Cedar Falls

In our minds, Cedar Falls was arguably the most attractive waterfall in the state of Arkansas. As you can see from the photo above, it had a classic rectangular shape with pretty healthy volume. Accompanying the falls were some impressively tall and vertical cliffs as well as a tall shady grotto with a rough “trail” that made it possible to scramble behind the waterfall. The timing of our visit also helped in our perception of this falls as we started to see a rainbow rise up from its spray. And as if that wasn’t enough, the panoramic view from the trailhead next to the attractive Mather Lodge (see directions below) further made this one of the best natural experiences to be had in the state of Arkansas as far as we were concerned.

From the well-signed trailhead, we immediately descended on the well-defined trail along a series of switchbacks. Given that we had to descend pretty steeply at the beginning, we knew that we would have to get all this elevation loss back at the end of the hike when we return. Anyhow, along the descent, we noticed some trail junction for the Bear Cave Area, which we didn’t do. We also noticed that there were orange hashes marked on specific trees or rocks, which also indicated that we were on the Cedar Falls Trail (in case there was any confusion with this or other trails, I guess). At the bottom of this descent, the trail flattened out and then approached Cedar Creek.

There was a footbridge traversing the fairly large creek, but a sign there indicated that only two people at a time could be on the bridge. So this caused a little bit of a queue given how popular this trail was. Once we got to the other side of bridge, we then turned right at the junction to follow the creek upstream towards the waterfall. Going left at the junction would’ve followed Cedar Creek downstream towards the Blue Hole Area. And as we continued along the waterfall trail, we noticed there were more large rocks flanking the path, which we noticed quite a few people used them as photo subjects for selfies or people shots. Some of these rocks looked like they were balanced on top of each other.

The trail continued to meander alongside Cedar Creek for the next half-mile. Eventually, after about 40 minutes of hiking, we finally arrived at the huge plunge pool for Cedar Falls. There were lots of giant boulders on the opposite side of the plunge pool to view the falls from. However, the trail kept going up some rock steps as it led right up into the shady yet deep and wide open grotto that afforded us views of the falls from different angles. Within the grotto, the trail degenerated into a steep and narrow scramble with quite a few slippery spots, but that didn’t spot dozens of people from making it all the way to the backside of Cedar Falls and beyond to the other side. I didn’t go all the way down there as it exceeded my comfort level and degree of time commitment.

Eventually after having our fill of Cedar Falls, we went back the way we came. And not surprisingly, the final stretch going up the switchbacks towards the Mather Lodge was perhaps the most strenuous part. Still, with all things considered, we wound up spending between 30-40 minutes on the return hike, and the grand total hiking time was on the order of 60-90 minutes round trip (or 3 miles round trip). While the signs and the park literature proclaimed this to be a strenuous hike, we felt that this characterization might have been a bit exaggerated and probably should’ve been characterized as moderate. Nevertheless, it was still a good idea to bring plenty of water, especially on the return hike.

In addition to the main waterfall trail, there was also a short walk to the Cedar Falls Overlook, which started from a separate car park. The mostly wheelchair-friendly trail led to a lookout deck with a sideways and somewhat obstructed view of the uppermost parts of the Cedar Falls. Beyond the overlook deck, there were stairs leading beneath the deck and onto a trail that followed along the cliffs above Cedar Creek. We walked around five minutes in the Mather Lodge direction (downstream), which led to a protruding part of the cliff, where we managed to get a more direct look at Cedar Falls, but that view was no less obstructed than the one at the lookout deck. In other words, you really need to experience the waterfall from the bottom and not settle for this viewpoint.

Finally, I found the French name of Petit Jean (meaning “Little John”; locals apparently say “petty jeen” instead of the French way like “puh-tee zjhahn”) to be a very interesting name for the state park the Cedar Falls resided in. So I did a little digging to find out how this park got its name. To make a long story short, the park was named after a mountain where Adrienne Dumont of Paris, France was buried. Chavet was engaged to be married to Dumont, but he didn’t want her to accompany him in his overseas explorations of the Louisiana Territory given the dangers involved. In a very Joan of Arc manner, Adrienne wanted so badly to accompany Chavet that she disguised herself as a cabin boy on Chavet’s ship. Her disguise was clever enough that one of the sailors called her Petit Jean, and not even Chavet recognized her. That was until the eve of when the crew was to set sail back to France when “Petit Jean” became gravely ill by some unknown disease. Upon the revelation that Petit Jean was Adrienne Dumont, she asked Chavet for forgiveness as well as granting her last wish, which was to be buried atop what would eventually be known as Petit Jean Mountain.

There were other legends involved, but this particular one pretty much explained the park’s French heritage in my mind.