Mark Twain National Forest

Type of Use: Foot, horse.

Length/Rating: 13 Miles total/Most Difficult

Other Recreation Activities: Birdwatching, backpacking, wilderness use, photography, primitive camping, mushroom/berry picking. Hunting is allowed during season.

Nearby Facilities: Big Bay Recreation Area, Shell Knob Recreation Area, Sugar Camp Scenic Drive, Table Rock State Park, Roaring River State Park, Wilson's Creek Battlefield National Park, Branson.

Piney Creek extends through the Piney Creek Wilderness. It is an intermittent stream. Many minor tributaries converge to it from the hills on the north and south: Most of the time they are dry and are merely named as hollows. A large part of the Piney Creek Trail parallels the five-mile principal stream. From a location on the southwestern corner, hikers can walk for about a mile down to the creek, then continue for three and a half miles to its mouth on Table Rock Lake. Most of this section is suitable for foot travel only.

A lookout tower is located near Highway 76 that defines the northern border of the Wilderness. (Along this highway, many parcels of land with houses remain in private ownership.) From here to the southern entrance on Forest Road 1018 are two routes; each is about three miles long.

You can take the route on the right, which leads straight southward to Piney Creek. The first half mile is wide and nicely graveled, an easy stroll under a canopy of intermediate-size trees. After that, a narrower part of the trail runs down a gentle slope. As you approach the creek the trail becomes more uneven, and sometimes quite bumpy. It then follows Piney Creek for a very short distance before turning south again. Vegetation in the lower area grows more vigorously than that on the upland. As a result, many parts of the path are overgrown and at times difficult to follow. Poison ivy is present in a number of locations. However, travel is improved after a climb along the Siloam Spring Hollow and back to the ridgetop. The last part of the trail is level and cool. A detour is necessary to get to Siloam Spring, which is a short distance west of the trail.

The route on the left starts with a steep slope eastward. It shoots down for about a half mile, then with an upturn it shifts to the south. Nearby a pond with rushes on its edges. When you come to a three-way fork, take the right path. It traverses on the ridgetop for a while, then descends to Piney Creek along the hillside. Like the other route, sections of the trail may have lavish bottomland vegetation that could delay travel. Downstream about one third of a mile, the trail turns south and goes up another precipitous section. After this, it is a smooth walk for a mile and half to the trailhead.

The mixed forest consists of mainly oak, maple, and shortleaf pine. Under them are dogwood, hackberry, sassafras, redbud, and serviceberry. Virginia creeper, Ohio horsemint, and Carolina buckthorn are seen in various places. Other wildflowers are desmodium, goldenrod, catbrier, gumweed, partridge pea, and ironweed. Sycamores are found in the bottomland, and even on the streambed. Eastern red cedar grow on rocks in the open glades, among little bluestem, sunflower, croton, and black-eyed Susan.