Lake Fort Smith State Park

June 13, 2022

It's hard to believe that this is our 50th camping trip in our trailer. We purchased our Heartland Pioneer in 2015 with expectations of getting some good use out of it. Turns out that we have. We've towed the trailer over 8000 miles behind the GMC and stayed in 20 campgrounds all within the state of Arkansas (Brady Mountain Recreation Area - Lake Ouachita, Cameron Bluff Campground, Cane Creek State Park, Carter Cove Park - Lake Nimrod, Dam Site Campground - Greers Ferry Lake, Devil's Den State Park, Gamaliel Campground - Norfork Lake, Lake Catherine State Park, Lake Dardanelle State Park, Lake Fort Smith State Park, Lake Ouachita State Park, Long Pool Recreation Area - Big Piney Creek, Old Highway 25 Campground - Greers Ferry Lake, Petit Jean State Park, Piney Bay Campground, Queen Wilhelmina State Park, Shiloh Campground - Greers Ferry Lake, Waveland Park Campground - Blue Mountain Lake and Withrow Springs State Park).

This trip returned us to Lake Fort Smith State Park which is one of our favorites campgrounds for a 4 day trip with Hannah and Brayden. Campsites have full hookups and are blown clean with the gravel freshly manicured by maintenance crews before we arrived. We stayed in site #13 which had good shade for much of the day. Notice in the pictures our first attempt at air conditioning the tent. I don't think the grandkids would have enjoyed the tent camping very much without it. It worked pretty well with the exception of some condensation on the outside of the tent.

Manicured Campsite Pad

The weather was particularly hot with extreme heat warnings so we went to the swimming pool every day.

The park has no shortage of wildlife. Deer were around the campgrounds everywhere. Brayden even spotted a deer across the street from our campsite.

Racoons were out each night. Our neighbor brought a nice big garbage can that the garbage bandits got into every night. The neighbors finally learned a lesson one night when racoons drug their garbage can off the terrace wall.  

Zebra Butterfly

Road Turtle

Cardinal at our Trailer Window

The visitors center is just a short bike ride away over a few hills. From the back side of the visitors center is an overlook above the day use and boat launch area.

On Thursday morning before the heat set in to intensely I went on a solo hike out the north end of the campground past the waterfall and for a short distance down the Ozark Highlands Tail and portion of the Shepherd Springs Loop.

The lake is not visible from the campgrounds (at least not with leaves on the trees) so I took a few pictures from above the campsite. From this perspective you can see the earth dam that was once the end of Lake Shepard Springs, but now is enveloped by the new Lake Fort Smith.

This was a really hot trip! We drove several evening out for dinner to avoid cooking in the trailer and because we just like eating out. 

Waveland Park

 April 19, 2022

As we generally like to do we camped on weekdays at Waveland Park. Its always quieter mid-week so we arrived on Monday and stayed until Friday. Just one of the benefits of being retired. We stayed in site #36 along the lower loop of the park which was relatively secluded being the last site on the road and back in the trees. Many of the sites at Waveland appear to have been recently updated with new cooking tables and firepit grills. 

Blue Mountain Lake was very high when we arrived due to recent rain and additional rain caused the lake to rise even more during our stay. Per the Corp of Engineers the normal springtime lake elevation is 387', but it was around 395' for he week we were there. At this level the lower road around the park and the parking lot at the swim beach was under water.  

Kayaks in the Flooded Parking Lot at the Swim Beach

We drove over the mountain at the dam to see what the discharge looked like at Outlet Park. It was roaring pretty down the Petit Jean River. 

The water flowing through the tunnel under the mountain reforms the Petit Jean River at Outlet Park before continuing to the Arkansas River near Petit Jean Mountain.

View from the Overlook above Outlet Park

Sunset from the Levy near the Discharge Structure

Tuesday was waterfall adventure day! We first ventured south of Havana to Kirkwood Falls and then north to Big Shoal Falls near Paris. 

Kirkwood Falls was easy to access on Yell county roads 27 and 519. The road from highway 309 runs adjacent to several farms so Donna go to see lots of cows. We think a calf we saw with mom had to have been born just that morning. The falls were just off the road (no hike required).

Kirkland Falls near Havana Arkansas

The second water fall of the day was Big Shoal Falls. We headed north on highway 309 toward Mount Magazine. Heading up Mount Magazine we decided to follow Google map directions to the falls rather than the route from the Paris side of the mountain, We should have stopped when we saw the hand painted sign "Road Construction Ahead". How bad could it be? Pretty bad. For about 6 miles we followed the newly bulldozed, red clay Barber Ridge Road and Valentine Road. Thank goodness for four wheel drive and the engine skid plate. We finally came out on Spring Lake Road. A well maintained heavy duty county road that we should have taken to begin with. Big Shoal Falls can be seen from Spring Lake Road and has a half circle drive that crosses the shoal like a low water bridge.

Big Shoal Falls near Paris Arkansas

We flew the drone and got some some good aerial photos and video of the area.

A few pictures from around the campground. From these pictures you can see the closed roads and submerged parkinglot.

Donna Starting an Evening Campfire

Dinner on the Grill

Chillin' After a Day of Waterfall Chasing