The Glory Hole, Arkansas

When we crossed into Arkansas, we stopped at a visitor’s center to get some brochures and maps for the Jasper/Ponca area. We asked about waterfalls because we had been getting a lot of rain in the Ozarks and we found a couple that we really wanted to visit.

We made our way towards the general direction of The Glory Hole, but the directions weren’t very clear, so we drove way past it, then turned down a random dirt road to try to find it. I eventually jumped out of the truck and walked over to two men working in a yard and asked them if they could help me. They told me that I needed to go until I see the red barn with a white ‘E’ on it.

We were so close to being right there, and once we knew to look for the barn, it was impossible to miss!  The “parking area” is basically just a ditch that has been rutted up from frequent visitors.  This leads you to an old jeep road.  The jeep road splits into two paths and you continue right down a narrower path.

The trail goes downhill to a stream where it evens out a bit more.  There are several smaller paths that lead off, and we followed one of them down to a teeny tiny waterfall that we now call “surprise falls”.  It was very small but we had fun crawling behind it.

We made our way back on the main trail, which leads down to a rock surface that actually makes the roof of the cave that the Glory Hole is in.  We could hear running water and we knew we were getting close, although our ears led us to the top of the Glory Hole, which was pretty cool to see!

From the top of the Glory Hole, you turn right and go down a bit of a rock face.  Be sure to watch your footing, especially if it has rained.   Then, to your left you can see the cave with the waterfall flowing down.

It’s always so amazing to me to see what water does to landscapes and formations over time.  So, I love seeing that this flowing water created a hole in the top of this rock ledge and made this beautiful waterfall.

It was really hot and sticky that day, and the water flowing out was really cool.  So, as we posed for pictures by the falls we got to feel the water splashing up on our faces and backs and it felt truly incredible!

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