We should have done our research. It seemed to have lots of little shops, which we avoided with 2 small boys who like to touch fragile things. Going to the caves was the best part of Eureka Springs. We didn't do a jamboree, or hoedown. We were impatient there. We couldn't see much of the mountains because of all the trees. Frustrating. It didn't help that the first night was a major, major thunderstorm.
In the tent, I was counting the time between lightning strikes and thunder claps. Ron checked the radar from his Blackberry... and tried to reassure me that it'd be done in 30 minutes. It lasted 4 hours. I am usually not scared of anything.. but with flash-booms that close, that loud... I was afraid. The next day, Ron told me the whole state had been in the red zone on the radar. Though our tent didn't leak, we didn't sleep well (ok, Mitchell slept great... but the rest of us didn't). Here's a picture of camp from after the storm. The table was the only thing that adequately reflected the water left from the overnight storm.
Many places I have traveled to have tourism down pat. The sites a visitor should see are well known, and there is an abundance of signs so that you couldn't miss an attraction. Historic landmarks, view points, natural beauty, man-made wonders - so obvious the driver of a car full of kids couldn't miss it despite the distractions.
Arkansas isn't necessarily like this. There are tons of signs for the parks, but not what is in the park if you care to hike 1-5 miles. There are side roads, but unless you know what's down them, they don't stand out enough for you to take the risk of traveling a 10 mile gravel road at 25 mph. We became somewhat frustrated in not seeing what we hoped to see, but we stumbled upon a book "Arkansas Nature Lover's Guidebook" by Tim Ernst. Inside is a treasure-trove of picturesque Arkansas. The pictures below is one of the places that involved a jaunt down a gravel road that we would have never gone down without reading about it in Ernst's book.
With the book in mind, we headed to Petit Jean State Park for a few nights. This wasn't on our initial itinerary, but we were bored in Eureka Springs. Petit Jean came highly recommended in the book. Nothing to lose! The first night, we arrived in time to cook and catch the sunset pictures below. Note that Sean's in the stage that he rarely cooperates for pictures. This is one of 2 photos he cooperated for during the 10+ day trip.
The morning after we arrived at Petit Jean, we went on a 2 mile hike to see the waterfall there. It was a great hike. The boys did great, despite the difficult terrain. There was a path, but it wasn't always wide enough to hold hands (steep paths and young feet don't match). This was likely the hike that caused us all to break out in poison ivy later.
The rest of the story our trip to Arkansas was somewhat lack luster. We continued on to Hot Springs, where we were itchy from the poison ivy. Moods were on the decline. We did another big hike for a waterfall, which ended up being dried up (no decent pictures obtained for that). Between the letdown of the lack of waterfall, and the poison ivy, the troops voted to go to Grandmama's and Grandpapa's house early. We packed up the next day and headed for Illinois for real beds, and Grandma's TLC. This was an abrupt end to a trip we didn't research well beforehand. I think we'd go back to Hot Springs, and to see more things in the Ernst book that we missed. In the fall, with the leaves changing, would be awesome.
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