Exploring Northwest Arkansas

Petit Jean State Park - Bear Cave Trail

This is a short trail – that is really less of a trail at this point than a spectacular place to walk around and explore.  But I’ll give you what I think is the best way to explore the area, but really, just looking around and exploring is about is good as anything. The “trail” here is only about ¼ mile – but there is a LOT to see in such a small area.

The trail head to Bear Cave Trail is on Highway 154, one mile west of Mather Lodge.

To begin the trail, leave at the trailhead marker at the back of the parking area.

You’ll start off down the trail and immediately come across several huge stones with pathways cut through them. There are several small walkways here through the large rocks. A couple lead to dead ends, and a couple find their way through to the other side.  The main pathway through will be the “Eye of the Needle” – a very narrow passageway through the stones that is just amazing to hike through. Remember, you should not have to climb up any rock ledges here, so if the road ahead looks challenging at all, you’re not in the Eye of the Needle.

Once you get to the other side of the passageway through the rocks, there will be three options. One goes to the right, which is a short climb to the top of the large boulders you just walked through. This is definitely worth checking out and this trail eventually curls back around to the parking lot.

The pathway to the left curls down to the Bear Cave – which is really more of a small indentation into the stone. This area has a series of wood ties that at one point would have made for a stairway down, but erosion has taken its toll, so the trail is well worn but more of a mess than a trail. This little spur loops around the cave and back up to the parking lot as well.

At the turn, there is also a trail that goes straight - you’ll notice two large boulders to the left as you start out on this trail. At that point, the trail blazes also turn from Pink (which mark the Bear Cave trail) to white – which is where the 12 mile long Boy Scout Trail that goes through the entire park takes off from the area. If you see the white blazes, and only want to do the Bear Cave area, then turn around and head back the way you came.

This is a really fun area and we enjoyed exploring just about every nook in the area. Plan to spend some time here, as it’s a natural playground that is well worth the time to explore. Just be safe if you climb atop any of the boulders.

Distance: .25 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Children: Yes!

Footwear: At least a sturdy pair of tennis shoes

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Petit Jean State Park - Cedar Falls Overlook

Petit Jean State Park is the oldest and maybe most spectacular of the Arkansas State Parks – and is quite large, covering more than 2500 acres.

The showpiece of Petit Jean State Park (and likely the entire state park system), is Cedar Falls. Cedar Falls is the tallest continuously flowing waterfall in the state at 95 feet – and in the spring, has a massive and powerful water-flow that is a sight to behold.

We were there on July 1, so water was slower and less powerful, so instead of taking the very popular Cedar Falls Trail hike to the bottom of the falls, we simply viewed the falls from the scenic overlook.

The overlook is just off of Highway 154 within Petit Jean State Park (see “Getting There” in this post). There is a large parking area. At the base of the parking area, there is a wooden ramp with metal railings that leads you down to the overlook area. 

The ramp is handicapped accessible, and only a couple of hundred yards to get to. The view is a beautiful scenic view of Cedar Creek Canyon and Cedar Creek Falls that sit roughly 800 feet below (note, I’m guessing at the distance down). Enjoy the view of the scenic spot.

There is a hiking trail that leads to the bottom of the falls that starts out behind Mather Lodge. I can’t wait to hike that one on our next visit.

Distance: about 500 yards, round trip

Difficulty: Easy

Footwear:  Whatever you’re wearing will work

Children: Absolutely!

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Petit Jean State Park - Mather Lodge

Petit Jean was the first of, and the inspiration for, the entire Arkansas State Park System. At more than 2500 acres, it has a variety of beautiful terrain, hiking trails, and many structures dating back to 1933 – built by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corp as part of the New Deal in 1933.

Mather Lodge is one of the historical structures built by the CCC.

With 24 guest rooms, a restaurant, a meeting room, and a swimming pool, the historic lodge (which was remodeled and restored in 2011) offers all of the amenities of a modern hotel, but in the beautiful scenery of Petit Jean and overlooking Cedar Creek Canyon.

Getting there:

To get to Petit Jean, take Highway 154 East from Centerville 13 miles. Centerville is 15 miles South of Dardenelle (which is just South of the Arkansas River from the community of Russellville off of Highway 40). Mather Lodge is just North of Highway 154, turn left at the sign that points you that direction.

Withrow Springs State Park - War Eagle Trail

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

Mt. Nebo State Park - Rim Trail

Arkansas has earned the reputation as “The Natural State” because of the beautiful natural sites around the state. And as a part of this reputation, Arkansas has established an outstanding State Park system that is diverse in the natural beauty they provide.

One of the crown jewels of the state park system is Mount Nebo State Park. The park was established in 1935 – with many of the trails and cabins dating back to this time with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) (part of Roosevelt’s “New Deal” during the Great Depression).

First, the park is located 7 miles south of the community of Dardenelle on Highway 155. Take 7 highway south from wherever, through Russellville, through Dardenelle and then turn left on 155 (the road is well marked). Hwy 155 up Mount Nebo is VERY steep, and very curvy, so be prepared and don’t bring a long trailer.

