The town where we stayed was a tiny little squirt of nothing called Ponca, population 9 (literally there was a sign) that is located just north of the Ozark National Forest and on the Buffalo River. The Buffalo is cool in that it is a National River, so there is no development on a long section of the river, leaving visitors able to fully access and enjoy the river without private ownership or development. It was beautiful.
We stayed in a series of cabins owned by the Buffalo Outdoor Center, and while they were very basic and pretty small, we didn't really come up there to hang in the rooms in the first place. Our place was slightly bigger than the ones that our friends rented, and we had the hot tub, so our place ended up being the hang out spot, which was great. The house came with a wood-burning fireplace and a ton of wood, so we enjoyed loads of comfy fires and relaxing time.
We also went out and hiked our asses off in the woods. In order of preference:
- Lost Valley. We were actually glad that this hike was the last one we did, and I'd advise you to do the same, because it was the coolest one and easiest one, so that cut down on the whine-factor from the kids. Short, like 2 miles round trip, but you get a ton of caves and waterfalls and climbable surfaces that the kids can go nuts on. Really great.
- Whitaker Point/Hawksbill Crag. This was one where the hike itself was fine, nothing particularly special, except that it snowed on us as we walked, which made it more special. About 3 miles round trip. But the ending is this spectacular rock outcropping that pokes out over a deep valley and really looks amazing. We ate a picnic down there and everyone took a million photos, it was cool.
- Hemmed-In-Hollow. This trail also had a good payoff - the tallest waterfall in mid-America, which was cool - but the hike itself was not an easy one for the littler people in our posse. About 5 miles round trip, and it is straight down on the way in and then straight up on the way out, so be prepared for the stairmaster ride of your life. The waterfall was cool and the views were nice and all that, but hard hike and not nearly as good a payoff as those others. Oh, and you should stop at the Compton store to ask directions, because the signs stop telling you where to go once you are in the backwoods.
Then we spent another day floating the river, which was fantastic. Well, I thought it was great, my kids will likely remember it as the time they froze to death and wished they had died. Our youngest just curled up in a ball and cried herself to sleep. 27 degrees ambient temp. and 47 in the water, so it was pretty damn frio. But, it was a fun and fast float (lots of recent rains) that didn't have any truly extreme water features but enough action to make it interesting and fun.
For one of the days, we made a side trip up to Eureka Springs. My wife had good childhood memories of that being a neat town with cool old-timey stuff to do (milking a cow or watching a blacksmith do his thing). Instead, it was a super depressing tourist trap of t-shirt stores, fudge shoppes, and bad food. Well, the actual inner town where we hung out wasn't that depressing, more annoying that they took a truly interesting historical place and turned it into a cheap tourist trap. The depressing part was the detritus surrounding the town: shuttered businesses, dilapidated hotels, and liquor stores. I wish we would have just stayed back and gone on another hike in Ponca.
One other note, we ate at a place called the Low Gap Cafe that was legitimately amazing. Middle of nowhere, tiny little dining room, but like real deal, well-made gourmet food. It was strange to find out there but it really impressed. And BYOB, which is always an awesome thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment