Arkansas Arboretum

The other weekend I took Jonah for a little hike around the Arkansas Arboretum Trail at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. This is a great trail, especially for a four-year old. The trail is easy, and is just long enough to wear out my little one, who sometimes seems like he has an unlimited supply of energy. The trail is a nice and pleasant hike, and is usually less busy than the other trails at Pinnacle (we only saw one other family out there that day).

At one point, the trail runs by the Little Maumelle River, which was perfectly still with a mirror-like reflection.



The trail then runs up and curves through the woods, with moss growing along the sides of the path.



This is my favorite part of the trail, and I always try to take pictures here (much to the annoyance of Jonah, who would much rather run full-tilt down the trail while I'm trying to take pictures).



My poor kid has grown up with me taking lots of pictures of him, and I think he's already over it. I wanted to get some pictures of him during this hike but he wasn't interested. I finally convinced him to sit still for a few minutes and managed to get a decent shot. Here he is actually holding out his finger saying "just one picture Dada."

What We Do In The Shadows

One evening we went downtown and had a little picnic by the Clinton Library, and then walked across the bridge. It was getting late in the day, and the setting sun was causing deep shadows of the old bridge to appear in the muddy water of the river.

Triple Falls

Before heading home, we made one last stop at the Buffalo River. I took my car back down the steep hill to Triple Falls, and Jonah was thrilled to see the waterfalls. I feel bad, like a negligent parent, that this was the first time he has been to a waterfall like this in person (but it won’t be the last for sure). This is a cell phone shot my wife took of Jonah and I looking around the base of the falls...



The first few times I went to these falls they were barely flowing (the joke being that they were more like Trickle Falls instead of Triple Falls), so Jonah is lucky that they were flowing well on his first visit. It is a good waterfall to take kids though. Other than the road down the hill being steep (and sometimes rough), the walk to the falls is short and easy. The pool below the falls is usually shallow and seemingly great for little ones to explore. The only downside is that your 4 year old might get in the way of an annoyed nature photographer trying to take pictures of the 48 foot-tall falls.

Buffalo Point

Our cabin wasn't too far away from the Buffalo River, and I was eager to take Jonah there for his first ever visit. If anyone actually reads this blog, you might see that I take quite a few pictures of the river. So I couldn't wait to take him there. But of course, while we were up in the Ozarks a tropical depression passed by, dumping a ton of rain. The river, of course, was flooded with brown and murky water as a result.

We headed down to Buffalo Point anyways, and had a picnic overlooking the river. Then we walked over to the river and let Jonah play around with the rocks along the shore (but not get too close to the water). From there we had a great view of Painted Bluff, which stands about 320 feet above the river. The bluff is actually made out of two different types of rock: the lower 70 foot-tall section is Everton limestone. The upper section, which is mostly hidden behind trees, is sandstone.

On The Border

After taking a few pictures at Hodgson Mill, I got back in the car and headed south back towards our cabin in Arkansas. I wasn't in that big of a hurry, so I stopped at a few interesting spots along the way. One of the stops was this abandoned house in Missouri.



At the state line, there was the usual collection of businesses that usually huddle close to borders (like liquor stores and bars). One of the liquor stores was closed, and left abandoned. The only customers that appear to be going into the store now were weeds and vines.



There as a bar nearby that had this advertisement out front, which maybe isn't the wisest idea during the global Covid pandemic?



I crossed over the border into Arkansas, but made a stop by this old camper sitting along a dirt road.


Which looks like it would be a good setting for any Breaking Bad spin-off set in the Ozarks:


Further down the road was this old home, which doesn't look occupied anymore (by people at least, the cows seem to have taken over the property).



Closer to our cabin was this weathered old barn that had a coat of faded red paint.



This sign was hanging on the side of the barn, which was not very Vegan-friendly.



And one last shot, of an old mailbox that was sitting near the barn...