At the top of the Mountain, there are campsites, cabins that can be rented, private residences, a pool, tennis courts, playground equipment, a basketball court and a great little visitor’s center with several snakes on hand to so you can learn about the native species. You can also often catch the sight of hang gliders from the visitor’s center as it is a frequent launch point. The park also offers 360 views of the countryside which also means fantastic views of the sunrise and sunset (at sites aptly names Sunrise Point and Sunset Point).

The park also boasts over 14 miles of hiking trails, all of which connect that can make for a wide variety of routes, distances and difficulty levels. So you can get oriented, there are two main trails here that go around the entire mountain. The Bench Trail, is four miles long and is part way down the mountain. It’s smooth, soft and easy trail and great for taking the dogs or for mountain-biking and also where the majority of the Springs on the mountain are located. Further up the mountain is the Rim Trail. It is 3 ½ miles long, and more rugged in places, but has outstanding views all the way around the mountain – many of them views of Lake Dardenelle. I had a hard time finding a good map online to show how this lays out, so I've scanned in the one we got at the park office for you. 

Then, most of the other trails are then vertical trails that essentially connect the two main trails – often near areas natural springs or the park’s namesake seasonal waterfall, Nebo Falls.  These trails, the Nebo Step Trail, Nebo Springs Trail, Varnall Springs Trail and Gum Springs Trail are all ½ to ¾ mile in length but VERY challenging as they go nearly straight up or down depending on which way you’re headed. The other trail in the park is the Summit Park Trail – a historical trail that has a great stone bridge, remains of an old hotel that once stood here and a man-made lake.

Because of all of this, the most popular is the Rim Trail – so this is the one we took while there. 

There are a lot of access points to the Rim Trail, but for the purpose of our hike we left from the Visitor’s Center (well marked in the first picture above). So we started off in back of the visitor’s center, walked down a flight of stone stairs (right next to the hang-glider launch spot) and were off. When you get to the bottom of the steps, we turned right, to go clockwise around the mountain (this means you’ll come in from the left when you return). Going clockwise allowed us to get the most difficult portion of the trail out of the way first, while we were still fresh.

 

The trail starts of very tough, up and down several sets of stone stairs, many of which were probably first put in place by the CCC. This part of the trail is pretty rough, and probably not suitable for youngsters or dogs. The trail follows along several great bluff-lines to your right and great view with some great overlooks to your left. I’m going to note here that this portion of the trail was pretty rough for us. It was August, and hot, and we hiked at mid-day, and while a breeze is common on top of the mountain, we were shielded from it during this stretch and the rocks were just catching the afternoon sun and accelerating the heat – so, avoid this if you can.

During this stretch of the trail you also pass the Nebo Steps Trail and Nebo Springs Trail. Nebo Springs sounds like a great area but we ran out of time and are going to do this the next time back. Eventually, the trail passes the Swimming Pool and then the campground (with GREAT campsites) before crossing HWY 155 and darting back into the woods again. It is about here that the trail becomes less rugged and is easier hiking.

The next stretch took us along a great bluffline, and many great views, and had it not been so hot, this probably would have been my favorite stretch. You’ll pass by the Varnall Springs Trail and as you round the bend you’ll see a trail that goes up to your right, this will take you up to Sunrise Point. We walked up, checked it out, and had a quick lunch on one of the picnic tables up there. This would also be a potential starting point for the trail.

We continued back along the trail, past several private homes and a couple of the state park cabins. The trail then passes Gum Springs Trail (there is a Gazebo at the top of this trail, and is another trail head) and then on a really nice, flat, soft stretch of trail that goes along a couple more cabins.

At a point here, the trail then hits the Summit Park Trail – at that point you have to decide which part of the trail you want to follow to connect back with the Rim Trail. To the left, you go down some more stairs and get to see Fern Lake and Darling Springs, but we decided to stay on the high road.

We passed Lover’s Leap (a couple of rocks that overhang the valley with great views of the surrounding country side, and the old stone remains of an old hotel that used to be here that burned down in the 1920s. We crossed the stone bridge, expertly built by the CCC and then a series of cabins before rejoining the Rim Trail.

The remaining part of the trail is very smooth and scenic and goes out to Sunset Point (another potential trailhead) and FANTASTIC views of Lake Dardenelle. It then curls around for a short trek back to the visitor’s center, for a full hike of 3.5 miles and a full loop around the mountain top.

Distance: 3.5 miles

Difficulty Level: Moderate – although varies from very easy to pretty strenuous in places

Footwear: Trail Runners are fine, although you may prefer hiking shoes on rougher stretches.

Kids: While Most of the trail is suitable for youngsters, the stretch between the visitor’s center and Hwy 155 may not be. You may feel more comfortable just following the road for that stretch if little ones, elderly or pets are involved.

Time of year: Will be excellent year around, but probably avoid the heat of the day in the heart of summer.

Star Rating: 4.5 out of 5