Petit Jean State Park

This was an impromptu trip to Petit Jean State Park on June 16, 2024. Donna had invited several of her elementary school friends to visit Russellville. I decided to let them have their space and me take mine as well so I reserved site #11 at Petit Jean State Park for a three nights. 

Donna and Her Girlfriends

After tire trouble on the previous two trips I was hoping for an uneventful getaway. I decided to invite grandchildren and work around their schedules. The first evening I pulled the trailer to Petit Jean by myself and setup for the night. I sat for a while outside the trailer and watched the birds, squirrels and deer. After going in for the evening it didn't take long to realize that the air conditioner was not keeping up. So I abandoned the trailer and drove back to Russellville for the night. 

Monday morning I took the window AC unit from my shop and went to pickup Brayden and Hannah. Hannah had a class in Danville to attend so we dropped her off and continued on to Petit Jean with Brayden. With Brayden's help we rigged the AC unit into the back window of the trailer. We cobbled together a wooden stand and sealed it up with plastic and duct tape. I'm sure this seemed comical to the folks around us with their quarter million dollar motorhomes, but it worked. 

After getting the AC working we returned to Danville to get Hannah. While we were in Danville we took a little tour to see the city. We stopped at the City of Danville office building to look at the historic marker and the adjacent bridge (over nothing). 

The marker reeds: 

IRON BOWSTRING BRIDGE

First Iron Bridge in Yell County built in 1880 by King Iron Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio. It spanned Petit Jean River at Danville until 1920, was relocated to Mickle Switch in 1922 and moved to its current location in 2013. In 1883 two men were hanged from the bridge by vigilantes. The Oldest Bridge in Yell County

Hannah felt like the "In 1883 two men were hanged from the bridge by vigilantes" was a little creepy.

Monday evening we decided to take a truck ride around the mountain. We stopped at the the Davies Bridge. It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp in 1933 just beyond the the Lake Baily spillway / waterfall. The bridge crosses Cedar Creek upstream of Cedar Falls so the water flow you see coming over the spillway is approximately the flow you see at Cedar Falls.

While driving around the mountain we went to WinRock Farms. We slowed down to look at the cows and apparently they thought my truck was the feed truck. Below is a video of the stampede for dinner.

Lake Baily sits on top of the mountain in a bowl shaped depression between the campground and the Petit Jean airport. Campground Loop A is on Lake Bailey.

Tuesday afternoon we went to the Museum of Automobiles. The museum opened in 1964 by the then future Governor Winthrop Rockefeller. The museum still houses several of his personal automobiles along with cars owned or driven by other notable people such as Elvis Presley and President John F. Kennedy.

After our tour of the Museum of Automobiles we went to the east end of the mountain to Stouts Point, the site of Petit Jean's grave and a great view of the Arkansas river valley. While there we got to see a bald eagle flying just off Stout Point.

After our drive to Stouts Point we returned to the trailer and got ready to go to dinner at Mather Lodge. Stepping down the stairs onto the gravel Hannah fell down. I initially thought she had just turned her ankle. After a few minutes with her sitting on the ground she convinced me it was more serious. She was in considerable pain, so Brayden and I helped her from the ground to the truck. We drove her home to Dardanelle and her mom took her to the ER where it was determined to be an ankle fracture. So this trip had gone from bad with the AC issue to worse.

Brayden and I had dinner in Russellville and returned to the campground. The next morning we loaded up the trailer and broke camp. We parked the truck and trailer at the Visitor Venter and walked to the swimming pool. Poor Hannah was left at home.