Wednesday night was our last hotel night for a while. Inevitably, that meant the temperatures started going up. Thursday was a hot day.
We headed out of Springfield and decided to stop in Branson, just to say we'd been there. We walked around the historic district for an hour [ 1 ] before heading through Branson proper. That drive took 20+ minutes in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Ugh! We had seen enough of that.
Outside of Branson, we stopped to look at Table Rock Dam, which holds up Table Rock Lake. The dam also happens to be the site of the Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery. We walked around there for a while [ 1, 2 ] before heading to Table Rock State Park for lunch [ 1, 2 ].
Then, we got back on the road and headed for our first campground, Buffalo Point, on the Buffalo National River. We had no problem finding the place, but boy was it hot by the time we started setting up camp. Ken had sweat just streaming down his face as he was pounding in tent stakes. Our neighbor, from Missisippi, was kind of laughing at us: "Not used to the heat, huh?" But, it was a pretty nice camp site [ 1, 2 ].
After getting camp set up, we walked down to the river to take a brief dip. We weren't able to really swim, because the current was too swift. But, at least we were able to get in the water [ 1, 2 ].
After dinner, a whole bunch of families rolled in, and there were a lot of kids in the 3-10 age range that all knew each other. They ran around in packs all weekend. Wow.
It was still so hot after dinner that we didn't even want to turn the lantern on to read or play cards at the table. So, we sat in the tent and read to the light of the fluorescent lantern.
Friday, we decided to "float" the Buffalo River. We had been thinking about doing it sometime, but one of our neighbors told us that the conditions were just about perfect, so we decided not to wait. About 10:45am, we headed to one of the outfitters just outside the campground to see how it worked.
There, we paid $46 to rent a canoe for the day, decided on a route that would finish up by our car (rather than having to wait for a ride back), and scheduled a pick-up time of noon.
After getting some ice for the cooler, and buying Ken some sandals he could wear for the afternoon, we hurried back to the campsite to grab lunch and change into our swimsuits. Given the transit time between the campground and the pick-up site, we were in a little bit of rush. In retrospect, there was no need to rush, because the van to pick us up was close to half an hour late.
The ride to the drop-off point was more than 20 minutes long, and went up and down a lot of hills before finally ending up on a steep gravel road down to the river. We finally hit the water around 1:00pm. We took with just some water, some snacks, our towels, and the camera, and embarked on a lazy afternoon [ 1, 2 ].
We did run into a few other groups, but for the most part we were by ourselves. Part-way in, we stopped in a slow, deep section to go for a swim [ 1, 2 ]. Overall, the water level was high enough, but Ken had to get out and push every once and a while [ 1 ]. We had one scary incident where a family was swimming in some rapids, and the kids almost didn't get out of our way. However, for the most part, we just enjoyed the sights [ 1, 2, 3 ].
Briefly, a few hours in, we thought that we were really behind schedule. However, we turned out to be wrong about our location, and we got to the take-out point as expected around 5:00pm. Once there, we swam again for a while before heading back to the camp site for the night.
The weather radio had begun talking about a cold front moving in on Saturday afternoon, so we went to bed unsure about what we would do tomorrow.
Ken had a hard time falling asleep in Friday night because it was warm and humid. So, he was still lying awake about 1:00am when it started drizzling. Fortunately, it didn't rain much — Ken got the windows shut, and Julie ran outside to take things off the line, and got in a bathroom break while she was at it.
Then, we both fell asleep — until about 5:00am that is, when the thunder began and the rain started really coming down. It continued without abatement until after noon, thundering constantly. Ken slept off-and-on, and Julie sat up and read once she couldn't sleep any more.
Unfortunately, we had left our rain gear in the car (whoops). Julie had been trying to avoid going to the bathroom, and by 10:00am was reaching her limit. So, when the rain slowed a bit, she made a run for it. On her way back, she grabbed the rain gear from the car along with some granola bars for breakfast. Good thing she headed out then, because the rain started up hard again right after she got back.
We sat there in the tent for a couple more hours and read, listening to the driving rain. Eventually, we decided to get something useful done: since we had run out of clothes, it was time to do laundry. So, got the clothes sorted, and headed to a laundromat in Yellville. Of course, as we decided to do this, the rain slowed and stopped.
