Tag Archives: Mount Magazine State Park

Cove Lake Recreation Area -Paris, Arkansas

We really enjoyed Cove Lake Recreation Area campground in western Arkansas! It was really close to Mount Magazine and had several trails at the campground also.
The sites do not have electric and there are vault toilets just fyi.
It does have a small swing set at the campground!
The only thing that caused more planning and work was the water was turned off at the campground for the winter which I thought might be the case so I did bring several gallons but ended up needing more.
We enjoyed the hike around cove lake. It was around 4 miles and had beautiful views of the lake and lots of pine trees. So pretty.
We hiked to top of Signal Hill the first night we were there because the sky was clear and I wanted to make sure we saw all the views right away just in case it was cloudy the rest of the time.
Two out of the three previous trips here had been cloudy and we could not see anything.

I was totally blown away on this trip and fell in love with this beautiful park.

I love this Eastern Benefield Trail that we took on the last day. Beautiful views!
Lots of steep cliffs though so you might not want to take really little ones on this one.
Sunrise rock
We drove over an hour to visit two other state parks one day while in the area.

Pretty sure the kids favorite was the Bear Cave Trail at Petit Jean State Park.

It has lots of rocks and is short, all things they like.

Next up we hiked to the Rock House Cave from the waterfall overlook. This was a long and totally unneeded hike since you can park really close to it. My girls insisted they wanted to hike. ha

They were less enthusiastic when they found out they had to hike back also and could not take the “short way” back. After a lot of steps going up and down we did make it back though.

We also did a trail at Mount Nebo but it was a lot of steps after a long morning of up and down hiking and the spring was kind of anti- climatic for so much work.

I have loved the hiking on a previous trip so I know we just chose the wrong hike at the wrong time.

We started out on the Rim Trail which is one that was a favorite on a previous trip. The kids heard it was longer and said they wanted to do the hike down to the spring.

But this was the trip down…

Ha!

Mount Magazine at sunset!

Turning 36

I hesitate to put my age out there, not because I don’t want you to know but because I am often wrong…

I am pretty sure that I am 36 though, maybe.

And here is how I spent my first day.

First stop was Mt. Magazine on our way home from our campsite. If I had it to do again I would have skipped this because it ended up being a long detour but I loved being on that mist covered mountain. Beautiful.

We went on the trail to the highest point in Arkansas.

The whole hike was so beautiful. Made it! Next up was the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge. This one was pretty close to our route home already but I was still not sure we should add even more to our trip especially with the weather turning cold and rainy.

But it ended up being stunning. So many birds! And the cloudy skies were so pretty for pictures. Can you believe this is in Oklahoma?

We did go for a walk on their walking path which was beautiful as always and freezing. We saw that one of my favorite bridges was broken.

Yikes

It was a pretty day.

What kinds of things do you like to do on your birthday?

Day 3~Mount Magazine State Park, Paris, AR

On the last day of our stay in Arkansas we packed up and headed to Mount Magazine State ParkĀ on the way home.

mountmagazine

It was very foggy and raining.

baby

We decided to go ahead and stop at the visitors center though and see if we wanted to do a hike while it was not thundering.

mist

I love the woods like this.

So beautiful.

Usually it is easier to see animals also.

deer

We decided on doing the Signal Hill hike since it was short and went to the highest point in Arkansas.

iphone

I only took pictures of the hike with my phone since my camera was tucked away.

The top three are from my phone.

It was raining pretty good at the start but then started pouring!

It was nice to at least have a bug free hike.

mag

We all like hiking in the rain.

plague

Nick said they needed a picture with the plaque that says it is the highest point.

I did not do this.

atthetop

There was only one other person on the trail but he took a picture for us!

I did take my camera out for these shots at the top.

It got a little wet but dried out just fine.

I would like to visit this place again when we can see more of the views.

We had a great trip though and I am so glad we went!