Devil's Den State Park

November 4, 2018 - Devils Den State Park
This year we made reservations in June for four nights at Devil's Den State Park for the first week in November to enjoy the fall colors in the Boston Mountains. With an abnormally mild wet summer the leaves didn't disappoint. We left Russellville on a Sunday afternoon for the trip west on I-40, then north on I-49 toward Fayetteville. There are two exists from I-49 to Devil's Den. From I-40 the first is at Winslow. Highway 170 from Winslow limits trailers to 26' due to the tight curves. So we had to drive on to the second exit at Westfork and take the other end of highway 170 to the park for an additional 25 miles. 

We were able to get campsite #85 in campground E which contains the AAA sites with full utility hookups.It was a pretty unique campsite with the camper pad on an elevated terrace above the picnic table, grill and two fire pits.Site 85 was located on Lee Creek which flows through the park. We had a good view of the creek from our campsite and could hear the creek flowing over the rock just upstream.

  

 

With a little rain overnight the weather on Monday was damp and cool. We went out for a ride around the park stopping at the park store and Lee Creek Dam. 

 

This little deer was at the entrance to campground E

Wednesday we took a walk from the camper down to the Woody Plant Trail that originates in campground E and connected with the Lake Trail to the suspension bridge over Lee Creek  (1/4" mile) . This was an easy stroll on the high banks above the creek. 

 

Here is a little video of Lee Creek with the and the sound we could hear from our campsite.
Friday we decided to take a drive to the west of the park on highway 220 to Natural Dam.

Can You Spot the 2' Water Moccasin in this Picture?
(We didn't until after Donna took the picture and it disappeared. Hint: Not in the water, sunning on a rock.)

We spent all of our evenings around the campfire listening to music on my new Bluetooth speaker. We even had some roasted marshmallows without grandchildren. We couldn't use the "they're for the grand-kids" excuse.

This little guy I named "Pepe La Pew" came and visited us and our neighbors two nights. We tried to remain calm and make no threatening moves. I think we were in the middle of his regular creek-side foraging rounds.

Lake Dardanelle State Park

September 28th 2018 Lake Dardanelle State Park
We promised Brayden and Hannah a weekend camping trip and decided to take the short trip to Lake Dardanelle State Park.  Our one previous camping trip to Lake Dardanelle State Park that was our first trip in the new Heartland Pioneer back in 2015. This time we were unable to get one of the of the full service AAA sites, but picked site #33 after driving through the park and registering with my phone. One of the benefits of having a state park in your hometown. The B sites had water with electric connections. They were all closely spaced, but nicely shaded.  The weekend marked the first cool nights of fall weather and we were all excited to get out to the park. 

Mr. squirrel was not happy that we had setup camp directly under a sawtooth oak on a pill of his acorns.  He sat on the landscape timbers and ate acorns anyway.

Jessica and Juan brought the kids to the park after they got home from school Friday afternoon.  We had burgers on the grill. Burgers always taste better when grilled at the campground.

Brayden and I took a little bike ride around the park at sunset. We had to stop at the playground, but later got a good photo of the sunset over Lake Dardanelle.

Evening means a campfire and of course s'mores.

We got up a little late on Saturday morning.  There was a bass tournament in progress, but we didn't have much luck fishing from the rocks.

 

Caught a few fish on Sunday morning with Brayden. Obviously ANO Unit 2 is down for an outage. I much prefer this view from outside the plant vs. working 6 twelves inside.

Gamaliel Campground, Norfork Lake

August 21, 2018 Gamaliel Campground on Norfork Lake
Anticipating unseasonably cooler weather Donna and I were ready for an impromptu camping trip. I was wanting to visit northeast Arkansas to see Mammoth Springs and Hardy where my granddad had a cabin when I was little. We didn’t find any campgrounds that appealed to us near Mammoth Springs or Hardy so we decided to go to Norfork Lake near Mountain Home. We had never been to Norfork and were unsure where to stay so we made no reservations intending to find a walk up campsite. Sites at Gamaliel were not only available, but there were so few campers that arriving on a Tuesday a park attendant would not be available to register us until Thursday. We drove around the park and settled on site #18 which was only one of a few with a lake view.

Biker Church on Hwy 101 at Gamaliel, AR

Deer Along Campground Road

Wednesday morning we took a road trip up through Missouri to Mammoth Springs State Park. We toured the fish hatchery at the park which surprisingly raises sturgeon that is sent out of state (No trout). 

The spring is the 10th largest in the US. It’s outflow was dammed and powered a small hydroelectric plant that remains as a museum today. The spring forms the entire headwater of the Spring River flowing an average of nearly 10 million cubic feet of water per hour.

Dam Video Part 1

Dam Video Part 2

 

After our walk through the park we had lunch at Fred’s Fish House in the Mammoth Springs historic district (Click here for Anthony Bourdain Visits Fred's Fish House video). Enjoyed some really good catfish, hush puppies and coleslaw. 

After lunch we headed south to Hardy. We drove around the Hardy Downtown Historic District and the Hardy city RV Park. The RV Park was mostly open space without paved parking, but was on the bank of the Spring River. I made an attempt to find the location of our old camp. I walked several of the abandoned roads off of Pontiac drive. I found the creek where we got our water but the roads had been abandoned with new Cherokee Village roads. Many great days were spent in this area playing in the creek and hunting in the woods. The old place must be gone now.
Thursday we drove south to the Norfork dam and the National Fish Hatchery. I walked down to boardwalk along Dry Creek which is fed by the outflow from the fish hatchery. The creek was loaded with trout. Dry Creek area was catch and release fishing only with barbless hooks. A really pretty setting.

Boardwalk along Dry Creek adjacent to the fish hatchery

Fish Hatchery outfall into Dry Creek

Trout Fry in  ‘Eyed Ova’ stage

 

It was overcast for most of the day Thursday and after we got back to the campground the rain started. After a nap under the trailer awing listening to the rain it got too cool for shorts and a T-shirt so I had to retreat to the trailer. The August heat was back on Friday when we returned to Russellville. Timing is everything!