Once we found the laundromat, we threw our clothes in two washers, and then went to find a hot lunch [ 1 ]. We timed things about perfectly, because just as we got back to the laundromat to get the clothes in the dryer, it started coming down again!
Luckily, by the time we got done — well after 2:00pm — the sky had begun to clear, this time for good. We took advantage of the change in weather, and took a side trip to the ghost town of Rush [ 1, 2, 3 ]. However, we decided not to chance the road labeled "Warning Impassable During High Water" [ 1 ]. On the way back, we also stopped to take a look at the Buffalo Point restaurant, which is far above the campground [ 1 ].
The rest of the evening was quite nice. All of our stuff was dry, and it was finally cool enough (and actually welcome) to have the lantern running under the screen tent. So, we took a couple of walks and played cards into the evening.
Sunday morning, we decided to go to the Blanchard Springs Recreation Area. It was a fairly long drive — over 45 minutes. We got there around 11:00am, and signed up for an 11:30am tour of Blanchard Springs Caverns. Since we had a few minutes, we took the chance to get lunch, first [ 1 ].
There are two different tours available. We opted for the Disovery Trail tour, which has over 700 steps [ 1 ]. There are some huge open spaces on this tour [ 1, 2 ]. At a few places, we got up close to the river that eventually comes out as the 7000 gallon/minute spring [ 1, 2 ]. We also got to see the original sinkhole entrance to the cave [ 1 ]. This cave is just spectacular [ 1, 2, 3 ].
When we got done, we looked into taking the Wild Cave Tour. On this tour, which costs $75, they give you a helmet, knee pads, and a light, and take you into undeveloped sections of the cave. Unfortunately, there was no room until sometime the next week. This is a mistake we've made twice (also at Wind Cave last year), and the next time we go somewhere near a cave, we're going to call ahead and make a reservation.
After leaving the cave, we headed down a big hill and went to look at the place where the river exits as a spring [ 1, 2 ]. Then, we drove into the campground, just to see what it was like [ 1 ]. The campground swimming hole (a gorgeous deep-green pool) was closed due to bacteria levels, but people were still swimming.
Then, we decided to go hiking [ 1, 2 ]. Along the way, we met two women who were backpacking with their dog. Their dog was supposed to carry his own little backpack, and apparently the tent, too. Unfortunately, he was not cooperating.
After ascending for a while [ 1, 2 ], the trail dropped and followed the creek [ 1, 2 ]. Part of it also looks like it used to be a road [ 1 ]. Apparently, dozens of families lived along the creek at one point, although not much is left [ 1 ].
By this point, it was getting late in the day, so we decided to head back home. On the drive back, we had to stop for gas. Not only did we pay $4.02/gallon, but the ancient pump wouldn't support that, and listed the gas at $2.01/gallon. We had to pay twice what was on the meter, cash. Strange.
Back at the campground, we decided to forego cooking and had dinner at the campground restaurant. It was actually quite good — both of us had fish.
Monday morning, it was time for us to pack up and head further into Arkansas. We were kind of slow, and didn't get gone until a little after noon. At least it wasn't too hot and everything was dry.
Since we were heading through central Arkansas, we were on state highways the whole way. These roads are really well maintained — good pavement, good striping, etc. — but they are narrow and twisty, with no shoulders and no passing zones. Once, we got caught behind a lumber truck for more than 20 minutes [ 1, 2, 3 ]. We gave him lots of room, and later he pulled over on a downhill stretch and let us by.
Eventually, we made it to the Arkasnas River Valley. We stopped for groceries and ice in Dardanelle, and then headed up to Mt. Nebo State Park
Mt. Nebo is a flat-top mountain about 1500 feet above the surrounding area, located near the Arkansas river. There are other similar mountains in the area. Wow, is the road to the top steep! At one point, we went around a hairpin turn and then couldn't get above 10 MPH (the Accord apparently stayed in second gear, and refused to downshift).
Up top, it had turned into a beautiful day [ 1 ]. It was sunny and there was a nice breeze, and it was helped by the fact that the mountain is often 10-15 degrees coolder than the valley. Once we got registered, we broke out the food and had a late 3:15pm lunch [ 1 ].
