Beautiful Waterfall Hike: How to Hike Thunder Canyon Falls

Updated: JULY 2024

Arkansas has some absolutely stunning waterfalls! Between the Buffalo National River and the Ozarks, there are many options for a fun or challenging waterfall hike in Arkansas. One of my favorite waterfall hike options: Thunder Canyon Falls. I’ve hiked it from 2 different directions/paths…

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Thunder Canyon Falls. Path 1

Prep for the Waterfall Hike to Thunder Canyon Falls

The best prep for this hike is researching the trail options for getting to Thunder Canyon and knowing what to expect.

With a quick online search, and reading AllTrails reviews of the hike, it sounded like the trail might be difficult to track and have some dangerous spots. We also referenced the Arkansas Waterfalls book for directions to the trail and the hiking path.

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Waterfall Hike Location

As promised by the multiple reviews we read, getting to the trailhead was a rough ride. But, we made it down the long, narrow, and winding dirt road with a camper van. Our map leads us to the Cecil Cove Loop Trailhead with no issues.

The trailhead is not easy to miss with a fairly decent parking area available (holding 10-ish vehicles). There is a bathroom for public use and multiple signs with hiking trail information.

The Hike to Thunder Canyon Falls

With Alltrails tracking our hike, and screenshots of instructions (from AllTrails and Arkansas Waterfalls), we headed down the Cecil Cove Loop Trail toward Cecil Creek.

We easily found our first marker – a beaver dam and pond at the 0.3-mile mark. Check! This creek is easily crossed at the dam or by stepping along a few rocks in the stream. Next, we headed left (not crossing Cecil Creek, yet).

Our next markers were more creek crossings, crossing Cecil Creek at miles 1.0 and 1.4. At this point, we realized that someone had marked the trail with orange tape.

Hoping this orange tape led to Thunder Canyon Falls, we kept a lookout for the markings to make sure we were on track.

Our only wrong turn came after the second Cecil Creek crossing. Instructions said to make a left immediately after the second creek crossing. Because we were distracted, we didn’t even notice the turn we missed.

After hiking close to 1/4 miles down the wrong path, we realized we hadn’t seen the orange markers in a bit and should have arrived at the falls by now. Pulling up the Alltrails app, we found that we were off course, and corrected.

Backtracking was easy enough since the entire hike had been mostly level. And finding our missed turn was easy (and even marked with orange tape that we didn’t notice on our first trip through…).

After correcting this missed turn, we were headed to Thunder Canyon Falls!

This is where the path earns its “dangerous” reputation. The rest of the hike is running parallel on a steep hillside with solid rock at the bottom that has been carved out by the rushing waters. It’s a beautiful sight!

The hike along the hillside continued to have the orange tape markings to lead the way. On occasion, we lost the faint trail but continued to work our way upstream on our waterfall hike to Thunder Canyon Falls.

There were a few slippery spots, even after no recent rainfall. But there are plenty of small trees to hang onto (and sticker bushes to dodge), as you scale the path to the falls.

I can imagine that this trail could be very slippery and dangerous after a little rain.

As you close in on the falls, you can begin to hear the water rushing and feel the temperature drop a few degrees.

This hiking trail lets the anticipation build perfectly as you can feel and hear the falls before rounding the corner to see the spectacular sight of Thunder Canyon Falls.

Experiencing Thunder Canyon Falls

We made it to Thunder Canyon Falls at the 2-mile mark of this hike. We were lucky enough to experience the falls in seclusion.

As we arrived at the falls, a small group was leaving. We had plenty of time to take pictures, eat a snack, and then sit on the rocks to soak in the scenery and atmosphere. A mid-day Monday was the perfect time to see the falls.

Leaving this beautiful scenery was tough, but the hike back to the van was easy enough. We followed the water flow route downstream before rejoining the hiking trail at Cecil Creek.

The trail turns going back were easy to remember, so we didn’t get lost or off track on the hike back.

A huge THANK YOU to whoever marked the entire hiking trail to Thunder Canyon Falls with orange tape!

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Final Thoughts on this Waterfall Hike

This waterfall hike is perfect for us and quickly joined my favorites list. At a 4-mile round trip, this hiking trail is not too long or too short. The 2-hour drive (one way) for us was justified by the amazing view at the end of the waterfall hike.

The trail has just enough difficulty to keep it from getting boring, but not so difficult that you leave exhausted. Perfect!

But… it is HIGHLY advised to take extreme caution if you take this particular path after any amount of recent rain. Be careful and enjoy YOUR waterfall hike!

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UPDATE! Thunder Canyon Falls Path 2

Heading back out to the falls on a mid-July morning, with my fingers crossed for some flowing water. This trip is a bit different than my first. I’m going solo, and using my car to travel to the trailhead.

Recalling the dirt road to the Cecil Cove Loop trailhead last year, I’m a bit worried. It was a long, rough dirt road. We traveled it in a 2WD camper van last time. I’m sure my AWD car could manage, but after reading through the warnings of the road online, I opted to find another trailhead.

Waterfall Hike Trailhead

For this hike, I’m going the route of Paige Falls to Broadwater Hollow, continuing until I intersect Cecil Cove Loop and heading to Thunder Canyon. Alltrails puts this at a 4.3 mile out and back easy hike. The trailhead is 2 miles down a dirt road described as steep and rocky, but it seems like my best option in a car.

With hiking anywhere near the Buffalo National River area, my biggest concern is always whether my vehicle can make it to the trailhead. This particular dirt road was not a terrible one. It was very bumpy and slightly steep (but not as steep as Whitaker Point or Kyle’s Landing).

I took it very slowly and used the FULL road to manage the bumps at just the right angle to avoid hitting the bottom of my car on the road. On the way down, I lightly scraped the bottom of the car twice. On the way out, I managed without a single scrape with zigzagging all over the road.

The parking area is just before the water crossing at Paige Falls. It’s an obvious and good-sized area to the right side of the road with easy parking. On this day, I’m the first one here at 7 am.

Waterfall Hike x3

This route promises 3 waterfalls. The first 2 waterfalls are seen within a quarter of a mile. Thunder Falls is much further down. My first mistake was trying to follow the dry creekbed. That is a rough route that slows the hike considerably. After figuring out that there is a trail that runs beside the creek bed, the hike sped up.

Using Alltrails, I stayed somewhat on track for the entire trip. I did my research beforehand and familiarized myself with the Cecil Cove Loop to know where I would intersect that trail on this hike. Although, it turns out that I didn’t need to research it as much as I did with the app helping me.

Trail Differences

This particular hike to Thunder Canyon Falls adds some mileage. Maybe because of my tracker, or because I explored and backtracked a little, it was 5 miles for me (5.3 miles to be exact, according to my Alltrails tracker). The hike to the Thunder Canyon Falls took me 2:30, but the return hike was just 1:45. Both ways included stops for pictures and snacks.

I found this route much more strenuous. And despite what AllTrails said, I would rate it at least a moderate hike. The 90-degree day definitely added some oomph to the hike.

BUT, what you get with this trail is 2 more (smaller) waterfalls, one sinkhole that you can hear a waterfall in, and a cave (that you can’t make it into). There are more areas to climb and explore. Whereas the Cecil Cove Loop trail is more of a path through the woods. *stay on the Alltrails track for this hike to see the sinkhole and cave areas!

ALLTRAILS MAP FOR THIS HIKE

Best of luck making your way to Thunder Canyon Falls! It’s a beautiful hike either way. Message me after you do this hike, let me know how it went, and if I missed anything important to let other first-time hikers know about!

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If you venture out on this waterfall hike, let me know what you thought of it!!