Arkansas

Continuing on with my little series of Fifty-Nifty United States.  We have already explored Alabama and Arizona.

Arkansas is one of the states that Brad and I have explored more then once together on different trips.  It was a state that we even considered moving to at one time. All the different city's that we visited were great, cute towns with so much character.  The scenery was beautiful, BBQ food out of this word and a nice group of people that love their Razorbacks and yell "SOUIE"!!

Our first glimpse of this lovely state was when we headed from Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, MO owned by Bass Pro Shops (If you haven't been, GO!! I will do a whole post on the fabulousness of this place when I get to Missouri) down to Dogwood Canyon for a nature day.  While  in Dogwood Canyon you can rent bikes and go on a path that goes across the Missouri/Arkansas line.  The Ozark's are by far one of Brad and I's favorite places, the rolling hills and hillbilly atmosphere are one of a kind.  

Hello Arkansas

Gorgeous Dogwood Canyon

 We stopped by a cave called Mystic Caverns and got to explore one of the best caves we have seen to date.  They filled one of the Imax films here as it has a lake inside that they have determined is bottomless.  The divers for the filming actually stopped exploring the area as the lake was so deep they couldn't keep keep going for safety purposes. Our guide talked about putting fish in the lake which would always disappear in the current.  They bodies would never float to the surface.  (I just LOVE caves and all the mysteries!) The cave was for sale and I kid you not Brad and I tried to come up with how we could afford a $600K cave and if we could run a business there.  The cave sold and my dreams shattered! (Kidding aside we really tried to make this work).

We wanted to explore more of Arkansas and decided to visit Fayetteville, home of the beloved SEC Razorbacks.  We flew out for a long extended weekend and explored the whole Fayetteville area. This is the cutest town with a town square surrounded by the most charming shops and restaurants.  We went right after Thanksgiving and they had the whole square decorated for Christmas including an ice rink and horse carriage rides, it was like a scene out of a movie. We were sad that the Razorbacks were out of town that weekend, we would have loved to see the Pig call and all their loyal fans.  However we did stock up on lots of Pig gear!!

I was trying to snarl here with my hog friends

On a hike outside of Fayetteville (PS we look young and perm NEVER again)

Before leaving town we saw an episode of the Duggers where they went to Crater of Diamonds State Park and dug for diamonds.  We knew we had to give our luck a try and dig for the big rocks!!  It was a very neat, unique State Park.  You paid for time in the diamond fields, picked up a shovel, screen and bucket and could dig to your hearts desire.  We stayed and dug for about 3 hours, no luck digging for diamonds but it sure was fun to say "we dug for diamonds".  They displayed some of the specimens that had been dug up and the dollar value.  It really was a fun half day trip.  

photo source

Lots of dirt for digging, photo source

We decided to head back another 4 months later (March) and check out the town of Hot Springs and get some fishing in as well.  We fished with a guide out of Lake Ouachita.  (Side note: I won't get into our flight nightmare getting there including a LONG drive on the UPS super highway in the middle of the night or the gang bangers (kid you not) with guns in Memphis at a gas station, the 2 hours of sleep at a motel and then our fishing guide that kept peeing off the side of the boat!!  It was truly a trip to remember on so many levels, I regress.)   The lake was very pretty and we did get in some great bass fishing.  

Early Morning start

Good Fishing

We explored the town of Hot Springs visiting the Bath Houses, shopping and going to the botanical gardens.  It was a very short trip but were were able to see quite a lot.

National Park Bathhouse, Brad was creeped out by the whole idea of some one "bathing" you

Lots of really pretty flowers and trees

I encourage all of you to take a visit to the "Natural State".  There are so many fun things to see and do. The food is great and the people are so nice.  Defiantly one of Brad and I's top ten states.