Last week we took a short trip to eastern Arkansas and, after that, over to northeast Kentucky.
Our first campground was at Village Creek State Park. The park is located on Crowley’s Ridge, a geologic anomaly of rolling hills in eastern Arkansas’s Mississippi Alluvial Plain.
With five trails totaling 7 miles, we had hoped to spend one day in the park doing some hiking.
Unfortunately, there was some kind of gnats hatching out. After taking one walk the first evening where we couldn’t get away from them, we decided to alter our plans and check out some of the other parks in the area.
The first day, we went to Parkin State Archeological Park and Jacksonport State Park. The next day, we drove over to Memphis and spent a few hours at Mud Island. I’ll be posting more on these as I get the photo gallery set up for each one.
The last evening that we were there and the next morning before we left, we didn’t have much problem with insects at all.
Our next destination was Paducah, Kentucky, so that Karen could go to the annual Paducah Quilt Show. Karen has several posts on her blog from the quilt show:
A couple of weeks ago, we took a drive down to Hot Springs to visit Garvan Woodland Gardens.
(Click on any of the images
to view larger version)
We’ve been in Arkansas for nearly 30 years and this was the first time we had visited this wonderful attraction.
Photos from the visit are included in my newest photo gallery, Garvan Woodland Gardens, Hot Springs, Arkansas.
The Garvan Woodland Gardens is a botanical garden in Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA. The 210 acre garden is owned by the University of Arkansas and open almost every day during daylight hours, for a fee.
The gardens are situated on a wooded peninsula with 4.5 miles of shoreline on Lake Hamilton. The gardens feature rocky inclines reminiscent of the surrounding Ouachita Mountains, floral landscapes, streams, and waterfalls in a natural woodland setting, plus a Japanese Garden with Japanese maples and tree peonies, a conifer border, and various flower and rock gardens. Its collections display hundreds of rare shrubs and trees, including camellias, magnolias, roses, and over 160 different types of azaleas. (Wikipedia)
Gallery: Garvan Woodland Gardens, Hot Springs, Arkansas.
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Image Galleries at Haw Creek.
Click on photo to see larger version
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, September 13, 2009
On the Cliff Palace loop you may visit one of two cliff dwellings by guided tour, Cliff Palace or Balcony House. These sites can only be reached by a one-hour ranger-guided tour. Tickets for tours are purchased only at the Far View Visitor Center. Rangers begin the Cliff Palace tour from the overlook at the end of the entrance trail. To enter Cliff Palace on a guided tour, one must descend approximately 100 feet into the canyon on a steep trail that includes 120 uneven stone steps. Throughout the tour one will climb five eight foot ladders.
The photo is from the newest of my photo galleries and the second from Mesa Verde. The gallery includes images from Cliff Palace — a Puebloan culture cliff dwelling —, the Knife Edge Trail and more.
Gallery: Cliff Palace and More — September 13, 2009, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
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Image Galleries at Haw Creek.
I’m continuing to process photos from last year’s travels into photo galleries.
The most recent is from the day that we arrived at Mesa Verde National Park during our 2009 trip to Colorado.
Because it was actually a fairly short drive from Ouray to Mesa Verde, by the time we got set up at the campground, we still had plenty of time to go exploring, including a hike down to one of the cliff dwelling ruins, Spruce Treehouse.
The gallery includes images from the ruins as well as other views in the park, including several images of the beautiful Colorado sky that we had that day.
Gallery: Spruce Treehouse and More – September 12, 2009, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
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Image Galleries at Haw Creek.
Image Gallery:
Around the Upper Loop, September 13, 2007
(click on image for larger version)
We were camped at West Yellowstone KOA several miles west of town for nearly a week in September 2007. Our camper was a Big Horn fifth wheel by Heartland. We were set up with satellite TV and satellite internet and had almost all of the conveniences of home.
For all of the conveniences, though, we found that we were not doing the kind of camping that we really preferred. We prefer national and state park and forest campgrounds, but found in some of those kind of campgrounds that maneuvering into sites that could accommodate the size of our 5th wheel was often difficult and, in some instances, there just were not any sites that we felt comfortable with trying to get into.
We now have a small motor home and are able to get into just about any campground that we want to with little or no difficulty. The only ones we can’t get into are those restricted to tent camping and those that we can’t get to with the camper. We’ve visited a couple of places where the curves were so tight that our 25 foot motor home was over the length limit. We’re also not quite yet prepared to go too many miles down an unpaved road.
In 2009, we camped in 4 national park* campgrounds, 4 nights in each one. We didn’t have satellite TV or internet and we were doing the kind of camping we really prefer.
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Image Galleries at Haw Creek.
* Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Shenandoah National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, and Mesa Verde National Park
Old Colorado City, Colorado Springs, August 22, 2004, teardrop trailer
There was some sort of festival in progress the day that we visited Old Colorado City.
(click on image for larger version)
Gallery:
Cripple Creek, Old Colorado City, Manitou Springs, etc. – August 22, 24, & 27, 2004
See more of our Image Galleries at Haw Creek.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been working on new photo galleries, mostly from Colorado and some from as far back as 2004.
I’ll be posting a few images from these galleries over the next several weeks to exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About.
Except for photos while we are traveling, most of the images that I post from my photography are randomly selected from my on-line galleries.
I am currently publishing images on alternate days on two blogs, exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About. Except for photos that may have been posted during a trip, photos are only published on a blog one time and the images are not replicated between the two blogs.
We will be traveling again this year and will be visiting new places as well as old favorites – and, of course, I will have a lot more new photos.
Colorado
- Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
- Cripple Creek, Old Colorado City, Manitou Springs, etc. – August 22, 24, & 27, 2004
- Dome Rock State Wildlife Area – August 29, 2004
- Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument – August 24, 2004
- Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs – August 22 & 23, 2004
- Gold Belt Byway – August 29, 2004
- Mueller State Park – August 28, 2004
- Ouray and Vicinity – September 8 & 10, 2009
- Pikes Peak – August 25, 2004
- Royal Gorge – August 23, 2004
- Silverton and Animas Forks area – September 6, 2009
Kansas
Oklahoma
Campground, Lake Fort Smith State Park, Arkansas, October 20, 2008
Located in a wooded valley in the Boston Mountains of the Arkansas Ozarks, the 259 acre Lake Fort Smith State Park reopened in the late Spring of 2008 four miles north of its original location, which was closed in early January, 2002. As a park reborn, with totally new facilities, it has 30 camp sites, a group lodging facility, picnic sites, a pavilion, marina with rental boats, a double lane boat ramp, a swimming pool, playground, and an 8,000 square foot visitor center with exhibit gallery, gift shop, a meeting/class room, a patio with an outdoor wood burning fireplace, and a great view of the lake and mountains. Activities for visitors include camping, fishing, kayaking, canoeing, backpacking, boating, hiking and mountain biking. The park borders lands of the Ozark National Forest.
(click on image for larger version)
Park information
Gallery: Lake Fort Smith State Park
See more of our Image Galleries at Haw Creek.
