Arkansas, Whitaker Point: Hiking Way Above Buffalo River

A famous landmark in the Arkansas wilderness that we had seen on postcards and other promotion materials throughout the state, even in the Rand-McNally USA Road Atlas, was the focus of our trip described in this journal entry. The scenery at Whitaker Point in Arkansas' Buffalo River National Park, was of a large rock formation, or bluff, that protruded out of a mountain, high above a dense, tree-covered valley. Whitaker Point had also been known as Hawksbill Crag, but from this paragraph onwards, we'll stick with the name that we liked best, aka Whitaker Point.

On the day of our hike, we had to wake up very early to meet a friend of ours, who was hiking with us. After getting ready at 6:00am, making sandwiches and packing essentials for the day, we left Kyle's sister's (Kelli's) house in Fayetteville, Arkansas, heading towards the town of Jasper, a small, quaint village located just next to Buffalo River National Park, a convenient meeting point for both Karen and us. The drive to Jasper took us around 2 hours and it was very enjoyable, since the scenery in Arkansas was normally beautiful everywhere we went. Kyle's mum (Judy) had joined us for the day and, therefore, we drove in her car. Kyle did all of the driving to give his mum a break, something for which she was thankful.

Upon Judy's closer inspection, she discovered another huge spiderweb an inch from her nose

Once we arrived in Jasper, we parked and just happened to come across Karen, who was walking towards us at the same time we had arrived. We walked into a nearby gift shop for a much-needed toilet break and to get directions to the hidden treasure of a hike in Arkansas. One interesting thing we learned from the old woman working in the shop was that Arkansas has over 800 elk living in Buffalo River National Park; unfortunately, we didn't see any during our drive around the area or when we were on our hike through the forest.

Once we had directions in hand, we took off in our cars to find the small dirt road that marked the entry point for the area of the park where the hike should have begun; Dan rode in Karen's car and Kyle drove his mum in her car. The entry point was situated about 30 minutes away from Jasper and was much more difficult to find that we had anticipated, since the road was not marked whatsoever; because of this, we missed the turnoff and it wasn't until we came across a small town on a completely wrong road that we realised we had made a mistake.

During the drive, whilst we were looking for the turnoff, a suicidal and fairly large marmot tried to make a dash across the road but, as soon as it saw two cars racing in its direction, the animal had second thoughts and dove back into the grass on the side of the road for cover. We backtracked from the small town we had come to and finally managed to find the road that would take us to our hike's starting point. There was a small lay-by a couple of minutes up the road and we left Karen's car there, so we could all ride together to the trail where we would start our walk.

Driving fast along the small dirt track was not an option, but because we had to take the rough road slowly, we had the opportunity to see further wildlife in the form of three deer: two adults and a young fawn. Thick forests lined either side of the road and we were really flummoxed when we came upon a totally isolated farm that was completely hidden from the outside world. The small house, supporting farm buildings and equipment made us wonder how people could live in such a remote area and definitely put some horror movie thoughts into our minds - good thing it wasn't dark or that we hadn't run out of gas!

After 20 minutes of driving along the mountain dirt road, we arrived at the trailhead, happy to get out of the car and stretch our legs. It was a great time to have lunch and we all agreed to eat in order to curb our peckishness. There were a couple of large paper bags in the back of Judy's car and we tore them into four pieces large enough to place four bums (meaning bottoms, not someone smelly living off the street with a bottle of whisky hidden in a paper bag) upon; we then sat on the ground and began to eat our packed lunches.

Karen's sandwich, with fresh veggies from her lush garden, definitely beat out our weak peanut butter and jam concoction (although it was only peanut butter for Dan, since he thought the combination didn't taste good; he doesn't like jam on bread). To go along with our sandwiches, we had some crackers and pieces of cheese whilst drinking bottles of water. Once we had finished, the girls took a toilet break in the bushes to get themselves prepared for the hike to Whitaker Point. No snakes or other creepy critters jumped up to bite their you-know-whats, which was a good thing!

The trail immediately headed into the thick forest, where the ground was parched from the heat of the summer. Luckily, the trees provided great cover from the hot, strong sunlight that afternoon. The walk ended up being great exercise and it was a nice change to walk out in the fresh air, after having done a lot of driving around and sitting lazily on our behinds or partying and going out with friends for the past few weeks.

Along the route, we saw many squirrels darting across the forest and up trees; we also saw some nasty spiders. The hike to the desired point took around an hour and, as we got closer to the edge of the mountain, we knew that we were approaching the vista area. Finally, Karen pointed out the fact that we had arrived and we walked over to a small rock outcrop that overhung the Buffalo River valley so we could see the infamous Whitaker Point.

The view out across the valley, which was lush and green from all of the earlier summer rains, was spectacular and we were happy to have made it. The only slightly disappointing thing was that we could not see Buffalo River due to the density of the trees in the forest below. After taking in the views and snapping some photographs, we walked a little further so we could actually stand and admire the views from Whitaker Point itself, since that was the main purpose of the hike. Of course, hanging out with Karen and Judy was the primary purpose of the day!

