go hike a mountain

We weren’t very far from Mt. Magazine, the highest point in Arkansas, so we made it there by 10am. The visitor center was open, so we went in and bought postcards and looked at some of the models and information they had on display. There’s a large area in the back that has binoculars on string and a large picture window with bird feeders so you can look at some of the wild birds in the area. Instead of birds, we saw some deer really close to the window that were feeding on fallen seed.

There are a number of scenic overlooks along the drive to the summit.

We had to park in the campground parking lot to take the short hike to the top of this mountain. The trail was wide easy to follow. There was just a little snow left under the trees.

The summit had a large sign and a few benches. The best part is that they took the time to make a large outline of the state of Arkansas with different colored flat stones and put the USGS marker at where the highest point would be as well as a star for Little Rock, the capitol.

From Mt. Magazine, we headed toward Hot Springs, AR, and made it there by about 1pm. We poked around the museum at the Fordyce Bath House and walked around outside to check out the thermal springs.

We also stopped in Vicki’s Coffee Shop for a ham sandwich and wi-fi before getting back on the road. Hot Springs is a neat little city with an art scene and a lot of Roman architecture.

Realizing we had so much time left in the day and that Louisiana’s highpoint wasn’t much of a hike, we decided to take a chance and try to get to the summit with just our headlamps.

We passed some areas that had remarkably green grass. I told Jesse I thought they were sod farms. He didn’t believe me.

Because we were just so darn close to Texas without really needing to enter the state, at Texarkana (on the border with Texas and Arkansas), we decided to take a loop off of the highway to drive around in Texas for a little while. We almost got lost.

Here’s a West Louisiana sunset.

Just south of Arcadia, LA, the trail to Mt. Driskill sits partially on private land and the round trip hiking distance was marked as 2 miles. When we pulled off of the highway and found the church parking lot our book described, we couldn’t believe how dark it was. It was a clear night, though, and you could see every star in the sky.

We donned our headlamps and wind-proof jackets and followed the directions for the hike. It was definitely one of the creepiest hikes I’ve ever done. There were a lot of forks and walking around gates and ups and downs. At the summit there is a large wooden sign with a metal box with the register in it.

We took just a few pictures and left in a hurry so we could get back to the car and find a rest area to sleep at before it got too late.