Arkansas’s First State Park and Beyond

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After our short stop in Joplin Missouri, it was time to head southeast into Arkansas. When we were planning our trip east, we had investigated what there was to see and do in Arkansas. We had already visited Hot Springs National Park back in the spring of 2015 prior to us going full time so we really didn’t feel the need to go there again. We had also stayed near Little Rock in 2018 so that wasn’t on our radar either. Many of the online reviews raved about Petit Jean State Park and after a bit more research, we decided it sounded like a good place to spend a few days. Like many state parks (or campgrounds in general), finding availability over a weekend can prove challenging. Even making reservations over two months in advance of our planned stay, we needed to adjust our plans to spend our 4 nights here starting on a Sunday.

The drive from Joplin would be over 230 miles. A bit longer than we like to travel in a day but much of it would be on interstates - I-49 south and I-40 east. Unfortunately it turns out that portions of I-49 near the Missouri Arkansas border are only proposed at this point and under construction so driving that part of the route wasn’t wonderful. After exiting I-40 at Russellville, we had about 25 more miles to drive before getting to the campground. The road thru Russellville and Dardanelle turned out to be a bit of a challenge as well. Although it was mostly 2 lanes in each direction, they were narrower than most. With all the traffic in town, it was a tedious drive. Once we were thru the towns and more rural, I was expecting it to be a bit better. But it turns out that this state park is on top of a mountain, so there was a two mile stretch where we climb 600 feet in elevation for an average 5% grade. On one of the hairpin curves, I needed to have Chris confirm nobody was coming down the hill since I needed to use all the pavement available to make the turn. I have never been so happy to make it to a destination based purely on the drive as much as this spot. Our camp site was nice and large enough for us but far from level, so it took a bit longer than normal to setup camp.

Elaborate Entrance Sign

We’re here for 4 nights so that will give us 3 days to explore. As it turns out there is a lot to see and do within the park. So much so that we will spend that whole time in the park and not get a chance to check out other possible attractions in the general area. On our first full day, we head out to do the Red Bluff Drive loop. This scenic drive is almost 5 miles on a generally good dirt road. It’s on the north side of the park on the opposite side of Cedar Creek from the more developed portion of the park.

The first stop is about 2 miles in at the M.A. Richter Memorial Overlook. There is a beautiful stone stone structure built on the side of the hill which provides a great view of the area to the west.

Platform View

Side View of Overlook Platform

A third of a mile from here is an even more impressive spot - the CCC Overlook. It consists of a stone walled shelter with stone patio. It is situated on the top of a rock ledge and has a commanding view of the valley where the creek flows and the viewpoint on the opposite side. This state park reminds us of one of our favorite state parks back in western New York. Letchworth SP is over four times larger than Petit Jean SP but there are many similarities between them. We take some time soaking in the beauty of the spot.

Rock Ledge

CCC Shelter

View of Valley

Front View of Shelter

View From Inside

A mile further along the drive is another larger parking area with a fair number of cars. It is a trailhead for several hikes and attractions. We set out to investigate. A short distance along the trail is an area called Turtle Rocks. It is appropriately named as the rock formations look very much like the shells of a turtles - very large turtles!

Turtle Rocks

Even More Turtles

Further down the trail is Rock House Cave. This cave is quite large: 85 feet across, 100 feet deep and a 16 foot tall opening. Visitors are permitted to wander around inside although they have needed to install a couple trail cameras to help dissuade or catch people trying to carve graffiti into the soft sandstone walls.

Approaching Rock House Cave

Inside Looking Out One Side

Well Worn Interior Cave Wall

Looking Out

Beyond here, a portion of the 12 mile Boy Scout Trail gets us over to the edge of the ravine above the creek. There is a waterfall that might be impressive in the spring but was only a trickle in mid October. This was a nice stop along the Red Bluff Loop.

View Across Ravine along Trail

Water is Trickling Over Falls

Rock Overhang

On our way back out to the other side of the park, we stop at a parking area to check out the bridge over Cedar Creek. There is a large stone shelter that is 2 stories tall with massive fireplaces on either end of the building.

Large Stone Picnic Shelter

Inside Shelter

On the upstream side of the beautiful stone bridge is a dam that was built to create Lake Bailey. It’s possible to walk across the dam to get views of both the lake and the bridge.