The views from atop Whitaker Point were again spectacular and the dropoff from the bluff was a little scary, with us being so high up in the air. To record the successful day, Karen and Judy offered to take turns capturing pictures of us with each of them. Secretly, we knew that they just wanted to be highlighted again in our travel journal, but we will let them think that it was our idea to get some photos with them. On the bluff, the sun was in full force and, with no trees to cover us there, it got very hot. As a result, we could only stand on Whitaker Point for a few minutes to admire the views.

The accomplishment was made and we then had to begin our hike back to the beginning of the trail where we had parked. The walk back was fast and easy; before we knew it, we were loading ourselves back into Judy's car and driving down the mountain to Karen's car, where we had left it at the start of the dirt road. On the way back, we bumped into a small group of deer, which may or may not have been the same ones that we saw earlier in the day. We said our goodbyes to Karen when she got into her car and headed back to Springfield so she would be home in time for dinner with her husband, Mark.

We decided to do another hike with Judy after Karen left us; to continue exploring the area, we wanted to visit a nearby cave. The trailhead for that hike began where we had parted ways with Karen, so we were primed and ready to go. We began with very high hopes and were really looking forward to another adventure in the forest and inside a cave, armed with our nearly dead battery-powered flashlights (that's the same as torches for the British people reading this). Only 10 seconds into the trek we hit a spot of trouble, when Judy, our trek team leader who took the front position, walked into an enormous spiderweb that spanned the entire path.

Naturally, she freaked out but, being brave, decided to continue; it also helped that there were no spiders crawling on her after she walked through the web. At that point, we asked her if she wanted to walk 15 metres back to the car to get her walking stick, which could be used to clear the path of any further webs, and she declined, stating that they wouldn't be a problem. She spoke too soon...

Another few steps along the trail, Judy came to a sharp halt after Kyle and Dan had screamed at her to stop walking. Upon Judy's closer inspection, she discovered another huge spiderweb an inch from her nose with a little beastie sitting right in the centre of his home. That was that - Judy had another fit while she manically tried to brush off any of the spiderweb that may have gotten on her. Since the spider was still safely on its web, we knew that she was safe, and she realised soon afterwards, too. Once she had calmed down, we all leaned in for a closer look at the spider and we quickly decided to quit that trek while we were ahead, heading back to the car to go home; that spider was really creepy and unlike any others we had seen in Arkansas.

On the way back, we stopped off at the small town of Kingston and visited a shop called "Grandpa's Flea Market". The shop was full of all kinds of junk imaginable, but there were some treasures to sift through, too, at least for Judy. She played the piano a lot and there was an entire glass case full of sheet music from the past five decades. Each book was only 75 cents (that's about 35p!) and she made off with about $9 (£4.50) worth of music by the time she finished shopping. Kyle's mum was in her element - bargain shopping and piano music!

The drive back was amusing, we tried to play a funny, but nice, trick on Judy. She had always stated how much she had wanted to visit War Eagle Mill, which was located an hour outside of Fayetteville, near Beaver Lake. To try and reach the place, Kyle had to take a different highway than the one that we took to get to Buffalo River National Park and he had to do that whilst keeping Judy in the dark about the route home.

At the junction where he needed to change highways, there was a Wal-Mart conveniently located where the two roads crossed, and as soon as Kyle started to turn down a different road, Judy noticed and asked if he missed the turn. To cover this up, Kyle said that he was thirsty and that he needed to get some water, but that he also needed to buy some recordable CDs to make music CDs for our upcoming road trip. Dan had caught on to the fact that we were going to mislead Judy and surprise her with a visit to War Eagle Mill, so he quickly interjected that he wanted to buy a drink, too. Judy was none the wiser and, after we had completed our purchases, Kyle headed onto the different highway whilst Dan chatted to her to distract her from looking at the highway signs.

Kyle got a little bit lost trying to find War Eagle Mill and couldn't ask Dan too many questions because Judy may have caught on to our plan. So, he ended up driving in a big circle, which wasted about 20 minutes. When we finally got to War Eagle Mill, it was closed, having just closed ten minutes before. Even though we failed, Judy was still happy that we had tried to surprise her and the different route meant that we all got to see different scenery in another part of Arkansas, so it wasn't a complete waste of a trip. It also gave Judy an idea as to where the place was located and, at the time of writing this journal entry, she had just visited War Eagle Mill with Kyle's stepdad (Marc).

Just before we arrived back in Fayetteville, we stopped off for a snack in Rogers, Arkansas. A small drive-in was the place we chose and we shared onion rings, tater tots and fried okra. When we were back at Kelli's house, we made plans with her, Clay and Samantha to have dinner at a pizza restaurant minutes from their place. That's all you get about that part of our story, because you probably have finished reading the previous Fayetteville travel journal entry, which told you all about it.