11
CLIFTY HOLLOW NATURAL BRIDGE
EARLIER chapters have referred to Clifty Hollow Natural Tunnel. In response to conversations with and inquiries from numerous admirers (of nature) an interruption to give directions for reaching these features is in order.
Clifty Hollow Bridge is on the Vienna Quadrangle which can be purchased at the Department of Natural Resources (Mo. G.S.) in Rolla. The bridge is in theNE1/4 NE1/4 NW1/4 sec. 12, T38N, R10W at a fork of Clifty Creek in Maries County northeast of Dixon.
Despite its remote location, this bridge was mentioned in one of the early reports of the Missouri Geological Survey which included field work done in 1857. Regarding its setting, the report says:
A perfectly clear stream of water courses through this valley. The bottoms near are overspread with a dense growth of trees and vines, among which I noticed the Muscadine grape. The valley at this point, being shut in by its perpendicular cliffs, with not a path to guide the traveler through the dense thickets, is wildly picturesque and romantic in its loneliness.
This description is still apropos more than a century later.
The most easily navigated route from Rolla is via Dixon. From Dixon, at the junction of Highways 28 and C, follow Highway 28 for 3.9 miles to the northeast and turn right (east) off 28 onto Highway W. Follow this road for 5.6 miles and park at a pullout to the left at the bottom of a long hill just short of a low water bridge. Mileages vary slightly with tire size!
The area near the pullout offers the attraction of a popular wading (or shallow swimming) area in the shadow of vertical bluffs of Gasconade dolomite with a hanging valley at the top of the bluff upstream from the pool. Clifty Spring to the south of the pullout supplies a small stream containing watercress.
Although the walk upstream to the natural bridge is approximately a mile, it is well worth the effort, especially in the spring or fall. The easiest route involves walking in or across the channel of Clifty Creek; thus overshoes or hiking boots are in order. There is no marked path, and the best route is in or close to the channel much of the way, passing scenic overhanging bluffs for at least a quarter of a mile on the left, and then one on the right in which the strata dip or slope downstream. At this last bluff, large blocks of dolomite have tumbled into Clifty Creek. Upstream from this bluff the creek is near the center of the valley. Bear right to the bridge, which interrupts what appears to be a bluff, but actually is a ridge or spur.
The bridge is developed where a tributary of Clifty Creek goes through a spur of Gasconade dolomite which originally formed a more lengthy divide between this tributary and the main channel. The tributary at one time joined Clifty downstream from the natural bridge. At some time in the geologic past, the tributary took a short cut through the ridge, probably following a fracture enlarged to a fissure by water erosion.
The arch has a span of 40 feet, and is 13 feet high. The ridge in which it is formed is 40 feet high and 25 to 30 feet wide, the variation in width being in part the result of undercutting by Clifty Creek on the south side which makes it narrower at the base. Tumbled blocks of dolomite east of the present nose of the divide in which this bridge was developed hint at the collapse of an older natural bridge at a time when this divide extended farther to the east.
The land was purchased several years ago by Leo Drey and placed in trust as a public-use area; therefore no access permission is needed.
Kaintuck Hollow Natural Tunnel is on National Forest land and thus open to the public. It is in the Sel/4, Sel/4, NWl/4, Sel/4 sec. 16, T36N, R9W, five miles southwest of Newburg on the Kaintuck Hollow Quadrangle. From Newburg, it may be reached via the following route:
Mileage
0.0
On Missouri Highway T bridge over
Little Piney at south edge of
Newburg head south. After crossing bridge, bear
left, staying on
Highway T.
6.1
Kentuck (not "Kaintuck" on
sign) Hollow Baptist Church on
right.
6.3
Turn right off Highway T onto gravel
road at Clark National
Forest sign and follow gravel road as it bears to
right into valley.
8.4
Trail angles to left off road. May
be driven in dry weather with
good clearance vehicle; otherwise, follow it by
foot.
8.55
Follow main trail by foot for nearly
700 yards to the southeast from
Kaintuck Hollow ford to mouth of tunnel which is
straight ahead
where trail bears to the left.
From
the trail enter the tunnel at the mouth which is 30 feet wide and 10 feet
high. The tunnel is 175 feet long and
angles to the right 50 feet from the downstream entrance. It narrows to 20 feet in span and 6 feet in ceiling
height. The roof is 6 feet thick at
both ends.
In the geologic past, the wet-weather stream which flows through the tunnel flowed northeast over what is now a saddle northeast of the tunnel. The stream took a short-cut through (or was captured by) the cave now represented by the natural tunnel. Because the stream entered the subjacent cave in what was then the floor of its valley, it eroded downward rapidly in response to the high gradient created by the more direct and lower subsurface channel to Kaintuck Hollow; as a result, the old stream bed preserved in part in the divide or saddle north of the tunnel is higher than the present bed west of the divide.
The name of Kaintuck Hollow is Ozark dialect for "Kentucky" and one might wonder why the original dialect has not been preserved in toto by calling it Kaintuck "Hollah" or "Holler."
If the water is low or a high-clearance vehicle is used, the road paralleling Kaintuck Hollow could be followed northwest for an additional 2 miles to the Mill Creek Recreation Area in the north part of Sec. 4. High water often precludes using the ford 1/2 mile north of Natural Tunnel turnoff.
“The arch has a span of forty feet and is thirteen feet high.”
Clifty Hollow Natural Bridge northeast of Dixon.
“High water often
precludes using … ford”
Low-water bridge near Annapolis, Missouri.