large mud slide closed FR#1205 about a mile south of the campground in the spring of 2008. You can still drive to the neat waterfalls all along Falling Water Creek via 1205 from the south (off of Hwy. 16 near Ben Hur) - some really nice stuff in there.

You are correct that right now the forest service would rather burn and cut than take care of recreation - congress has made sure they don't have much money to do so. But that is OK - you are allowed to camp anywhere in the national forest that you like anyway, and no access to the wilderness area has been closed. Lots of terrific things to see and experience in this great wilderness area!

Thats great to hear. Did the ice damage impede your hike at all?

There really wasn't any ice damage along either Falling Water or Richland Creeks - the damage was higher up in elevation. The route in from Hill Cemetery got hit pretty hard though and there are downed trees covering many parts of the old road inside the wilderness area going in. Some of that was cut out this summer, and a lot more of it was cut out by the rescue crews a couple of weeks ago - there were at least 60 volunteers and pros helping to find, carry out, and clear the path for the injured hiker. The trip in from Hill Cemetery to Twin Falls probably takes an hour to an hour and a half, no big deal, but there are still numerous trees to climb over or go around. The trail coming up from the campground is clear as far as I know. Of course, there are no official trails inside this wilderness area (although there are a lot of horse trails), so really the access is pretty good considering...

So do you recommend the best way in is to park your car at the mudslide, and then hike into and past the campground?

When I hike into Twin Falls I normally park at Hill Cemetery and go in that route. If I want to see the creek upstream from the campground then I park at the trailhead that is just north of the campground, or park down near the campground entrance and hike in from there - you have to cross the creek twice if coming in from the campground and going up to Twin Falls (the first crossing is Falling Water Creek and then you have to cross Richland Creek). The scenery in between the campground and the Twin Falls/Richland Falls area is really nice!

You can drive all the way to the campground - or close to it - by coming in from the north via Lurton and Hwy. 123 - no need to park at the landslide - that just adds an extra two miles to your round trip. But you can come in from the south and visit Falling Water Falls, Six Finger Falls, and other waterfalls in the Falling Water drainage that are really nice, and some of them are right next to the car!

FS road out of Ben Hur goes up and intersects the road from Lurton mentioned. Ask a local.

I used to know a road over from the Witt Springs area.... been a long time.

A friend of mine put this on the AR Canoe Club board. Many of us here see that anyway but....


Called the contacts at the Forest Service today and got "the official
word" on the Richland landslide repair. They already seemed very aware
of how important this one is to us, and were very helpful. Here's the
update:

*The project will officially be a Federal Highway Project (vs. Forest Service).

* Bids will be requested in March, 2010.

* A winner will be selected, and Bids awarded in April, 2010.

* Construction is expected to begin in Late Spring or Early Summer, 2010.

* It is "hoped" that the construction will be completed in late 2010.


end of quote.. I had read most of this before, may even be in this thread? but in progress. Late next year completion could have many setbacks...just sayin'

Looked like a bulldozer could have pushed out the dirt to me. Probably wouldn't take an hour.

You sayin good ole mountain ingenuity is gooder than a federal road contract??? Prolly right.

I haven't seen it. Bushwacked the creek below but turned out before going that far. I understood that opening a new road was not the problem. Stabilizing enuff hillside to prevent it from sliding right back down was the issue. Or moving enuf of it out of the way so it would not slide again.

clouddancer wrote:When I hike into Twin Falls I normally park at Hill Cemetery and go in that route.

A lot of good info on current access to the wilderness. Thanks, clouddancer. The only time I've hiked to the Twin Falls was via the cemetery route which follows a pioneer road on the ridge. What I didn't know at the time was that there was a cairn along the trail indicating where to turn off of the old road and start bushwacking down into the drainage above the falls. My hiking buddy noticed it but thought nothing of it. So as a headsup for anyone going this route, look for the rock cairn. I hope it's still there.

Just wanted to post an update on the condition of the OHT in this area. The Arkansas Geocachers Association has adopted the section from Falling Water Creek to Richland Creek Campground. The trail was rerouted through the landslide area by a group of volunteers back in November. I went up with a group two weeks ago and we worked on the first 2 miles of trail from Falling Water Creek. For now there are only 3 large trees down in that first 2 miles. I will be going up in a couple of weeks to finish clearing the rest of the trail up to the landslide area. On the north side of the landslide the trail is in pretty rough shape for about a half mile. I hope to get back up that way around the end of January to complete the section all the way to Richland Creek Campground. I will keep you updated and if anyone would like to come up and help out I will let everyone know what dates.

Clif wrote:You sayin good ole mountain ingenuity is gooder than a federal road contract??? Prolly right.

I haven't seen it. Bushwacked the creek below but turned out before going that far. I understood that opening a new road was not the problem. Stabilizing enuff hillside to prevent it from sliding right back down was the issue. Or moving enuf of it out of the way so it would not slide again.

Stuff like that irks me. It's amazing what some county road graders can do with good old common sense on some of them mountain roads.

Wonder if good old mountain ingenuity could figure out a way to keep the hillside from sliding back down? A few deeply driven steel poles and a steel fence from the local metal pipe store? If it didn't work, and a dozer operator lived nearby, he could run down there every few weeks and fix it.


There's not a lot to it at the road, and it actually carried some growing trees down with it that are now growing above the old road bed. It has a path that ATVs can pass over, maybe some narrow jeeps. When I was looking at it some guy drove up in a full-sized truck and told me he thought he could make it, I told him he couldn't, he still thought he could...suppose he finally figured it out for himself. From the south side it does look like you might be able to drive over, until you walk up there and look. It's very narrow, that's why I wonder if even a little jeep could fit between the trees.

I would have liked to have seen how much hillside had slid loose above the road.

any updates? i am going to try to get to twin falls this weekend. I will probably go via the campground, because it sounds like the logging road from the cemetery is hard to follow due to the downed trees.