Hidden jewel: Bluestem Falls near Pawhuska
Formed by the lake spillway, make sure you see this wonder during rainy seasons
After a recent fishing trip with friend Shane Bevel and his son Graham at some private ponds in Osage County, Shane asked something I truly did not expect.
“You want to go see the water falls?”
What water falls?
We were in the wrong part of the Osage to see the little falls on Sand Creek in Osage Hills State Park, the only Osage County waterfalls I’ve known—until now.
“There are waterfalls below Bluestem Lake,” Bevel said. “Not a lot of people know about it.”
Not a lot, but a growing number, apparently, as word continues to spread about the unique manmade feature of Middle Bird Creek below the lake’s spillway.
What was for many years a local playground created by the spillway of Bluestem over the rocks below has gained interest from Pawhuska tourists as a crazy feature of the landscape just about 3 miles northwest of town—not to mention the nice lake with camping, boating and fishing for crappie, bass, catfish and sunfish.
With continued rainfall through May and, to a lesser degree, into June, the falls fed by overflow from the spillway at Bluestem continue to provide a good show, but the peak is past and time is running out.
Any who think about going should check on recent rainfall. In dry months the falls are but a trickle and the pools below can grow stagnant. It’s likely not a late-August destination, in other words.
If you go don’t expect a managed-for-tourists experience. The place has the charm of a “open 24/7, come and have fun at your own risk” natural features landscape. It gets minimal attention from the City of Pawhuska. “Trails” around the area are simply features carved by regular rains and increasing foot traffic.
“What trails?” said Cherrie Shangreau, a clerk at the City of Pawhuska.
“We just ask that you pick up your trash,” she said. Litter truly is an issue around the parking areas and beaten paths around the falls.
There are no groomed or marked trails, and not all the white fluffy things I saw out in the bushes were flowers, either, speaking of human leftovers.
Shangreau said this week the city had planned to put a Dumpster at the main parking lot on the south side of the falls, but she wasn’t sure if that had been done yet.
Still, she lamented that larger trash containers often just seem to attract more and larger trash. That is a fact to which I can attest. If it’s not food containers and water bottles its old furniture, TVs and garbage bags.
“And for some reason a lot still don’t seem to be able to get it into the can,” she said.
Amen, sister.
It can not be repeated enough. If you carry it in, carry it out, and be prepared to carry any extras you might find. Be good to your public landscapes or lose access to them—that’s just how it goes. Go prepared to pick up after yourself and others.
Shangreau is a longtime resident of the area and her family has a cabin on Bluestem Lake, she said.
“When I was a kid we used to go down there 40 years ago and slide down the falls on the moss,” she said. “No one ever really went there much until the last few years. Now some days there are 50 or 60 people down there.”
The spillway and rocks appear to be a mostly natural bedrock feature of the landscape that engineers took advantage of to dam the creek. Shangreau said she didn’t know if any of the giant rocks were moved as part of the dam construction, although there is a collapsed roadway at the top of the falls.
The dam at Bluestem, completed in 1958, has two outlets for water. A gate releases water near the south end at the base of the dam from the 50-foot depths. That valley appears to be the original path of Middle Bird Creek.
On the north side of the dam water flows over a spillway that owners of private cabins on the north side of the lake drive across to reach their properties. It’s that spillway that continues down to the washed-out road and then the falls. The water continues to form a creek that joins Middle Bird Creek about 300 yards downstream from the dam. Middle Bird flows into the main stem of Bird Creek at Pawhuska.
There have been a few times over the years that heavy overnight rain trapped lakeside residents until the lake level dropped, Shangreau said.
When the lake level is up the falls truly thunder and are quite a sight. Over the years, the water has uncovered more rocks and some deep holes have formed and deepened, Shangreau said.
When Bevel and I stopped for a look several young people were jumping off an overhanging rock into a deep pool below. It’s a pool with a relatively deep spot and the rock above truly looks like a diving platform, so, what would one expect, right?
Still, those who jumped in hit a hole not far from a spot where others stood in waist- to chest-deep water to watch.
“People do it but that’s not safe,” Shangreau said in reference to the falls, the ever-changing water depth, and the murky waters that hide what may lie beneath. “Big rocks roll off in there all the time.”
WHERE IS THIS?
Bluestem Lake is an 865-acre lake formed by Middle Bird Creek and located 3 miles northwest of Pawhuska as the crow flies. It is a city lake created for water supply.
Reach the lake and the falls by driving west on State Highway 11 (also Hwy 60 in this section) from Pawhuska. About 1.5 miles west town, the second county road to the north, 4275 Road, leads to the lake. The lake is roughly 2.5 miles north of Highway 11. To find the falls continue to bear right when you reach the lake.
The falls also can be viewed from the north side but it is a much longer drive from Pawhuska. Take Lynn Road north from town roughly 1.3 miles to Hog Hill Road (4070 Road) and drive west 4.25 miles to turn left at 4275 Road. Bare left about a quarter mile to a parking area.
