Beacham Trail at Lake Leatherwood (Eureka Springs, Carroll County) is a cool 3.2-mile trail that is not very difficult. It makes a loop around the lake and has some nice views, especially at the north end where the trail goes across the dam.

The trail profile is in this post.

These are some additional photos from my August 29, 2015 hike.

Photo  Gallery

Click below for full-screen photo gallery of these and additional pics from my August 29, 2015 hike.

Last revised: 3-13-2020.

The post Lake Leatherwood: Beacham Trail Pics appeared first on Arklahoma Hiker.

[Note: As of this writing, the part of the trail that goes over the dam is closed since walking is no longer allowed there due to disrepair. Hopefully, at some point it will reopen since the walk across the dam is a beautiful one. 3-13-2022.]

I love Lake Leatherwood (Eureka Springs, Carroll County). It’s a 1,600-acre municipal park that’s mostly wilderness. It has lots of great hiking and biking trails. It’s owned and run by the City of Eureka Springs.

The Beacham Trail makes a 3.2-mile loop around the lake. It has some mild climbing, but it’s not a difficult hike.

The trail has some very nice views of the lake, particularly on the north side where the trail crosses the top of the dam.

Getting to the Beacham Trail at Lake Leatherwood

To get to the Lake Leatherwood Park, take Highway 62 to Eureka Springs. The sign for the park is visible from the highway. It is on the north side of the highway in Eureka Springs, about 3 miles west of the intersection with Highway 23. It is just west of Thorncrown Chapel.

Follow the signs and head down the main road (County Road 204) to Lake Leatherwood. Shortly before you reach the lake, the Beacham Trailhead (with parking) will be on your left.

You can get Google Maps directions from your location to the Beacham Trailhead at this link.

The Hike

The Beacham Trailhead is well marked and has parking. The trail has yellow blazes.

The trail makes a clockwise loop around the lake starting on the west side.

The best parts of the trail are coming up. The first mile is basically a pretty wooded walk on a gravel road. This part of the hike is several hundred feet from the lake so you can’t really see the lake during leaf-on. (You can get some views of the lake if you go on the Fuller Trail instead on this part of the loop. It’s a shorter trail that runs along the west shoreline.)

At around 1 mile, the trail makes a sharp right turn and descends down to Lake Leatherwood Dam. The trail goes across the top of the  600-foot-wide dam. This is probably the coolest part of the hike.

Lake Leatherwood Dam dam was built by the CCC in the 1930s. It was built from nearby limestone. Walking across this old dam is cool and there are some great views of the lake here.

It’s also neat to look at the spillway water behind the dam that flows back into Leatherwood Creek.

After crossing the dam, the trail makes another right turn and begins heading down the east side of the lake.

Shortly after crossing the dam, the trails comes to a flat, open, rocky area. This is the quarry from which the dam’s stones were cut. This is an interesting area, both for its history and for the visual contrast with the rest of the hike.

The part of the Beacham Trail along the lake’s east side is more scenic than the west side. It is a traditional trail rather than a gravel road.

The trail on the east side is often quite a bit closer to the lake. There are a number of cool views of the lake on this side, even during leaf-on.

Even though the elevation difference on the hike is only 110 feet, the cumulative elevation gain (due to up-and-down climbing) is about 511 feet.

There is a bit of climbing in places on the trail and enough topography to keep it interesting, but it’s not a difficult trial.

There are a number of trails at Lake Leatherwood. (Check out pdf map here.) You’ll see a number of signs for the intersecting trails while on Beacham Trail.

When the trail is making its trek around the south end of the lake, it crosses Leatherwood Creek (and some other streams). During high water times, it can be challenging to make a dry crossing through this low-lying area, even with the footbridges that are there.

The Beacham Trail comes to an end at the south part of the west side of the lake next to the campground. From here, it’s about a .2-mile walk to the north back to the main trailhead.

Including this last part, the whole walk is about 3.4 miles.

Final Notes

When I was there, it was easy to follow (yellow blazes on most of the trail) and there was often good signage. This is a pretty frequently travelled trail. I found it easy to follow.

Overall, I had about AT&T cell coverage about 40% of the time.

Check out Shelley’s visit to the Beacham Trail in this post.

These pictures are all from my August 29, 2016 hike.

See this post for more Beacham Trail pics from that hike.

Photo  Gallery

Click below for full-screen photo gallery of these and additional pics from my August 29, 2015 hike.

Map

[Updated: 3-13-2020]

The post Lake Leatherwood: Beacham Trail – 3 mi appeared first on Arklahoma Hiker.

One of the most prominent trails at Lake Leatherwood City Park (Eureka Springs) is the Miner’s Rock Trail. This is a scenic and moderately challenging trail with some cool geologic formations.

Getting to Lake Leatherwood

Lake Leatherwood is a wonderful 1600-acre park owned and operated by the City of Eureka Springs. The vast majority of it is wilderness with numerous hiking and biking trails.

To get to the park, take Highway 62 to Eureka Springs. The sign for the park is visible from the highway. It is on the north side of the highway in Eureka Springs, about 3 miles west of the intersection with Highway 23. It is slightly west of Thorncrown Chapel.

Miner’s Rock Trail

The trail runs nearly three miles from the south (main) trailhead (where there is parking) to the north trailhead. It is about 3.7 miles if you make a loop of it walking back along the road to the south trailhead.

The first half-mile from the south trailhead is a pretty steady uphill climb going up about 200 feet in elevation.

On the way up at about .3, you will see the namesake Miner’s Rock on the right. It is a large overhang rock formation .

At around .5, the trail levels out and that is pretty much it for the climbing. The next 1.7 miles are fairly level with the trail winding west and east along a ridge that goes along a number of beautiful bluffs and a variety of cool rock formations.

Although I enjoy trails that go up and down hills (really), the prettiest parts of this trail are on the relatively level ridge at the high part of the trail.

In addition to Miner’s Rock, there are a number of cool layered rocks to see along the trail. There also are some interesting sinkholes along the trail.

During wet times, there is a nice small stream crossing in this area.

When I was there, most of the trail was in good condition and was amply blazed and signed. I had no trouble following the trail.

At around 2.3, the trail starts working its way downhill by about 100 feet. Then at around 2.7, it makes a more steep descent back down to the road.

There are some stretches of the trail that are basically a forest road, but even those parts are quite scenic.

Once you hit the road, you can turn right and walk the road for about .8 miles back to the south trailhead.

Additional Notes

I had AT&T cell signal most of the time on the higher elevation parts of the trail, but not so much at the lower levels.

These photos are all from 2 hikes I did on the trail on May 9 and 11 of this year. The gpx file is from a hike I did in 2010.

Photo Gallery

Click below for full-screen photo gallery.

Map

[Last revised: 8-1-2021.]

The post Lake Leatherwood: Miner’s Rock Trail – 4 mi appeared first on Arklahoma Hiker.

The coolest part of the hike is probably walking across the 1940’s-era limestone dam.This is some cell phone video I took of the spillway water flowing down the back side of the dam.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/v/ONiY6Mw7gRw%5D

Alternate link.

The post Lake Leatherwood Dam Spillway Video               appeared first on Arklahoma Hiker.