Horseshoe Canyon Ranch

"The gods of the hills are not the gods of the valleys. The valleys raise corn but the Ozark hills produce extraordinary men and women. Their passing closes one of the most romantic and colorful chapters in the history of our country." Vance Randolph, The Ozarks: an American Survival of Primitive Society

The Boston Mountains slouch over the Ozark Plateau, creeping across northwest Arkansas like a tired old woman lost to an ancient war of time and erosion. Deep hollers like potmarks and creeks like wrinkles cover her aged face. As far as mountains go, she is humble in stature but her dense timber, deep hollers, and dark caves conceal mysteries that capture the imagination like a hex or a vision. Witches were said to have roamed the woods of Pulaski County "thicker than tick seeds," and Jesse James himself found refuge in the hills near Jasper, Arkansas. 

The people who live in Ozark country "were, until very recently, the most deliberately unprogressive people in the United States," wrote Vance Randolph who loved these hills enough to write their withering history in the early 1900s. Time has a way of hiding -- self-editing -- so Randolph not only wrote about Ozark dialect, folklore, and folk songs but also the witchcraft, violence, and bootlegging that was hidden in the hills. When asked on his deathbed, why he devoted himself to these stories, he replied "The stuff is like whiskey, you get fooling with it and it's difficult to stop."

Resistance to change was not only the chief characteristic of the Ozark people but also, until very recently, the land itself. While modernity encroached rural Appalachia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through the advent of logging railroads, the TVA, and a certain national park, the Ozarks remained on the other side of things. For a time, hidden from and unaffected by "progress."

Jamie cruising The Greatest Show on Earth

Time hides and time reveals. And over the course of millions of years, lazy old time reclaimed for itself large escarpments of sandstone that rise above the valleys. Climbers from all over come to pull on the bullet hard, orange and grey and black rock. And there's plenty of rock to go around. The greatest concentration of which lies in what is now a four-star dude ranch near Jasper, Arkansas named Horseshoe Canyon Ranch.

The ranch boasts hundreds of bolted lines, a plethora of enticing splitters, and the highest concentration of beautiful boulders in the state so whether you're clipping bolts, plugging gear, or stacking pads -- there's something for everyone. Beautiful rock, pleasant camping, luxurious cabins, and short approaches make the ranch a veritable playground for sandstone junkies. If you like the steep stuff, get your pump on at the Goat Cave; a beautiful and rarely visited crag with enough 5.12s to keep you busy, shade to help you send, and goat droppings to give a soft landing in the event of a ground fall.




While climbers are welcomed guests and treated with the highest level of southern hospitality, Horseshoe Canyon is first and foremost -- a ranch. Horses and goats and their canine protecters roam at will. They are, most likely, the happiest mammals between the Rockies and the Mississippi. It is not uncommon to fall asleep (or wake up) to the sound of galloping, grass munching, and neighing outside your tent. The ranch's nonhuman hosts make for a truly unique climbing experience and are hospitable enough, but a word of caution: free range animals will freely range into your unattended food. And goats really like bananas.

If you find yourself lucky enough to call the ranch home for a few days in the layover between spring and summer: climb in the morning shade until the heat overcomes your ability to grab the North 40's monster jugs, then drive back down the mountain and cool off in the Buffalo National River. Here you can float in its clear, blue water, deep water solo or jump off its limestone cliffs, or grab a bag of margarita in the adjacent Boone County and simply bask in the river.

May means cool nights for campfires and midday dips in the Buffalo River

Newton County, her mountains, and her people are still reminiscent of another time. Fewer people live in Jasper, Arkansas than sit in the pews of most churches in Nashville, Tennessee. Old men with canes and dip cups sit outside diners and talk to you about the weather. There is a definite "Mayberry-ishness." Get your fill at the Blue Mountain Deli with the tastiest sandwiches, pizzas, and breakfast omelets and made with the freshest ingredients. And then go into full on glutton mode with their made-from-scratch baked goods. We literally fought over the apple pie a la mode made from local Ozarkian apples. The town recognizes climbers pretty easily and, in our experience, are one of the most climber-friendly communities out there. When -- not if -- you go, don't spoil it.

Climbing at Horseshoe Canyon is like whiskey, you get to fooling with it and it's difficult to stop. 

the biggest jugs I've ever fallen from: Ride the Short Bus in the Goat Cave