The campsite was pretty nice. We had a lot of space, and it reminded Ken of being out in Yosemite [ 1, 2 ]. Unfortunately, we couldn't set up our screen tent, because the table was bolted to a big concrete pad. As it turned out, that wasn't too much of a problem, since there were virtually no mosquitoes.
It was about this time that we became aware of The Flower Watering Debacle. Suffice to say that we spent a lot of the afternoon dealing with it, and that's why not much else happened.
We walked around a little, made dinner, and played some cards before going to bed relatively early. It was a perfect night, with ideal temperatures and just enough of a breeze to make sleeping easy.
Tuesday, we decided to head for Hot Springs, which is about a two hour drive from Mt. Nebo. We had considered camping there, but decided instead to spend a few nights in a row at Nebo and make Hot Springs a day trip.
On the way there, we stopped at a Civilian Conseration Corps camp in the middle of a national forest. This stop was kind of interesting, because it's hard to imagine the scale of these work camps [ 1 ] — 200 men in each army-style camp.
When we got to Hot Springs, we searched around a bit for a cheap parking meter off the beaten path, and then went to find lunch. We ate in a little place right on the main strip (which was not all that good). Then, we headed off to look at the national park.
Hot Springs National Park is like no other national park we have ever seen. It's pretty much right in the middle of the city of Hot Springs. The city is on one side of the street, and Bathhouse Row is on the other side, with the mountain at its back [ 1, 2 ]. Bathhouse Row was in its heydey in the 1920s, but has declined in popularity as a resort destination since then.
Hot Springs is the only place we've ever been where the air gets hotter when walking by public fountains... and yes, even some of the drinking fountains serve up hot (150 degree F) spring water [ 1 ]!
Our first stop was the Fordyce Bath House [ 1 ]. This is the main park visitor center. It's really quite something, sort of a combination of a gym, spa, massage parlour, and bathhouse [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. The NPS has restored a number of the big old buildings on bathhouse row, and they are in the process of renting them out to private businesses.
After leaving the Fordyce, we decided to do some more walking. First, we followed the Promenade back to our car [ 1, 2 ]. Along here, we saw a lot of green concrete and steel blocks, which turned out to be caps on top of individual springs [ 1, 2 ].
Back at the car, we got the Camelbak, filled it up at a fountain (with cool water!) and then headed up Hot Springs Mountain. As usual, we couldn't resist a trail marked "strenouous" [ 1 ]. At the top, we were disappointed that the look-out tower cost $6, so we skipped it. We rested for a bit [ 1 ] before embarking on a trail that headed toward the campground. Along the way, we got to see some pretty cool views [ 1, 2 ]. When we reached the last turn off to the campground, and realized how far down we still had to go, we decided to skip that, too. That was probably the smart move, because by the time we got back to the Promenade, we were both in "one foot after the other" mode.
We decided to get dinner in Hot Springs, and found a little diner that was mentioned in one of our books. We were pretty much the only ones there, but the food was great. We finally got back to the campground just after dark, pretty exhausted.
Wednesday was our last day camping at Mt. Nebo, and our goal was to do some hiking on the mountain itself. We chose a self-guided historical trail. Our walk started at the pavillion by the campground [ 1 ] and went by Cave Spring [ 1 ] before we got onto the historical trail proper.
The trail was a lot of fun, but once again we got bit by our interest in things marked "strenouous". Every time we turned around, we were on stairs. Ken was beginning to feel like Frodo on his quest into Mordor [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]. At least when we made it back up to the top, we were rewarded by some really spectacular views [ 1, 2 ]. We also got to see the foundation for a lodge that the CCC started to build [ 1 ] and saw some of the cabins that are for rent on the park grounds [ 1 ].
After getting back from our hike, we walked over to the park's swimming pool and stayed in the water for a while, which felt nice. We even went down the water slide a few times.
Then, we planned the rest of our day so that we could see the sunset at Sunset Point. The sunset wasn't that great, because some low-lying clouds blocked the horizon, but it was still worth the visit [ 1, 2, 3 ].
After watching the sunset, we went back to the camp site and prepared to leave Mt. Nebo. We packed up as much as we could, to minimize our take-down time the next morning. Ken went to take a shower and shave about 10:00pm and had one of those strange southern converations were neither he nor the other guy in the shower could understand anything the other was saying, without having it repeated at least once. "You're from where? Minnesota??!?" Priceless.