Tag Archives: Arkansas

Day 2~Mt. Nebo, Holla Bend, and Petit Jean, Arkansas

We started off the second day of our stay at Mount Nebo State Park with the Bench Trail.

mt.neboday2

We again hopped on the summit trail from our cabin and took it down to the bench trail.

summittraildown

Lot of down…

tree

fernlake

Fern Lake, I believe.

trailbench

When we actually got on the bench trail things got a little uncomfortable.

I had no problem with little pests the evening before and thought the bench trail was a little lower but just as open as the Rim Trail.

It is not.

springs

It has many springs, which probably should have clued me in.

I got eaten alive.

Mosquito’s love me.

I thought it was pretty ironic since this same thing happened on our honeymoon hike and we were celebrating our 10yr anniversary.

benchoverlook

I think I could have done without the nostalgia.

look

Here we are enjoying open spaces(less blood suckers) at the Bench Overlook.

nick

I am his natural bug repellent.

They love me so much they leave him alone…

us

We decided to go ahead and finish if they were not as bad after this.

They did let up.

The gnats moved in.

I think I could have done without this trail but that is okay.

We usually have one flop every once in a while.

benchtrail2

turtlefight

We did get to see these two little guys trying to duke it out so it was not a total loss!

We watched them for a while and then I followed one of them around on my hands and knees while shooting a video.

It is one of my favorite videos I have done.

Totally worth the crawling around.

refugesign

After the bench trail we drove over to the Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge.

It is only about 20+mins east of Mt. Nebo.

It does have a small entry fee but there was a fishing tournament going on so it was free for us!

hollabend

I was hoping to get there early morning or late evening since that is the best time to view animals but there was a storm coming so we went right away which ended up being late morning.

We did see a massive black snake(no picture) and a deer though!

green

We stopped and walked along the Levee Trail.

It was really pretty.

leveetrail

I really like tree tunnels.

me

turtlephotog

This little guy was in the road so we stopped to take a look.

hollabendturtle

safe

We moved him off the road before we drove on.

viewing

We stopped at a lookout tower that looked over a lake.

waterfowl

shirtless

withdad

After we were done at the wildlife refuge we headed to Petit Jean State Park(another 20+mins east).

overlooktrail

We stopped at the Cedar Falls Overlook and ended up taking the Cedar Creek Trail to the Rock House Cave Trail from there.

We did not have a map and were hoping that it would lead to the bottom of the falls.

It did not but it did take us to the Rock House Cave!

iceboxcave

I had no clue about this place when I planned our trip!

I just knew that I wanted to go to Petit Jean for some reason(I read about a lot of trails).

Petit Jean State Park is also Arkansas first State Park.

cavepaint

If you look carefully in the back of the cave(technically a rock outcropping) on the ceiling are some really old cave paintings!

drawing

They ones we saw were red but very faded.

iceboxcave2

We then started the hike back.

There is parking right near the cave also.

climb

It was a pretty short hike(1 mile) but hot and we did not bring water so I was pretty happy to see the vehicle.

We headed to the visitor center and then to an overlook drive.

I saw that a thunderstorm was heading our way so we hurried to the Mather Lodge and Cedar Falls Trailhead right after that.

cedarfalls2

It is only 2 miles round trip but can be pretty strenuous.

cedarfalls3

It is worth the hike to see the 95 foot waterfall!

climbwaterfall

They do not allow swimming at the falls but the park ranger told me that you can go behind it.

Nick took the boys while I sat and took pictures.

I knew I had a bit of a trip back up waiting for me and a storm coming so I did not add to it…

waterfall2

When they started heading back I checked the radar and then started putting anything I could into ziplock bags, including my camera.

No pictures of the climb back up.

rain

We did not beat the rain.

We were almost to the top when it started hailing!

The boys decided we should run up the rest of the way.

They are better at uphill than I am.

hail

We got wet but everything that needed to stay dry did so it was a good hike.

sunset

We headed back to our cabin for dinner and then I went to watch the sunset.

sunsetgrass

sunsetfeet

sunset2

sunsetcabin

All in all it was a fun, gorgeous day, and I got to do everything I wanted to.

I would recommend lots of bug spray if you are going to take the Bench Trail though.

Day 3(our final day) next!

Mount Nebo State Park ~Cabin

cabin

Since we were celebrating our tenth anniversary on this trip, I splurged a bit and got us a cabin instead of tent camping.

I always like to see what I am getting beforehand so I thought I would share what ours looked like.

We got the 1 bedroom model without any bells or whistles.

livingroom

I see this as practice for a tiny house so I am always excited to see how we do in a smaller space!

bedroom

I actually thought the size of the bedroom was nice.

I could see myself living in there.

kitchen

These cabins come fully furnished and the kitchen has everything you need to cook.

kitchen2

I liked the size of the kitchen as well.

Mostly I like the idea of only having to clean this small of a space…

bathroom

livingroom2

The boys slept on the futon.

outside

Most of the cabins we saw had amazing mountain views and outdoor eating spaces!

Ours was set back a bit so I would reccomend cabins 68 or 69 if you want to just sit and watch the sunset from your porch.

cabin

The cabin was clean and exactly what I wanted.

I could not believe the views from the cabins and really liked how close we were to the trails.

I would definitely enjoy staying here again!

Day 1~Mount Nebo State Park, Dardanelle, AR

Mt. Nebo State Park, Dardanelle, Arkansas.

mt.nebo

To celebrate our 10yr anniversary, I rented a Cabin in Mt. Nebo State Park last weekend!

The road to get to the park is steep and very winding.

They do not recommend big trailers.

My boys thought it was a lot of fun, of course.

above

boys

I had been wanting to visit this NW section of Arkansas for a while now and jumped at the chance to stay there.

cabin

I will do a separate post about the cabin but we were really happy with it!

We unloaded our stuff into the cabin so we could get a hike in before the sunset on Friday night.

We chose theĀ  Rim Trail as our first hike since you could access it from our cabin via the Summit Park Trail.

summit

This is still on the Summit Park trail.

running

prettytrail

dropoff

Lovers Leap and the start of the Rim Trail.

ontop

forest

cliff

We went down about halfway on the waterfall trail.

waterfalltrail

On the way back up Nick saw another path so he went on it.

It ended up being a CCC path that met back up with the Rim Trail.

rimtrail2

CCC Trail

rocktrail

rimtrail4

rockwall

It was a little rugged but lots of fun!

fern

This was definitely my favorite hike in the park!

rimtrail5

handsome

Springs

growth

climb

stepup

waterpack

lake

This trail had so many beautiful views!

views

trailsign

The boys do better when a trail is a little challenging so they really liked this one as well!

sunsetpoint

After Sunset Point we hopped back on the Summit Park trail to get back to our cabin.

The loop we did ended up being 3.87 miles.

patio

We hung out at the Cabin for a bit, ate dinner, and headed back to Sunset Point.

sunsettrail

boyssunset

I am glad he brought his camera for some sunset pics.

photographer

sunetpoint2

draw

I brought their nature journals with us so they would have something to do while waiting for the sun to set.

jdraw

sunsetbright

sunset

So beautiful!

sunset2

sunset3

sunset4

On the way back to our cabin it was pretty dark.

We saw a deer walking around below us!

night

The boys also got their first taste of catching Fireflies!

I will share some more of our trip soon!