Exploring Arkansas
When we made the decision to move out to Missouri, I started looking into what the Midwest had to offer. One of them was the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Being from Montana, and having an extensive understanding of what a mountain is, I initially laughed at the idea of mountains in the Midwest. Once again, I was surprised, amazed and excited by all that we came across in our short time we had to explore northern Arkansas. We explored the areas around Eureka Springs, the Boston Mountains around Jasper, and we floated the White River outside of Buffalo City.
Mile: 11,037
Quote of the Blog: “If Arkansas is indeed One Big Family, Eureka Springs remains its eccentric uncle.” - Rex Nelson
Song of the Blog: “Arkansas” - Chris Stapelton
Amity did a great deal of research into what we wanted to include in our Arkansas adventure. She found Eureka Springs and was immediately drawn to it for it’s quirky architecture, culture and unique landscape. The town is situated in a small canyon, which is tightly encompassed by dense forested mountains. Walking around we could see how the town has utilized its topography to make a unique downtown landscape. The buildings have a Creole and French feel, as if we were standing in the French Quarters of New Orleans. The town was teaming with live performances and street venders. After talking with some of the locals, we found out this was very normal and that we should plan to come back for the week of Halloween. We could only imagine what that would be like.
Amity found a restaurant in which was built into a cave, so we had to check it out. This place is called Grotto Wood-Fired Grill. It was initially built to cover up the rock cropping, but after the property changed ownership, they found the cave walls while doing some renovations. The new ownership wanted to feature this by building their restaurant around it. This made for a very cool dining experience. Amity and I both crushed our meals. Everything was delicious and on point. Our server was the cutest older woman. She gave me a little side hug and said, “mama’s proud!” as she took our plates away.
We walked upstairs to an adjacent bar called the Slane Tavern for a night cap cocktail. This is where we got to really understand the town, its culture and everything about Eureka Springs we wanted to know. Our bartender was so welcoming. We chatted for over an hour, even though it was obvious he was in the process of breaking down when we walked it. He informed us that this town gets its culture from hippies in the 60’s locating here. This has allowed it to become a very unique town compared to the rest of the state. He gave us some great tips on what to do, and what to avoid. It was refreshing to get to known another jaded local.
We spent our first night of the trip camping at the KOA outside of Eureka Springs. We are suckers for a good KOA. It’s nice to know that you can car camp and have a clean bathroom close by. The funny thing about this one was the fact that people love to motorcycle the highways in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. If you have camped next to motorcycles, then you know what we are about to say. I understand getting up early to get your day going, especially if you want to get a good day’s ride in. What I don’t understand, is why do you need to let you bike idle for 30+ minutes before you ride away? Just gets us up early so we can crush a big day.
We started our second day by going to a church called Throncorwn Chapel. This was a very unique church that was more of a glass box in the forest. We caught it on at a time in which the forest it is built within was very lush and full. This is what the architect wanted to feature. The open design and simplicity of it, gives the building it’s unique appeal. Sitting inside felt less like sitting inside a church, but more like sitting in a glass box deep inside the forest. As if the goal was to make the individual feel connected with nature. Overall, pretty cool.
We followed the church up with exploring this really corky house called Quigley’s Castle. It features a custom made siding using seashells, rocks and other items the owner collected, as well as areas inside the house that hosted an assortment of living plants and trees. Thank you Atlas Obscura for this gem of a spot! Walking up it was like we were coming into someone’s art museum. The only difference was that this was someone’s house at one point. The garden and lawn were littered with statues and little art installations. The artist/owner spent their life collecting little rocks and things that they then used to make all this art. They went as far as making the entire outside of the house with this style of mixed media in concrete. This made for a very cool house to explore. Inside they had even more wacky art, like an epoxied wall of butterfly’s. It also had multiple cacti growing inside and a couple trees. This house would not have been complete with his resident Cat and Parakeet. We are pleasantly surprised with all the fun things we are finding around each corner here.
We decided to head into the town and explore the downtown. Unlike the quiet town it was the night before, Eureka Springs was now packed full of people. Everything from massive biker groups, your standard touron and families stacked on top of each other everywhere. Parking was an absolute mess. We ended up parking at the bottom of the town. This allowed us to explore up through some really cool staircases and alley-ways. They use every ounce of space in this town well, but be prepared to get some stair climbing in. The town has a lot of quirky and tourist shops. We stopped in the New Orleans Hotel for a cocktail located in an old historic hotel in downtown. The bar was still quiet, so we quickly got a drink. All the drinks were straight out of Bourbon Street. The bartender was another great person to talk to. He was more on the jaded side of being frustrated with the town. This was my kind of local!
Amity was excited about getting to soak in mineral baths at the Palace Bathhouse in downtown Eureka Springs (which happens to be in its original design from 1901). I have never done a mineral bath; which I learned consisted of sitting in a bathtub with water from a spring and some Epson salts added. Amity went for the full soak, steam and message. It was a very relaxing experience. It is always fun to sit in historic buildings and think about all the stories and experiences that have happened in the past 120 years. We both came out refreshed and ready to take on the day. Amity got to experience sitting in a wooden steam box. I did not get to witness this but all I can think of is old cartoons. She said she was so hot that most of the time she kept the doors open.
Following our soak, we were feeling fresh and ready for the next phase of our adventure. We hopped in the car and headed to a vacation rental we had found that situated perfectly between some great hiking and rafting. Our original plan was to hike and float in the same area, but the rivers were running low in that area due to a lack of rain. This put us floating on the White River and hiking outside of Jasper, AR along the Buffalo National River.
We utilized Riley’s Outfitters for our kayaks and transportation on our White River float. They were a great group to go through! It is all family run and they have a great team. We highly suggest anyone to go through them! We put in at Cotter, AR and floated 14 miles to the outfitter’s property in Buffalo City. This river was much bigger than anything we had been on recently. This was more like floating the main steam of the Flathead River. This made fly fishing a little more difficult than I initially anticipated. That didn’t stop me though! I was able to land a beautiful rainbow trout. In my opinion that stacks up to a: Mission Accomplished! Amity loved her time floating and chilling. This was a beautiful river. Floating is definitely a happy place for both of us!
The next day we put on our hiking shoes, and set out to see what the Buffalo National River basin has to offer. This area is the first ever protected water system in the country, and for good reason. This area is situated in the heart of the Boston Mountains. We set out to do Big Goat Bluff. This was a pretty easy hike. It starts by dropping down into the valley before winding its way up onto a ridge and out onto the cliffs of a massive bluff. The cliff faces overlook the Buffalo River valley. The views from the goat trial on the bluff were amazing and the water in the river below was so clear that you could actually see the fish. You could see down to the cleanest water and far out to the ridge lines of adjacent mountains. All of which is covered in a dense forest. Sometimes we forget where we are, and this was one of those moments.
It felt good to put some distance on the legs. We were very tired and feeling the whole weekend of adventuring catching up with us. This made it easy to crash early. It was a good thing that our rental featured a massive movie projection screen. We got all the snacks we needed and enjoyed a relaxing evening watching a movie in bed.
Tired and sunburnt, it was time for us to head home. As any adventure comes, it seems to go by faster. We are always excited to get back to our bed. Even if our current bed is not our bed but a rental bed in our temporary home, it still feels good to rest your head after a long day in the car. Cheers to another state explored, and more reasons to go back to Arkansas in the future!!!