Robbers Cave

Technically this blog is "Hiking in Arkansas", but because of our location (NWArkansas), we actually have fairly easy access to Missouri and Oklahoma. We do have amazing trails here we have yet to discover, but once in a while we venture over to other states. That is what we did yesterday.

Robbers Cave State Park is about three hours from us (maybe 2 1/2...we stopped for lunch along the way) in Wilburton, OK. If I remember correctly, we took 540 to 271 then near Wilburton we took 270. That is the simplified version. :)

Once you get to the State Park, just go in the main entrance and follow the signs to the trail.

The trail is only about a half mile long but it is a workout. It involves a lot of climbing, so I am classifying it as strenuous. I am feeling every bit of it in my legs today!

The good news is that you barely have to walk onto the trail to find the fun stuff. It is like a giant playground for kids...rocks everywhere. My kids have become mini rock climbers and eat this stuff up. Right off the bat, we ran into the "Devil's Slide".
One child (and his daddy) successfully climbed up this "Devil's Slide". The rest of us took the stairs.
I think OK has a little more in bloom than we do. Seems like spring is slow in coming this year. But this tree was beautiful!
Here are the "stairs" (they are rocks) up the trail. It was very steep, though we all did it without a lot of huffing and puffing. I do think there is a gentler way up the trail, but either way, you are climbing about 80 feet. We just stuck to this one.
If you are a spelunker, I don't think I would go expecting much of a cave to explore. This "cave" was a hideout years ago for some of the more famous outlaws, such as the James brothers. It is not very deep but it is very steep inside.
After you leave the "cave", you continue along the trail to a beautiful overlook. I will say this was a very popular trail. We saw several large groups along the way. We also got to watch some rock climbers/rappellers.
The overlook was beautiful. Obviously these are bluffs so you want to be careful with your kids. That being said, there was plenty of space to look without being right on the edge, so I never felt nervous.
The trail continues through the woods. After the large rocks, the kids were disappointed with this part, though they found some smaller bluffs to explore. It was pretty though, and I am sure when everything is in full bloom, it is quite lovely. The good part was that is was DOWNHILL.

After following the yellow markers (which clearly marked the trail), we returned to the other side of the large rock hideout. This part was equally fun, if not more since it wasn't as high off the ground. LOTS of areas to explore.


You can see the yellow arrow below which shows which way to go. I found those helpful and comforting when I couldn't keep up with the kids. :)

It was a fun little trail...a good workout and plenty of places to explore. We didn't really see any wildlife other than lots of kids. :) I would recommend it for most...I would probably hesitate to take someone very young on the trail due to the rocks and bluffs. Joshua though did enjoy it and could climb much of it with ease. There were only a couple places that we insisted on holding the hands of the little ones.

We did take part of another trail but didn't get to finish it. Joshua was done at that point. So I guess I will have to go back sometime and try it. :)

Reba

Withrow Springs Park- War Eagle Trail

After our experience with the Dogwood Trail (last post), we knew we needed to do something "outdoorsy" to feel satisfied on this outing. So we decided to go on the War Eagle Trail. We had actually been on this trail a LONG time ago, though I don't remember hiking the whole thing.

I don't remember if I mentioned how to get to Withrow Springs from Springdale. Take 412 toward Harrison. Once you near Huntsville, take the exit for Highway 23. You will want to go to the left of 412, though you have to take a right to loop to the left. Just head on down 23 until you see the signs on the left for Withrow Springs.

Actually this trail is before you actually get to the Withrow Springs sign. You will pass a farm on the right, then see a creek. Take a left into the parking lot and park. When you get out, you will be looking at War Eagle Creek. You will want to take a left by the creek and head under the road.

Then you will see the actual trail sign...
You do climb a bit at first but it isn't overly strenuous. I don't remember being winded or more so than usual. :) There are several beautiful bluff/rock formations to the left, the creek below to the right.
Here is a small "cave". All caves are closed in state parks right now due to some bat disease (for them, not for people). So we just peeked in without going in.
A little further down is the big cave. Last time we went we could go in. Not this time.
You then have another area to climb, but it was moderate. The creek is still to the right.
There were a couple narrow areas, though thankfully for much of it, there were safety cables to the right so we didn't tumble into the water below. If you have kids, make sure that you hold onto their hands.
We decided to go off trail (which we rarely do) to check out the creek. Hunter was itching to fish. We took this elaborate off trail route only to find there was a very direct path to visit the creek if we had waited a couple more minutes. Oh well. The view was beautiful. You can't really tell but the water is very green. It was very calm, just gently flowing. And the "bluffs" were amazing. It was a very serene spot; we spent quite a bit of time here skipping rocks and exploring.
We even saw some canoers/kayakers. I think I would like to try that!
We had a close encounter while sitting by the creek. We had been there for a while without seeing any wildlife when suddenly this little face popped up. It totally surprised us. Yes, it is a snake. Maybe a moccasin. I didn't get close enough to find out. We couldn't see its body, just its head, so that made the whole thing stranger. It stared at us, opened its mouth once to show off its little teeth, then disappeared back in the rocks. The same rocks the kids had been running around on, splashing in the water. Ugh!
When you continue on the trail, you continue to climb, offering some amazing lookouts of the creek and the farmland in the area. I never felt like it was overly dangerous. We just didn't let the kids venture out too much on the cliffs.
Yes, third snake (second on this trail) for the day. A little brown one that looked like a big worm.
Here is a note from an experienced hiker (for this trail). When you see this sign (next to a wooden bench), turn around and go back the way you came. Then I think it is an easy 1 mile hike. We didn't know this. We went to the left because it looked like the trail went that way. We ended up coming out on Highway 23, still a distance from our car. Walking by the side of a curvy road with children was NOT fun. The trail going back (and downhill) would have been MUCH more scenic.
This was a wonderful hike and totally redeemed the park after the Dogwood Trail. (There is still one more trail I think we haven't tried) It SHOULD be a one mile hike. I would consider it moderate due to the inclines. And while I wouldn't consider it dangerous, there are definitely some points you need to hold on to your children. The view though was worth it. And if you have some time, I would encourage you to take some time to hang out by the creek. Just watch for creatures that might be lurking there. There are no bathrooms on this trail but there are some in the park.

