Ozark National Forest was definitely
worth the trip. For the drive up my brother and I used scenic route 7
up to our camp site at Alum Cove where there is a very large natural
bridge, several caves, and large rock formations. We had also stopped
at a few scenic lookouts along the way and hiked a short portion of
trail where I had the first snake spotting of the trip. At all of our
stops the first day there were multiple dried up creeks or standing
water were flowing water should have been. Arkansas is once again
dying for rain. There were burn ban signs up everywhere we went.
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| on the natural bridge at Alum Cove, Ozark National Forest |
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| this was quite a common sight: riverbed with no river |
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| Alum Cove |
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| Alum Cove |
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| Alum Cove |
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| early morning tent |
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| my favorite part about sleeping out was the early morning sunlight waking me up (with a chorus of very loud birds) |
For the second day of hiking we took 16
over to 23, and then headed down 309 to bring us to
Mt. Magazine, the
highest point in Arkansas. This place was freaking packed. The trails
seemed very tourist friendly and there was a giant lodge built not
far from Signal Hill (the highest point). After walking the Signal Hill loop, with various occurrences such as my pack's strap breaking
and spotting a solitary deer tromping around not 200ft from the
trail, we headed toward the cliffs on the backside of the nearby
lodge.
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| Signal Hill Trail to Highpoint |
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| Mount Magazine Signal Hill, Highest Point in Arkansas: Elevation 2,759ft |
After these hikes, which probably only
amounted to around 3 miles, we were spent, which is more
understandable taking into consideration the 95+ degree heat. So we
got in the car and head down to the
Cossatot River. This was the most
fun stop we made. There are giant shards of rock jutting diagonally
from a semi-swiftly moving river, rows upon rows of rock with large
rock walls on either side. We spent our time jumping from rock to
rock and climbing them down the river for probably a quarter mile
until we came to an open area where we swam with a few other guests,
if you will.
At this point we were really tired, had
baked in the sun for hours upon hours, and were getting annoyed with
ourselves for not being able to quit singing
What's Up (if you get a
kick out of everything about the 90s, you should definitely watch the
video).
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| a lone rock in the Cossatot River |
Go for a nature walk, it's good for
you!
Thoughts on natur
e:
Everybody
needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where
nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. - John
Muir
