June 17th - 20th Eureka Springs & Hawksbill Crag

Eureka Springs was like a small European city, small, tight streets, old buildings, and a lot of historic architecture.

The view of a distant thunderstorm in progress from our camp spot in Eureka Springs.

Thor would like to hike with us...he is ready to roll!

Our quest today (Friday) was to get to the trail head to see Hawksbill Crag (a.k.a. Whitaker Point).

Getting to Hawksbill Crag was a Jeep adventure on many small rock/dirt roads, but to our amazement we saw Elk feasting with cows on a farm, a large adult black bear (not too far from where the trail head was to get to Hawksbill Crag...Yikes), and a coyote (I don't think it was Wile E. Coyote).

I didn't think Arkansas had the wild life and scenery of Colorado...but it was darn close...just shorter mountains...but nice vistas! We called this Mini-Hawksbill Crag.

This video clip is the view from the hike:

On Saturday we decided to see the 12th Annual Native American Pow-Wow & the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge.

Part of the grand entrance and beginning of the tribal dance contest.

On the tour, it was surprising to hear the stories of how the big cats appeared at the sanctuary. A large tiger was being raised in gentleman's house (even had his own bedroom), the man became ill, and could not care for the tiger any longer. The tiger was loaded onto his truck and the tiger was driven to the National Forest (about 60 miles from his house) and set free. After about a week the tiger turned up at the man's house...and was quite aggressive. Imagine that...

June 14th-16th The Narrows & Skull Bluff

On Monday we moved the RV up river to to a campground outside of Harrison, AR. There we decided not to float but to Jeep and hike around. Who knew that this area would remind us of the Smoky Mountains - the mountains and very low clouds. This was on the morning that we set out to take the Jeep to The Narrows (a.k.a. The Nars).

Tuesday: We were so close to reaching our destination (which was the red circle on right with the green flags) when we were stopped by a big yellow gate(within 1 mile...the red circle on the left with the red flag), ... no entry for us. After trying to get there for four hours we gave up and went into Jasper for lunch (an elk steak and a buffalo burger, please).

But we did see a neat access point at the Ozark access.

Wednesday: We got up early and made a 2nd (successful) attempt of reaching The Narrows and Skull Bluff by Jeep and hiking (the easier method would be to float by both locations).

We drove to the Woolum access area and had a hard decision to make... attempt to drive across the river to get closer to the Narrows or hike. "Lars go check and see how deep the water is!" We eventually opted to hike the rest of the way since we didn't know how long it would be if we needed to be pulled out of the river.
We hiked to the backside of the The Narrows, scaled up the side and then enjoyed a great view from atop the trail. The reflection of the sky on the placid pools of water below were quite serene.
We continued to the top...

From here we could look down on Skull Bluff, where floaters could pass through the eyes of the sunken skull. We will have to come back some day and do that float.

Close up of the eye sockets.

Hey what are those?

Well of course those are turtles taking a morning (around 8:00am) dip.

We are off to Eureka Springs next.

June 9th - 13th Buffalo Point

This year's adventure is shorter than normal. Lars started a new job in February and has limited vacation time (but he is enjoying his job), so we left for our Arkansas loop on Wednesday evening making our first camp spot at Buffalo Point Campground, formally known as Buffalo River State Park. It was developed in the 1930s as project of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Since the campground was built well before the creation of Class A RVs the spots were small, but that has never stopped Lars from wiggling our nearly 38' RV into a spot. I think the sign said for camping units 23-30 feet in length, no problem.

Friday was all about relaxation and preparation for a 28 mile float trip on Saturday. We talked with many outfitters in the area about a shuttle ride and were told we needed 2 to 3 days to complete the journey. Little did anybody know that Lars had the secrete weapon...a trolling motor! I love the way he thinks.

Due to the information gathered on Friday we opted to get on the river early in the morning (6:30 am). This was around the corner from where we put in the raft at Tyler Bend.

Further down the river we heard and saw critters splashing into the river...nice beaver!

As we traveled down river we saw the National Park Rangers carrying canoes on their boat and taking them upstream. Why? Over the night, the river had risen 4ft and many people who were on multiple day floats had lost their canoes because they weren't parked far enough up on the river bank. That's no fun. We should have taken pictures of the Rangers and the couple who floated all of their belongings on the air mattress they slept on the night before. At least the scenery was beautiful!


The bridge in this photo was actually underwater in 2008...Holy Shnikes!

We arrived back at our campground to take pictures of Buffalo Point itself. It was definitely a neat perspective.

There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity...it may have been crossed. Yes, in this photo the red circle on the left is somebody getting ready to job off the cliff into water that wasn't as deep as he was tall. Yikes! The red circle to the right would be our home away from home (the RV) in camp spot #19 in loop A.


Another...jumper!

The Bluffs at Buffalo Point's beach.

Photography is definitely a hobby when on vacation, this is Buffalo Point and the bluffs about 11:30 p.m. on Sunday night.