Happy hiking!
Reba

Dogwood Trail- Withrow Springs

Last Sunday, we headed over to Withrow Springs which is in/near Huntsville. We had camped there once before but it has been several years. (I think that was our one and only family camping trip :)

We decided to start off with an easy trail. The Dogwood Trail. It is a 3/4 mile loop.

Since spring is starting to spring, we thought it might be a scenic route...

First of all, I am listing this trail as moderate. It is a short trail but the first part of it is rather steep. Okay, maybe not steep but it was definitely uphill and not easy!
The one good thing about going up is that likely you will be going down at some point! However, it was kind of tough going downhill due to the rocks...
Sadly, other than a few wildflowers, there wasn't much blooming. Definitely not any dogwoods. In fact, a lot of the trail still has a lot of ice storm damage from two years ago. It was a rather unscenic trail. Our favorite part might have been the garter snake we saw slithering through the leaves.

This was the one part of the trail that I liked. The end of it!
As you can probably guess, we give this two thumbs down. Maybe later in the spring when things are blooming, it might be more fun to walk. But overall, we were not impressed...

Reba

One More Day...

Until my spring break!

I have two hikes alone from this past weekend to blog about.

So HOPEFULLY this week, I can get caught up.

We aren't going anywhere for spring break, though I hope there might be a hike in the future.

Can't wait to share about our hike this past weekend...

3 snakes...

:)
Reba

Lincoln Lake- Eagle Loop

A couple weeks ago we discovered Lincoln Lake which is ironically located just outside of Lincoln. :) I have directions in my earlier post...just scroll down a bit. Anyway, when we realized what a beautiful day it was going to be, we had no doubt we needed to get outside. Even though we were just there, we were eager to hike that area again. So we headed down the road to Lincoln Lake.

Last time we went, we hiked the Piney Loop, though we regret we didn't hike it all. This time around, we decided to try the Eagle Loop.

The first several feet I was questioning our decision. There was a switchback or two which means INCLINE. Then once we had gotten up to where the trail was, the first part of the trail was an old service road. It just doesn't feel as much like hiking when it is a service road...

However, we were treated to a sign of spring!


The views of the lake were just beautiful. It was a very warm day and there wasn't much of a wind, so the lake was very calm.

We did walk along some of the bluffline. Don't worry, we keep the kids close. Mark is kind of a drill sergeant about bluffs.
We visited some of the overlooks. They were just beautiful. We had amazing views of the lake. We saw several boats out and heard a lot of geese in the area.
I really wish I knew more about flowers. We saw several of these along the path. They looked like a lily (which is my favorite flower ever) but all were "bowed" down to the ground. They were really pretty though.

You would think I would be used to it, but I cannot get over the beautiful bluffs and rock areas in our state. They are like a ready made playground for the kids and just some of the most interesting formations I have ever seen!
I actually climbed up this rock. It was like a large flat rock lying on its side. It was at just the right incline to climb up carefully but not feel scared (obviously if I did it too...I just don't have picture proof for me).
This is another view of the lake from the rock.
I should add that there were two parts of Eagle Loop. This was the lower part, and actually the above pictures are taken a bit off the path (we were encouraged by a park employee to do that...it is a big rock climbing area for real rock climbers). If you ever go, just ask me, I think I can tell you where it is.
We really thought this picture (below) looked like an elephant's head...it was a tree against one of the bluffs.
Again, I know nothing about plants, but this looked like some sort of cactus.
More of the rock formations along the trail
Since it was a loop, we ended up right back where we had started. It was a neat hike. Had we not had one really tired little boy with us, we might have had more time to explore. But it is something I wouldn't mind doing again. I know there are more parts to this trail and the other trail we have yet to see.

I would consider this one a moderate just because there were a few hills/inclines. The path is not totally clear...Joshua with his little legs tripped a lot. The overlooks were my favorite part as well as the rock climbing area. Safety wise, it was moderate too. I would be careful at some of the overlooks with kids, but that was really the only time we got nervous. The only wildlife we saw this time around was a spider and some vultures. I still give it two thumbs up...three out of four kids loved it. One was too tired to truly know. :)

Reba