Petit Jean State Park, Morrilton, AR; October 7-14, 2013

Rich at the bear cave

Petit Jean is a mountain in the Arkansas Ozarks and home to

House across the canyon

Arkansas’ oldest state park, born 1923. There are many beautiful trails and overlooks in the park and we managed to get to several. We weren’t sure when we saw our site whether we’d ever get it leveled – the site was about a foot and a half higher in the back than in the front and we used stabilizer pads, lego leveling

Judy on the trail to bear cave

blocks, a hydraulic jack, and 1x8s – everything we had before we got it
close. We were both antsy with jacking the tongue up hip-high, but didn’t have any problems, thank heaven.

Rich and a big rock

The campground itself was in a loblolly pine forest and no underbrush, and the sites weren’t laid out well at all – water and electric hookups were all over the place – and Rich had to straddle the bumper at the back of the site with the trailer wheels to be able to get it and the truck onto the site, and get the slides and awning open.   

Cedar Falls - can you see it?

It’s obvious that it is an older park and laid out before slides and long trailers. We did luck out with neighbors, though. We had a couple across from us with four children whom they home

Overlook on Red Bluff Drive

schooled and the kids were great. They loved Dickens and were great (translates to quiet). Then we had a grandpa with two of his grandchildren on one side of us and the kids adopted us for their short stay. Other than that, we had no near neighbors.

We took the Bear Cave Trail one day and the scenery was amazing. The forest was hickory, white and red oaks, loblolly pines, sycamore, and dogwood trees and the sandstone  

Amazing view in spite of smoke

Big forest fire we saw from the overlook

rocks were huge. The area had been the floor of an ancient ocean some 300 million years ago, but now Cedar Creek has cut through the sandstone and created a 400 foot deep canyon.

What kind of bird is this?

Across the canyon near Bear Cave Trail

Red Bluff Drive is a pretty drive through a forest along the edge of the canyon bluffs. There are two overlooks from which
you can see miles and miles in all directions. Sadly, there was a huge forest fire nearby and the smoke had settled a thick haze over the area. At one overlook, we got a photo of a bird but haven’t identified it yet. If you can, please leave a note with the common name.

Cracks in the rocks

Palisades Overlook was a huge rocky outcropping from which we could see

across the canyon to an overlook on Red Bluff Drive. There are big cracks in the rock through which you can see to the bottom of the canyon. I stayed way away!

Rich on the trail to Rock House Cave

We started out to Rock House Cave, but didn’t go far because it was all rock and our shoes were slipping on it. Since neither of us wanted any broken bones, we took some photos and turned around to explore other locations.

Cedar Falls Overlook was another beautiful spot and a bit more to our current liking. You can barely see the waterfall in the photo – it has been very dry here and the

View from Stout's Point

river is very low. You can see the semicircular spot at the bottom of the waterfall – it was nearly dry.

Tug with 12 barges

Stout’s Point was probably the most spectacular spot – and the

30-some men on motorcycles who came in just behind us added to the sight. Here as at the Red Bluff Drive overlooks the smoke was obscuring much of the scenery, but the fields of crops, the Arkansas River, a tug with 12 barges were still visible.

The rocks on top are Stout's Point

Barge being loaded with grain

The night before we left Petit Jean a lady came with a little 12 or

14 foot Casita trailer that she had personalized herself. She did a great job and I fell in love with it. Much more interesting than a plain white trailer!

Personalized Casita

Now it’s off to White Oak State Park in southwest Arkansas.