As far as Arkansas State Parks go, Withrow Springs isn’t the biggest at 786 acres, nor does it have the spectacular features and trail systems of parks like Pinnacle Mountain, Petit Jean and Mt. Nebo, but it’s a quiet little park with plenty of things for people to do and see.
The park itself is on Highway 23 about 20 miles south of Eureka Springs and 5 minutes North of Huntsville (so take the opportunity to eat at Granny's Cafe) – and pretty easy to get to.
The park itself is named after Withrow Spring (above) – which flows in from out of a hillside and forms a small creek that flows along the main entrance of the park. There are a lot of little picnic spots along this stretch of creek that are great for a family outing.
The park itself has a swimming pool, baseball fields, tennis courts, a lot of picnic sites and some really great campsites. There are also three short hiking trails that make up about 4 ½ miles of trails that when you go out and back can fill a full day of hiking.
The most popular of the hiking trails is the War Eagle trail – so this is the one we took. The trail itself is only officially about 1 mile long, but you need to go out and back, so it’s a two mile round-trip. If you add a little spur from the visitor cemter to the trail head it makes itt about 3 miles round trip – and that’s the route we’re going to take today.
The official trail head is right off of Highway 23, and well -marked very near the park entrance. But we started across the road from the visitor’s center inside the park. Park in either of the two parking spots by the visitors center and then cross the road to the two picnic areas and there is a sign that points the way to War Eagle Trail. Enter the woods at the sign.
The trail heads up into the woods on some stone steps and then levels out a bit. You eventually meet up with a fence line that will follow you along your right for a bit until the trail dips back down the hill into a little mowed field and follows a service road for a few hundred yards until you hit a gravel road. This part of the trail isn’t officially part of the War Eagle Trail, but we saw a lot of wildlife along the trail including several species of lizards, a snake, deer and a pack of armadillo.
When you get to the gravel road (which, I’m guessing is about .4 miles, turn left, and walk along the road for a bit until you get the highway and another gravel road to your right and take that – this is the official War Eagle Trail trailhead. From here, the trail heads off to the left under the bridge – it’s an easy to follow trail, but it’s strangely easy to miss because there is another trail of sorts that heads down to War Eagle Creek on the right that seems like the trail, but isn't, and just goes down to the creek.
Once on the trail, head out under the bridge. Once under the bridge, some stairs climb up to the ridge and you’ll be overlooking War Eagle Creek (the namesake of the trail). You’ll pretty much follow this ridge along the creek most of the way. The trail stays mostly level, crosses across some rocky bluffs, and then back to dirt path again. It’s very easy to follow. Eventually you’ll hit a small cave, then you continue on a few hundred yards and you’ll find an even bigger cave. This is War Eagle Cave – and you can hear a stream running through it. This cave, like most wild caves in Arkansas, is closed to public use due to white nose syndrome which is negatively impacting the gray bats that inhabit these caves.
At the cave, you’ll have to scramble up the hill and over the top of the cave and then back down on the bench. This next stretch of trail is the best part of the whole trail as it follows along a natural rock bench. They have put up a safety fence along here since it'd be quite a tumble into the creek -- but this is a really nice little stretch of the trail.
Shortly past this stretch the trail heads back off into the woods and then curves off to the left where it eventually arrives at Crossbow Pavilion. Here, you can either head back, or cross the highway and hit a trail that heads off toward the campsites and the Dogwood Trail. For us, we headed back the way we came.
War Eagle Trail
Distance: 2 miles round trip, about 3 miles if you include the stretch from the visitors center to the trailhead.
Difficulty: Easy-to-moderate
Footwear: Trail runners or tennis shoes
Map/Guidebook: Trail maps are available at the Park Visitor’s Center, or probably through the state park service.
Kids: I wouldn’t take very young children, but this is great for older children.
Star rating: 3 out of 5
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