Bridge Over Creek

Lake Bailey

Bridge Close-up

A couple of the trails in the park are closed due to a damaged bridge so we knew those were out of contention. While the Boy Scout Trail sounds nice as it loops the park on both sides of the creek, we felt 12 miles was a bit further than we were up for. The 4.5 mile Seven Hollows Trail is rated as one of the better hikes in the area. With just under 600 feet of elevation change, it sounded ideal for the next day’s excursion. AllTrails lists the hike as moderate and heavily trafficked. While the parking area was fairly full, we only ran into several groups of hikers during our hike.

Trailhead Sign

This turned out to be a wonderful hike. It is predominantly a single track trail in a heavily wooded area. There are also lots of rock formations along the loop to investigate. Plus there were half a dozen geocaches spaced around the loop. Along the way, we saw a couple trees next to large boulders or rock walls that seemed to be trying to engulf the rock - much like how tree bark often covers over a cut branch to seal the wound. The one in this picture has a circumference close to 6 feet.

Along the Seven Hollows Trail

Colorful Fungus

Tree Bark Spreading on Rock

One of the more impressive rock formations was a large arch. We ran into a young couple here on their honeymoon and took a few pictures for them posing underneath the arch. It wasn’t as big as those we saw a year ago in Arches National Park but pretty big for Arkansas.

Arch on Seven Hollows Trail

Undercut Rock Wall

Near the halfway point of the trail near the southern end is a spur trail to The Grotto. We figured since we’ve come this far and have enjoyed the hike, we could add the extra half mile to this and back. It a very large undercut rock that forms a huge covered shelter. It would probably make for a good spot to wait out a rain storm. Coming back up the western side of the loop, a geocache pointed out a natural bridge that we would not have even known existed. The trail actually crosses over the rock bridge but most people wouldn’t recognize that fact. It wasn’t until I got off trail to search for the cache did I discover that the underside of the rock is missing and has formed a bridge.

Inside Grotto

Underside of Hidden Natural Bridge

Trail Between Rocks

At one point along the trail, I noticed a dozen or more butterflies all in a small area. One of the trees must have had a wound and had sap running out. The butterflies were quite content to stay still while I got some pictures. It wasn’t exactly clear where the 7 “hollows” were along the trail since we aren’t positive what a “hollow” means in this context but nonetheless it was quite a nice hike that came in at over 5 miles with the additional detour to the Grotto.

Butterflies Have a Treat

Underside of Butterfly Looks Like Leaf

Very Interesting Coloration

Our last full day in the park included a handful of short stops and walks scattered across the park. The first was on the far eastern end of the mountain. Stout’s Point juts out to the east and has a commanding view of a bend in the Arkansas River about 760 feet below. Petit Jean for whom the mountain and park are named has her gravesite in a rock outcropping on the point. Her story is a sad one. A young French woman in the 1700’s disguised herself as a boy in order to come along on a transatlantic crossing with her fiancé. Nobody, including her fiancé, knew her true identity and was called Little John because of her small stature. They ended their journey near this point on the Arkansas River and the crew spent time exploring the area. Before they left to return to France, Petit John got sick, and a doctor discovered her true identity. She asked to be buried on the overlook.

Overlooking Arkansas River

Near Petit Jean Gravesite

Stone Shell of Building 

Our next stop was to Cedar Falls Overlook. This is directly across from our hike two days earlier and does have a better view of the falls but they are still just a trickle.

Cedar Falls Overlook

Stone Pillars and Wooden Fence

The Mather Lodge is another stop in the park. Rather than driving to the lodge, we take the hiking trail from the overlook. This lodge is quite nice. Originally built by the CCC in the 1930’s, it has had additions made to it over the years to enlarge and modernize it a bit, but the general feeling of the place is in keeping with the original CCC style and design. There are cabins near the lodge that can be rented and the views from the patio are great. On our walk back to the overlook parking lot, we walked past the old CCC Water Tower. A beautiful building although it wasn’t exactly clear how it held water.

Mathe Lodge Main Entrance

Interior Room

Main Entrance Hallway

Beautiful Stonework

Lodge View

CCC Water Tower

Next we drive to the Palisades Overlook. This is directly across from the CCC Overlook on Red Bluff Drive. We could just make out the shelter roughly half a mile away.

View at Palisades Overlook

CCC Overlook Barely Visible

We have driven past the parking area for Bear Cave several times but hadn’t stopped yet even with the intriguing name. It wasn’t a long walk but had some very interesting rock formations to explore. The Bear Cave was neat but neither Yogi or Boo-boo were home! The more interesting thing about the area were the many paths that led in between the huge rocks. It was a fun place to explore. Along the way, we stumbled on a pair of walking sticks that appeared to be mating. They were actively moving along a nearly vertical rock face that looked like a precarious spot for such an activity.

