Arkansas Road Trip

- Arkansas Road Trip Spring 1999 - Current Location - Home Page > Adventures > Arkansas
If you live in Northern Wisconsin during Winter, by March you long for the heat on your back. Spring tends to be nature's way of letting people who don't drink know the horrors of a major hangover. So where do you go ? The Internal Revenue Service had put a stop to Ellie and me heading to Arizona or California; flying was way out of our budget. So we took a trip by car. The Dakota Hills are still blanketed in snow and the driving options are restricted with time in the United States.... especially when you only have a week and you are looking for mountains !
	Last year, National Geographic wrote an article on the Ozark Mountains of northwestern Arkansas and it appeared to be a nice, "wholesome" place to visit. The towns seemed to be at a stand still in a nice sort of way. We used the internet to plan the trip to allow us to see and experience as much as we could. I have included some good sites at the end of my ramblings.
We spent a great deal of time traveling at the beginning of the trip. The Ozark Mountains are almost a 20 hour drive from Rhinelander, and it took us three days to reach our first stop. Heading south on Highway 7, we arrived in Jasper at night in a torrential downpour. Highway 7 is a scenic byway, which at one point crosses the Buffalo National Scenic Riverway. We never saw the river, although I can remember seeing a bridge through the squally rain !! The scenic byway didn't seem very scenic to us.
Camping that night was fun (I'm being sarcastic). We ate sandwiches after setting up our tent in the rain and had a miserable start to the first night of camping. In the morning, it seemed like we were in a different place altogether. The sun shone and everywhere looked fresh and wholesome so we lit our first campfire and ate BLTs with a cup of tea for breakfast. Our "tourist" adventure began in Jasper, a nice little town nestled amidst low lying, tree covered mountains. It seemed as if everyone was happy. The lady in the visitors' center could not wait to tell us all about the area and what there was to do. We left the visitors' center somewhat loaded down with pamphlets and brochures relating to just about anything there was to do in the area.

Close by, near Ponca, is a short, but scenic trail called "The Lost Valley." You can walk this easily in an hour and can see almost everything there is to see. Ellie and I spent some time stretching our legs though, and I used this opportunity to take pictures. Key places of interest on this trail were the Natural Bridge, the waterfall at the very end, and the magnificent Rock Shelter which once was the home to Native American Cliff Dwellers.

Lost Valley's Rock Shelter

From the Ponca Valley, we headed due west towards the Oklahoma border and Devils Den State Park. My past experiences of State Parks in the Midwest had left a bad taste in my mouth. Strange but true, Arkansas has the most well kept State Parks I have ever seen in my travels around the USA. We tried finding beer on the journey from Ponca, and I received my first lesson on "dry" counties. Now, I'm not saying I like my beer, but there is something to be said for a cool refreshing beverage at the end of the day. After miles of driving past churches and no bars (in Wisconsin they have bars on the other side of the street from churches), we stopped at a grocery store. They informed us that we were indeed in a "dry" county, and if we took the new interstate north, we would find ourselves in Fayetteville six minutes later. The guy was right! I suppose he had his distances and times down to a fraction of a second.

The Butterfield Hiking Trail is named for a Stagecoach that frequented the area at some point in the late 1800's and early 1900's. It is one of the longest circular (loop) trails in Arkansas and seemed to be a nice way to spend the day. Most guide books you read suggest this hike is an overnighter; fortunately, Ellie and I are pretty fit so we polished it off in a little over six hours. After registering at the park office, we set off on our merry way in a clockwise direction. I chose this route because one of the employees at the park mentioned that the anti-clockwise route out of the valley bottom is called Hell's Half Mile. The name suggested that pain may be an integral part of the ascent, and I realized Ellie would be very unhappy. So to preserve the harmony in our marriage, I chose the clockwise route. As you leave the park and head out into the woods, you are required to cross the river via some aquatic stepping stones. (See the photo on the right.)

The start of the BHT.

The canyon (fault line) where we had lunch.

We stopped for lunch about five or six miles into the route next to a pleasant little waterfall cascading through a gully. We rested our weary bones and explored the nearby canyon (see picture to the left). We sat for about 45 minutes, and we decided that this particular spot was certainly a beautiful place to stop for lunch. After lunch we continued on our hike, and at the nine mile mark I was ready to be done (my excuse is that I was recovering from the flu I picked up the previous week). Liz Cox's chocolate brownies were a life saver on more than one occasion and today was no different. Thanks Liz !! After fifteen miles we eventually reached the state park. We spent the last couple of miles racing to try and get back in time to buy wood. Without wood we "wood" not eat. At the park headquarters we learned two things: the mysterious circling birds in the sky were actually Vultures and poisonous Copperhead snakes live in the park and are the color of fallen leaves !! Hmmm.

