Natural Falls State Park sits in the far northeastern corner of Oklahoma, where the Ozark landscape spills across the Arkansas border and produces terrain that doesn't match most people's mental picture of Oklahoma. The park's 77-foot waterfall drops through a narrow V-shaped valley of sandstone and hardwood forest, and the sound at the bottom is amplified by the canyon walls into something larger than the falls themselves.
The property was privately owned for decades before the state acquired it in 1990. Before state ownership it was called Dripping Springs and operated as a roadside attraction, and evidence of that earlier life persists: the stone archway at the entry and lamp posts installed in the 1920s still line the lower portion of the Dripping Springs Trail. The original owners had the whole thing lit at night so visitors could see the falls after dark, which sounds impractical and wonderful.
The waterfall was a filming location for the 1974 adaptation of Where the Red Fern Grows — the story of two hunting dogs in the Oklahoma Ozarks, set not far from here. The location makes sense. The forest around Natural Falls looks exactly like the kind of landscape that story inhabits.
The hike to the base of the falls is about a mile round trip, with steep sections on the descent. The viewpoint from above is accessible and easier. I went in late afternoon when the light came through the tree canopy at an angle that made the falls glow. The Cherokee and Osage knew this country long before anyone put lamp posts in it.