We left the campground this morning around 8:50. The weather was overcast when we left, but turned mostly sunny for the rest of our day. Our first stop was the Federal Building in downtown Hot Springs where the Visitor Information Center is for the Ouachita National Park. Since all downtown parking costs to park, Randall dropped me off and I went inside the building. Since it is the Federal Building, I had to go through a metal detector to enter. Once again, I set off the alarm. The man made me raise my pants leg to make sure I didn’t have a gun tied to my ankle, he said. They let me go on up to the second floor where a very nice older gentlemen was very helpful with all the info I needed about the area of the park we planned to visit.
Our plan was to take the Scenic 7 Byway which was advertised to have spectacular views. We were not impressed at all with the byway. Very few vistas could be seen because of the grown up trees blocking views. And since the Fall foliage is only at about 10 percent in this area, there really wasn’t a lot to look at.
The first thing we did however was to take a nice little paved trail called the Friendship Trail. Randall, Camp and I were the only ones on the trail. It was very pretty with a couple of nice bridges. It was an easy walk. Once we left here, our next scheduled stop was the Buffalo Gap Auto Tour Trail. This was a huge disappointment. It was a 9 mile gravel road that made a loop. There was absolutely nothing to see on it accept thick woods. It was advertised to have beautiful views. Once again, all the views had grown up trees and you could not see through them anymore.
It was only about 11:00 at this point, so we decided to go a bit further to Mt. Magazine State Park in the Ozark National Park. I am so glad we did. The fall colors were much more vivid here I guess because it is further north as well as a higher elevation. Mt. Magazine is the highest point in the Ozarks. We had a picnic lunch here and went down a little ways on a trail that had spectacular views. It is the prettiest scenery we have seen since we got here. We drove through the campground here and it looked extremely nice with the exception that it had no cable for TV, which Randall insists upon. Maybe when we get Satellite TV for the trailer we can come back to this park.
We took a different route back to Hot Springs. We drove Highway 27 South to Highway 270 back to Hot Springs. This highway had much better views than the other one. It was a beautiful country side with mountains in the background.
We arrived back at the camp around 4:15. We out a roast in the crock pot before we left this morning and had bar-BQ sandwiches, corn on the cob and baked beans for supper. We are now sitting in the trailer watching Andy Griffith.
We had a great day! Tomorrow—Talamenia Scenic Drive
Our plan was to take the Scenic 7 Byway which was advertised to have spectacular views. We were not impressed at all with the byway. Very few vistas could be seen because of the grown up trees blocking views. And since the Fall foliage is only at about 10 percent in this area, there really wasn’t a lot to look at.
The first thing we did however was to take a nice little paved trail called the Friendship Trail. Randall, Camp and I were the only ones on the trail. It was very pretty with a couple of nice bridges. It was an easy walk. Once we left here, our next scheduled stop was the Buffalo Gap Auto Tour Trail. This was a huge disappointment. It was a 9 mile gravel road that made a loop. There was absolutely nothing to see on it accept thick woods. It was advertised to have beautiful views. Once again, all the views had grown up trees and you could not see through them anymore.
It was only about 11:00 at this point, so we decided to go a bit further to Mt. Magazine State Park in the Ozark National Park. I am so glad we did. The fall colors were much more vivid here I guess because it is further north as well as a higher elevation. Mt. Magazine is the highest point in the Ozarks. We had a picnic lunch here and went down a little ways on a trail that had spectacular views. It is the prettiest scenery we have seen since we got here. We drove through the campground here and it looked extremely nice with the exception that it had no cable for TV, which Randall insists upon. Maybe when we get Satellite TV for the trailer we can come back to this park.
We took a different route back to Hot Springs. We drove Highway 27 South to Highway 270 back to Hot Springs. This highway had much better views than the other one. It was a beautiful country side with mountains in the background.
We arrived back at the camp around 4:15. We out a roast in the crock pot before we left this morning and had bar-BQ sandwiches, corn on the cob and baked beans for supper. We are now sitting in the trailer watching Andy Griffith.
We had a great day! Tomorrow—Talamenia Scenic Drive
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