Lake Dardanelle State Park Dardanelle Area

While out for a drive with Donna's mom and dad we decided to try and find the portion of Lake Dardanelle State park on the Dardanelle side of the river. I knew I had been there many years earlier but didn't really remember much about the park. What we found was a really well kept park with big expanses of grassy fields and campsites nestled among tall pines. Being so close to home we decided that we should pull the camper the short distance to the campground. A few weeks later we saw a short stretch of relatively cool weather for August and reserved a site for two nights starting Sunday, August 11th. Oddly, we had to drive to the Russellville side of Lake Dardanelle State Park 12 miles away to register. The park was not very full, but I imagine that during spring fishing it could get pretty busy. 

Just around the bay form the park is John Daily's Lion's Den Golf Club. We took a drive around the club and the adjacent neighborhood. 

A short trip down highway 22 we found Delaware Park. The park has primitive camping, with day use picnic areas and a boat ramp. From the park you get a great view of Lake Dardanelle, Mount Nebo and Arkansas Nuclear One just across the lake.

My Truck and Place of Work for 35 Years

Back at Lake Dardanelle State Park there were large grass covered fields that were well kept with ample trees for hanging hammocks. 

We tried Donna's new soy and lime salmon recipe. We cooked it on the Coleman Roadtrip griddle over the charcoal grill. It turned out delicious. That's my kind of camping food!

A redheaded woodpecker had a nest in the hollow of a tree adjacent to our campsite. The nest tree was covered by a resurrection fern (pleopeltis polypodioides) a species of creeping, coarse-textured fern native to the Americas and Africa.

Resurrection Fern

Most of the campsites are located in the shade of tall pine trees. All of the grounds were well maintained by the state park staff from the Russellville side of Lake Dardanelle State Park and by the park host. I spotted the camp host at each vacated campsite picking up any loose trash and cleaning out the fire pits with his granddaughter.

 The park has a boat launch area with a wooden pier and marina. 

Site #66

Old Highway 25 Park

No better place for a July camping trip than at a lake. So we planned this trip with John and Lynda to Old Highway 25 Park on Greers Ferry Lake. We arrived on Tuesday for a three night stay. Our site was G24 which backed up to the lake. A short walk down a path from the back of our trailer led to the rocky shoreline. John and Lynda were one site over in G25. The G Loop is our favorite area in the park. It's located on a peninsula away from most of the park traffic, but just a short drive to the swim beach. 

Site G24

John and Lynda Next Door in Site G25

Path to the Rocks

Wednesday morning we went to the Old Highway 25 Park swim area. Donna had to count this as her beach vacation.

Wednesday afternoon we went to see Zoey perform at her cheer camp at Heber Springs High School. This would be her last cheer camp as she will soon be starting her senior year at HSHS.

We made plans while in the Heber Springs area to visit with Dianna and Billy Bailey who John knew from Pine Bluff. Dianna had made a beautiful quilt for Lynda and she wanted to thank her in person. We met the Baileys for dinner on Wednesday night at Mack's Fish House and spent the evening enjoying dinner with new friends. Turns out that Dianna's sister had dated my brother Wayne. It was like old home night. After dinner we went to the Baileys house that overlooked Heber Springs.

Thursday was boat day on Greers Ferry. We rented a pontoon boat from the Heber Springs Marina. It was an under powered 50HP boat that would only make about 7 MPH, but we still managed to see a good bit of the lake. In the afternoon we picked up Matt and Sarah at the boat ramp near their house. Later were were met by Dianna, Billy and their grandson on their pontoon boat. 

After a day on the lake we all met back at Brothers BBQ in Heber Springs for dinner.

Lynda and Dianna

On our ramblings we stopped at the JFK Overlook above Greers Ferry Dam. I had walked past this placard in the past but didnt realize what it was. The pedestal for the placard is an actual core sample of the rock below the dam foundation. The placard reads: 

Foundation rock underlying Greers Ferry Dam is revealed in these specimens of 34 calyx cores which were cored in 1957. This rock is a hard, fine grained, shaly sandstone belonging to the atoka formation. The dam is founded on alternating beds of sandstone and shale. 

Calyx holes were drilled during preliminary investigations of the foundation rock in the dam site area and served several purposes. The deep, open calyx holes themselves reveal the true nature of the foundation rock and are inspected by geologists who are lowered into them to map features such as bedding planes, joint systems fractures, cavities, water inflow, and rock quality. 

These specimens of 34 calyx cores represent but a small portion of the total 300 feet of calyx core that was extracted in the dam area. The deepest calyx hole was 128 feet deep.

President John F. Kennedy dedicated the Greers Ferry Dam and Reservoir ion October 3, 1963. The ceremony was held at the JFK Overlook and was open to the public. In his speech, Kennedy praised the dam as an example of what can be achieved through cooperation and hard work. He also noted that the dam represented almost 30 years of effort, beginning with authorization during the New Deal. About six weeks after the dedication on November 22, 1963 Kennedy was assonated in Dallas.