November 30, 2024 Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas

 Chilly 54, breezy and partly cloudy.

We visited Petit Jean State Park today. View point from the top of Petit Jean mountain-elevation 2,441. 

The story of Petit Jean.  John in the  Bear cave area.

John and I. Bear Cave hike. 

John in the Bear Cave.  Rock formations, a tree root in the trail polished smooth from so many feet, tiny cedar berries and tree roots. 

Mather Lodge, built by the CCC.

CCC room in Mather lodge. This CCC group was made up of veterans, so they were a bit older than the usual CCC groups. We hiked the Cedar Falls trail. Supposed to be strenuous and the most popular hike in the park. 

Looking down on where the trail goes. John on the trail

Oak leaves on the creek. Cedar creek. 

Cedar Falls. Not much water this time of year. 

Cedar creek. John climbing the CCC built stairs. 

John on the stairs. It was pretty steep. CCC built wall on the trail.

CCC built water tower. 

November 28-29, 2014 Dardanelle Lake state Park, Russellville, Arkansas

 52, breezy and mostly sunny. 

John preparing the turkey breast for smoking. He told me to leave him alone, this is serious. John smoking the breast.

Sunset on the nuclear power plant on the lake. Sunset on the lake.

Sunset with coots. Yummy Thanksgiving dinner and my darling husband John.  

It is tradition in John's family after the Thanksgiving dinner to put on one of his fathers many hats and go for a walk. We did our own walk. I have on my hat made for me by my friend Cats. John has his normal hat on. It is 42 degrees and breezy now. Today we went to Mt Magazine State Park. Mt Magazine is the highest place in Arkansas at 2,753 feet. 

Driving up the south side of Mt Magazine in the oak hickory forest. Petite Jean overlook. People come here for the sweeping views. 

Mt Magazine is a big flat topped butte, this is the map of the top.  The view from all the view points on the north side  mostly looked the same, steep sandstone cliffs, oak/hickory belt and then vast stretches of pine trees. Beautiful, but I am only showing a few.

The WPA built a large stone amphitheater here. The top half came apart over the years, but what is left is cool. It looks out over the Arkansas river valley.

A view point built by the WPA. View from the viewpoint. 

Picnic area built by the WPA. We went for a hike along the rim. The trees on top are stunted scrub oaks, blackjack and  post oaks. They only grow to about 12 feet high. 

Spring. Most of the top of the mountain is dry, so there was not much development on it. The lobby of the Mt Magazine Lodge. It is a huge, very nice lodge overlooking the valley. 

Nice  picnic shelter. Cove Lake, it is a 9.5 mile hike from the top of the mountain, or you can drive to it. 

 John took  me to Paris, Arkansas. Beautiful, historic downtown Paris, Arkansas.

 Court house in Paris.  Eiffel town in Paris. 

November 25-27, 2024 Lake Dardanelle State Park, Arkansas

 64 and cloudy.

We filled up with $3.15/gal fuel this morning. Prices are coming down. We are now camped at Lake Dardanelle State park outside of Russellville, Arkansas. We didn't know there were two campgrounds at Lake Dardanelle until we showed up at the wrong one. The one we wanted was on the other side of the lake. We went to our reserved spot and it was too slanted to get the bus level, so we got a new one. We were exhausted once we finally got settled. 

Sunset on our view of the marina from our site. Canada geese on the lake with cypress trees.

The nuclear power plant across the lake. Our campsite from the back. 

The marina. Our campsite is at the far right just under the trees. View of park on my bike ride. 

A view of the fishing pier-- behind the yellow tree. View of the park from the other side of the bay.

Pelicans. Some fish in the aquarium in the visitors center. They had a couple aquariums with the fish that are found in the lake. 

John at Point Remove brewery with his IPA, We had a nice pizza there. We are in a dry county here in Arkansas. They are allowed to serve drinks in 'clubs'. But they can't sell any you can take home.  Beautiful historic downtown Russellville at sunset. 

Sunset on the lake with the fishing pier. High of 58 and cloudy. John walking on the jetty. He says the clouds are coming from the nuclear power plant from across the lake. 

Directions in the campground for what to do if there is an emergency at the nuclear power plant across the lake. A great blue heron off the jetty.

Another great blue heron.