The next day we packed up camp and headed out from this beautiful spot. We chose a route that followed the interstate down past Fort Smith and towards the highest point in Arkansas. Mount Magazine sits 2753 feet above sea level and is quite dominant on the horizon. They are in the process of building a State Park on the summit, and we stopped at a few vistas overlooking the river valley. Continuing south we followed Highway (scenic) 7 down toward Hot Springs. The KOA campground there was a little shabby and certainly not like the KOAs we have stayed at in the past. If we ever go back to Hot Springs, we would stay at the National Park campground located in Gulpa Gorge. It looked nice, although there are no showers there. Hot Springs is a strange little city in the heart of Arkansas - we saw multiple drive through liquor (off licenses) stores. Most of those stores had porn palaces right next door. Yup, it was a seedy run down kind of a place to say the least. It was the boyhood town of President Bill Clinton, and they seem to be proud of it @!!+*&# !! The whole impeachment deal seems as if it was inevitable really. Nature and nurture all rolled into one.
The next day we took a sight seeing trip to Hot Springs National Park, located in the city of Hot Springs. It was originally established by the Congress of the United States as a federal reservation in 1832 to protect 47 thermal springs. In 1921 it was designated a national park. The area was supposedly visited by the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1541. De Soto was under the belief that he had found the Fountain of Youth. The springs drew many people who sought relief from illness by bathing in and drinking the pure spring waters. Bathhouse Row is the real attraction and is, without a doubt, the best kept part of the city and worth a look. Water from the springs remains near 62° C (143° F) throughout the year.
The following day we began to head back north and found ourselves in Petit Jean State Park. This is another excellent example of a well kept Arkansas State Park. Located just south of Morrilton, Petit Jean sits atop a plateau. There were ample camping sites when we arrived, but they were filling fast as the Easter break was upon us. Petit Jean was a French girl who dressed up as a boy so she could come to the USA with her sailor lover. The park has a canyon which has a river running through it called Cedar Creek. This seems to be the focus of all the hikes in the area. We chose to blend the hikes, mix and match if you like, and set off from the Main Lodge down the path toward the canyon floor.

Cedar Falls.

The most scenic spot of the entire area is Cedar Creek Falls which is majestic 70 foot waterfall. Ellie and I sat for a short while at this spot and took pictures of the falls. At least Ellie was my model who sat, while I took slow pictures at f22 (super slow shots often make wives rather perplexed, just like in caves). We left before the crowds overwhelmed us and headed downstream before eventually climbing out of the canyon and onto the plateau. After looking at the Bear Cave area, we headed back to the car. Prior to leaving Petit Jean, we thought we would take a look at a cliff dwelling that supposedly contains pictographs. This area was the biggest disappointment and just served to make us angry at the way some of America's treasures are abused.

From Petit Jean, we headed north in a hurry, we needed to be back in Wisconsin for Easter. Again, this consisted of two days serious driving along interstates. We stayed at a place called Perryville on our last night of camping. Much like the first night of our trip, it rained hard and long without respite. In fact, if our tent had been positioned about two meters in any direction, we would have had an extremely wet night.

So that was it, our 1999 Spring Trip. The people were friendly if not a little strange, although I imagine that I sound and act a little strange in their eyes, too. I left Arkansas with a little insight into another part of the world. A part of the world where everyone lives long lives that are similar to Leave it to Beaver and The Andy Griffith Show. Good wholesome stuff that makes you realize that there are places out there where people have picket fences and Chicken Pot Pie. Chicago and New York are further away than Pluto, and it takes four generations of family to be buried locally before you are considered a local. The truth is, do you really want to be considered a local ? Here in the Northwoods, Ellie and I like to be considered residents.


Links to the sites we used when we planned this trip.
Arkansas - Vacation in The Natural State I found this to be the best out of the two sites we used frequently. You can order guide books online which include useful information on a variety of Arkansas information.	Arkansas' Ozark Mountains Another handy information site to the fine state of Arkansas.
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