As I hinted at in an earlier post, the views from Mt. Magazine State Park in the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas are some of the best we've seen. Until the current road trip in Pearl, we'd only made one quick pass through the state, stopping to stay briefly in Little Rock (our 2014 blog post), so we had no idea how breathtaking Arkansas could be. Our favorite after-dinner walk was to the Cameron Bluff Overlook, not far from the campground. You could see for miles, and the views were unbeatable. On our last day in the park, we took a bike ride down to get a photo of the entrance sign, a hilly but beautiful ride. Isn't this a pretty sign? It does this lovely park justice. The sign is right across from one of the park overlook points and some of the best views around. That night after dinner, we waited until shortly before sunset to head down to the Cameron Bluff Overlook. We were treated to an absolutely fiery sunset over the valley. How lucky were we?
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We were lucky this time. We ascended most of the way up Magazine Mountain, the highest point in the state of Arkansas at 2753', in our motorhome, Pearl, on the way to Mt. Magazine State Park. The summit trail itself is a short one and manageable by most anyone of moderate fitness. That was a good thing, because Barry's cold was in full swing by the day we did this hike, and he was dragging. This is not the norm for him at all; usually, the tougher and longer a hike, the happier he is. I had not yet caught the cold, so I was feeling much more chipper than him on this day. The Signal Hill Trail actually starts at 2600' elevation, so we only had 153' to ascend. Easy peasy! If you take the shortest route to the top, you can do the out and back in just a mile. If you make the entire loop, it's still only 1.4 miles. At the summit is a stone map in the shape of Arkansas, and a sign indicating the highest point. There's actually not a view from the summit. We signed the register to make it official. A lot of folks take summitting state peaks more seriously than we do, but it was still fun to add another to our list:
I found a nice map of state high points on the site in one of the stickers on the mailbox: http://www.highpointingtheusa.com/home-masonry/ Thanks, Arkansas, for making this one a piece of cake! While planning our route north on the map, Barry happened to notice a symbol for Magazine Mountain, at 2753' elevation, the highest point in Arkansas. Turns out, there is a state park right there, and since we wanted to see the Ozark National Forest anyway, this seemed a perfect place to stop. And this would be a breeze after the tough state high points we'd already hiked. So, leaving Hot Springs, we headed north towards Mt. Magazine State Park. As we approached from the valley floor, we could see the Ozarks and Mount Magazine up ahead. Gorgeous! The park sits up high in the Ozarks, so there are some hairpin turns to negotiate to arrive there, but nothing Pearl couldn't handle. It was a beautiful drive up. We didn't make reservations, but arriving on a Monday, there were plenty of sites available. This is not a park where you choose your own site, which we always prefer, but the site we were assigned was just fine. We might not have preferred this particular site (#1) on a weekend, as it was closest to the main park road, and there would have been more traffic. But during the week, it was no problem, and the dense vegetation muffled what small amount of road noise there was. The park was incredibly pretty, with breathtaking vistas in several spots, swoopy roads to ride our bicycles, and many hiking trails. We would definitely return and stay longer in the future, as there was plenty for us to do, but it is fairly far from towns (and with the hairpin-turn ride down the mountain in either direction), so you want to bring what you need with you. There is a lovely lodge that does have a restaurant, but we didn't try it. The park provided excellent bird habitat, and we saw many, even a road runner, which I didn't expect to see in Arkansas, as we've only seen them out west before. Here's just one of the stunning views from the park, and we'll share more in another post.
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Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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