Re: Indian creek/eye of the Needle?

chili · by chili on Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:24 am

The water was really flowing down Indian creek last Friday.

Preacha Man · by Preacha Man on Sat Oct 24, 2009 12:13 pm

I love the Indian Creek Trail and the cave at the top of the Depression is pretty neat. Just make sure that you follow the trail, other wise you are lost

rob_hanlon · by rob_hanlon on Mon Nov 02, 2009 10:53 am

Has anyone else had any trouble finding the trail up and over the bluff? I wrote to preacha man briefly about it, but to be honest...I still don't feel confident that i could find it. I looked everywhere for a trail once i got to Arkansas cave. I finally made it up and over, but it was very treacherous. I don't think it was the correct way to go. If anyone can give a fairly detailed description of the best way to get to the "eye" i would appreciate it. Like i said, I looked all over for a 4' tall hole to go thru, but could find none.

clouddancer · by clouddancer on Mon Nov 02, 2009 11:22 am

Just upstream from Arkansas Cave the little canyon is blocked (by another waterall) and you cannot go any farther upstream in the bottom. When looking upstream, you climb up a small bluff to the RIGHT - this is on the opposite side form Arkansas Cave. There is often a small rope there to help pull yourself up - if not it is a touch reach. You simply climb straight up from this spot and that will lead you up into a hollowed out part of the bluff above. When you reach the top of this there is a narrow ledge on the upstream end that will lead you back out towards the creek - at the very end of that ledge is the 4' hole you spoke of. Crawl through this hole on your hands and knees and it will give you access upstream. Then simply get back down on the creek and go upstream - you will soon come to the base of the Eye - again you will not be able to go any farther and you will know you are there! In order to proceed beyond this point you need to cross the creek (back over to the Arkansas Cave side) and climb up and around the Eye. It is all pretty tough scrambling in this area but quite scenic...

By the way, there is no official "trail" in this area at all.

Preacha Man · by Preacha Man on Mon Nov 02, 2009 11:32 am

Cloud,

Thanks for this description, it is a lot better than I described it. When the leaves are on the ground, like they are now, it is even harder to see this "unofficial" trail, so be very careful!!!

I think a group of us need to get together and do this trail TOGETHER this Spring. And if one of us has a really nice GPS (Trail Monkey

) then we could map it out and post the map here

rob_hanlon · by rob_hanlon on Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:01 am

This is great stuff, guys. I appreciate it.

Trail Monkey · by Trail Monkey on Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:26 pm

Just please be careful up in there. 90% of all rescues on the Buffy is in the Indian Creek area. This is per the park.

tyeb0279 · by tyeb0279 on Sun Nov 08, 2009 2:26 pm

I finally got to hike indian creek a couple weeks ago. I didn't even make it to the cave this time, but it was still worth the trip. Here are some pics.

Dfieldhiker · by Dfieldhiker on Mon Nov 09, 2009 9:40 am

Tye

How far did you go and how safe was it. The stats have really scared me away but would love to see some of it. It is a 59 thing.

tyeb0279 · by tyeb0279 on Mon Nov 09, 2009 6:48 pm

Hey Dfield,

I was about a tenth of a mile from the cave when I turned around. The water was too high to continue down below without wading waist deep. I tried climbing up and going around, but decided it would be better to try again when the water was lower. There was one ledge that we crossed that was pretty narrow and slippery with a 20 ft or so drop if you took a wrong step. This is the only time I've ever been so I couldn't tell you what to expect beyond there. I would recommend that you give it a try. You could just turn around whenever you saw something ahead that you were uncomfortable with. I just noticed it cut half my pics off the screen....must have uploaded wrong.

ED · by ED on Mon Nov 09, 2009 7:51 pm

Please re-upload those are great pictures.

Dfieldhiker · by Dfieldhiker on Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:49 am

Did you come in from the top?

tyeb0279 · by tyeb0279 on Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:09 pm

Ed,

I'm looking at the pics from work now, and they aren't chopped off like at home. I'm not sure how to upload them differently, are you?

Dfield,

I came in from the bottom from Kyle's.

Ty

John · by John on Tue Nov 10, 2009 12:41 pm

Dfieldhiker wrote:Tye

How far did you go and how safe was it. The stats have really scared me away but would love to see some of it. It is a 59 thing.

DField,

I did this 3 or 4 years ago at about your age and made it. I think you can make it too. Take it slowly and turn back if you're not comfortable. It's very scenic back there.

ED · by ED on Tue Nov 10, 2009 2:03 pm

tyeb0279 wrote:Ed,

I'm looking at the pics from work now, and they aren't chopped off like at home. I'm not sure how to upload them differently, are you?

Dfield,

I came in from the bottom from Kyle's.

Ty

OH, I thought that it did not upload all of the pictures. My home computer chopps em up like that also. It is not the uploading it is the computer itself. I thought that you had more pictures to post. They are great pictures. Thanks!

ED