Bear Cave

Narrow Path

Walking Sticks Uncensored

Our last stop of the day was at the pioneer cabin. It’s also the trailhead for the Cedar Creek Trail. It’s about a 1.25 mile loop that goes down to the creek, crosses over a bridge and then along the opposite side before hitting another bridge to cross back over and return. I had brought along my DSLR camera which was a bit large for what turned out to be a more challenging trail than we were expecting. It was a pretty hike and there was a little water in the creek. Plus we found the two geocaches that along the way.

Pioneer Cabin

Heading Down to Cedar Creek

Cedar Creek

Bridge Over Creek

Petit Jean SP was a very good stop. Our 4 night stay seemed to be about the right length of time to check out the park. There likely were some other attractions in the area. One that I probably would have opted to visit during non-Covid times was the Museum of Automobiles which was very nearby. But we enjoyed our stay enough that we might make it back someday.

Our next stop would just be a quick overnight stay at the Harlow’s Casino near Greenville Mississippi. Hurricane Delta had just passed thru the area a few days earlier but there wasn’t any obvious signs of damage. The casino is about a mile from the center of the Mississippi River and appears to be easily within the flood plain of the river. In fact we have to drive up and over a levee to get to the parking lot. Seems like a dangerous location to build such a large place. We feel confident we will at least survive the night without floating away. We only had one other RV join us for our stay. Since neither of us are into gambling, we didn’t even feel the need to go inside. The rain we had overnight was gone by the time we left and we had a fairly nice day to tackle the 240 mile drive to Hattiesburg Mississippi.

Our destination was the Hattiesburg Elks Lodge. Reviews we had read about this place was a combination of good and bad. It sounded like the camping spots were in an absolutely gorgeous location next to an 80 acre lake. However almost every visitor commented about how nearly all the sites are not even close to being level. We called the day before we were to arrive to get a gate code in order to enter the grounds. The lodge is on the south side of town in a fairly rural area. After getting thru the gate, we drive a mile before we see the lodge. The road is nicely paved although there is a water crossing at a spillway on the south end of the lake. The water was only an inch deep and not running very quickly.

The campground is a third mile beyond the lodge. We stopped and unhooked the Jeep and then investigated the campsites with the hope of finding a reasonably level one. Most of the rigs here are small travel trailers but there are dozens of open sites. There was one motorhome larger than us in the only very level site. We found one that we hoped to make work. It did take us every leveling block we had but got setup. We checked out the lake and dock. I suspect many of the members from this lodge keep a trailer and boat here and come whenever they have the opportunity. It is one of the nicer Elks camping areas we have stayed at if only they could do some work on making the site more useable by larger rigs like ours.

Unlevel Site in Hattiesburg ...

... But Beautiful View

We didn’t have any firm plans on what we wanted to see in the area but planned on staying two nights in order to have a full day to do something. That evening we investigated what hiking or biking trails were in the area and stumbled upon the Longleaf Trace Trail. It’s a 44 mile paved rail-trail that starts in downtown Hattiesburg and heads northwest through a series of small towns. We decided to find a trailhead a bit outside of town to make sure there was adequate parking. We packed a lunch, loaded the bikes on the rack and headed to the Jackson Road Station.

Longleaf Trace Map

It was a busy location but probably understandable given it was a very nice Saturday morning. Our starting point was roughly at mile marker 7 and we head west. There are numerous geocaches places along the trail so we have occasional breaks in the ride. The trail is quite nice - wide, smooth asphalt and generally shaded presumably by the Longleaf Pines. The trail is very slightly uphill for the first 10 miles rising about 100 feet. This makes for an easy ride. There are benches along the way to stop and relax if needed. There was even a multi tiered platform overlooking a beaver pond that became the ideal lunch spot.

Old Glory Along Trace

Beaver Pond

Turtles at Beaver Pond

We continued out until the Sumrall Station and headed in town for both a geocache and an ice cream cone. The cache was found but a place for ice cream wasn’t. Even though the weather and trail were great, we decide it’s best to head back so we don’t wear ourselves out. That last ten miles back to the car was quite nice with the gradual downhill to aid us. We ended up getting in over 23 miles and would love to do more of the trail further west but we’re on a schedule to get to our next stop in Florida. Maybe by the next time we make it back here, the lodge will have leveled the camping sites and we can stay a bit longer.

Mardi Gras Tree?