As the coronavirus quarantines continue to stay in place, I looked for a place where I could get outside and get a little air in my lungs while still remaining distant from other people, and the Ozarks were the perfect place to do that. Despite the near-constant rain as well as some personal misadventures (you’ll have to read my blog post to learn more about that!) I was able to get in some hiking and kayaking as well as some scenic drives and wildlife viewing. I didn’t get to do nearly everything I had hoped for (again, go read my blog post!!) so I am almost certain that I will be back in Arkansas some day.
Ozarks National Forest
My primary draw to Arkansas was the Ozarks, or the Ozarks-St Francis National Forests, to be more precise. The forest is much more green and rolling than I expected; I drove some scenic byways that were fun in my Mazda3, so I can imagine in a sports car they would be even more exciting. I saw some waterfalls; the first one below is the redundantly named Falling Waters Waterfall and the second is not far away along the same river, and is called Six Fingers Falls. I also got to hike part of the Ozark Highlands Trail, a 150 mile trail that stretches through most of the forest. Maybe someday when I have a backpacking buddy I will come back and through-hike the OHT.
Buffalo National River
The Buffalo National River is part of the National Park system. I did not know there was such a thing as a National River, but the Buffalo was the first! With all the rain that the area received during my time there, the river was absolutely ripping, which you can tell because in the pictures the water is brown instead of the very clear that it typically is.
The Buffalo River park was closed for covid most of the time I was there, but they did open for day visits my last week, and I was able to do a little rainy hiking. I visited the ghost town of Rush Mountain, an abandoned zinc mine. I intended to hike to a further part of the ghost town, but as you can see in the picture, as the sign promised the road was impassible in high water (the water was several feet deep over the road and gushing like white water rapids). So, I did a different hike to yet another waterfall.
I had intended to come back to Buffalo River to do a river float during my last days in Arkansas but had a misadventure that prevented me from doing it, which you can read about on my blog post! (In reality it’s probably better I didn’t try a river float given how high the river was!)
Bull Shoals Lake
The cottage I stayed in was right on the shores of Bull Shoals Lake, and my first weekend there I bought an inflatable kayak and spent a lot of my afternoons paddling around on the lake looking for wildlife. Because it’s a man-made lake, made by the dam in the first picture below, it has a spiny snake shape with countless little bays and inlets, perfect for exploring on kayak.
This is my first experience with a man-made lake like this, so it was bizarre and fascinating for me to paddle around and look down at whole trees in the water below me. Also, because the lake is actively controlled by the dam, the water level and turbidity levels fluctuate dramatically. Shrubs on the shore that I had to walk around to get my boat in the water on my first day were by my last day under several feet of water so that I was literally able to paddle over the top of them. In some of my photos you can see the water is crystal clear, and in others it is murky.
There are also a crazy amount of fish in the lake – I could look down and see whole schools of fish literally swimming back and forth under my kayak. It’s no wonder it’s considered a popular fishing destination – in fact if I hadn’t thought having fishhooks on an inflatable boat was a bad idea, I would have gotten a fishing pole myself!
Alyson Gagne 