Northwest Arkansas--Bella Vista vs. Bentonville

We had beautiful weather, and we took advantage of it to explore the northwest corner of Arkansas. Two little cities run into each other in this corner of the Ozark mountains, and we couldn't help but compare them as we spent time in both. We started in Bella Vista, because that's where we were staying with a very friendly Boondockers Welcome couple. Bella Vista was a picturesque town threaded together with curving roads that wind around seven man-made lakes and five golf courses. We would have loved to put our kayak on one of those lakes, but it looked like we weren't welcome. They were all "private property," and out-of-town wanderers weren't allowed.

Hired rangers patrolled to make sure that anyone on these lakes had the appropriate membership ID card. It seems important to keep the riff-raff out. We found the same sign on the recreation complex just behind our host's home. We knew that this community made good use of their private outdoor pickleball courts because we could hear them late at night and early in the morning. We could not, however, play with them.

Our host explained that everything is owned by the POA (Property Owners Assocation) and is carefully monitored. Their opinion is that the POA is a PIA (you'll have to figure out what those letters stand for on your own). We would get used to those "no trespassing" signs, as we saw them over and over. But we did find a public trail that didn't have that dreaded POA sign on it. The Tanyard Perimeter trail was just what we needed. 

We did the Tanyard Perimeter Loop and got 2.6 miles of trails that wind across creeks and beside stone ledges.

We met Randy, who was the leader of a crew of volunteers that clean and work on the trails every Tuesday. He was pulling up poison ivy and securing loose rocks across creek crossings.  You can see him on down the trail behind Mark in the picture below.

We talked to him about life in Bella Vista and our frustrations with not being invited to their party. He gave us permission to climb to the top of the dam behind the trail to get a view of one of the private lakes. So now we can say that we have finally seen Windsor Lake--

even though a sign at the top of the dam kept us from getting any closer.

We spent the most time at the waterfall on the Tanyard Trail.

It took longer at the waterfall because we had to wait for ten minutes while one girl tried thirty different poses from that rock to be sure she got the perfect pic for instagram. Is it better with my arms up in the air, or with my fingers lifting my hair, or backwards while peeking over a shoulder, or??? Denisa's attempt at an artsy pose was quickly deleted because it was blurry because we were laughing too hard.

Instead of going back to the trail, we chose to walk along the babbling brook.  You can see Mark on the left side of the picture below, and from that side of the water . . .

he could take a picture of the entire waterfall's cascade. If you squint just right, you can see that Denisa was in the picture below too.

The brook quieted to a reflecting pool by the time we crossed the bridge again at the end of the hike.

We would have continued the hike further, but once again, we weren't invited.

After that nice 2.6-hike, we headed south towards Bentonville. In the middle of these two cities is an Arkansas Welcome Center. A great place to stop, we got more information for our trip. Bentonville is famous for its public mountain bike trails--where everyone (even outsiders) were welcomed. Our first stop was the "dancing barn" that was right on a bike trail. 

The barn was lit up, and music was playing. The trail literally goes through the barn, and bikers were invited to get off their bikes to dance for a while.

After driving into the town of Bentonville, we found a free parking place and started the 1.2-mile Rockledge Trail. It's a wonderfully shaded path with larger-than-life art pieces dispersed along it. Mark was in the middle of an ocean water maze sculpture.

Large equipment lined part of the Ravine Trail as it was being transformed into a family-friendly water and play area called Ozark Discovery Canopy that will open later in 2026.

The Rockledge trail took us right beside this deer statue. From a distance, it looked like a baby fawn walking timidly through the woods.

So we put Denisa under that little deer statue to give it some scale. That little deer was quite big!

Bentonville has a wonderful collection of outdoor sculptures that were open and free to the public. It was a pleasure to stumble upon them when hiking.

We had planned to again visit the Crystal Bridge Art Museum. But we discovered that the only day it was closed was Tuesday. As luck would have it, we were visiting on a Tuesday. They were taking advantage of the closure to do more construction in the front of the Crystal Bridge. We could see the giant silver tree out front, but most of the other sculptures were behind orange tape. 

We did get a picture of the giant white sphere. One of the workers was standing in the shadows to the left of the sphere, and he helped to give it some scale. It seems like the sculptors around here think that bigger is better.

While the Crystal Bridge Art Museum was closed on Tuesday, the newest Walton art museum was open. Both of these fine museums are open to the public, and always free. We drove a mile to get to the Momentary Museum. Opened in 2020, its focus was contemporary art and live music. We were glad to see that the current exhibit was famous National Geographic photographs. We walked through the display of amazing animal photographs--like a pod of horned narwhals coming to the surface of the water. (When we googled to see what a group of narwhals was called, we found that a group of these "unicorns of the sea" can also be called a "blessing.") We like that we were blessed with a blessing of narwhals.

We also liked the picture of a herd of elephants taking a mud bath. Google told us that a group of elephants can also be called a "memory." We like it that we will remember this memory of elephants!  Denisa must really like animal group names!

We especially enjoyed the displays that included a video (on the right) that described how the photographer got that special shot (on the left). The video showed the man laying on the ice as the penguins flew out of the water. . .

and explained how patient the woman had to be to get the perfect picture of the elusive cheetah hiding in the grass.

After a lunch of a savory chicken parmesan crepe at Paulette's Crepery, our next free stop was to the Compton Gardens and Arboretum. The museum was in the home where Dr. Compton and his family lived, and we learned this OB/GYN was a conservationist for northern Arkansas. The yard that he planted and cared for was now a public garden. Our favorite sculpture here was "Heartland." Created by a South African artist, the open heart is overflowing with plant life--just like Dr. Compton.

By using just the right camera angle, we got a photo that makes it look like Denisa was helping to hold that heart in her hands.

The next FREE stop in Bentonville was at Coler Mountain Bike Preserve. It was too light outside to see why this was called "the lightning bug habitat". But we thoroughly enjoyed walking across the "Singing Bridge." We're not sure how it happened, but the wind makes a humming/buzzing/whispering sound as the bridge sings. It was hard to describe the sound, but their web site called it "an ethereal sound." 

We also enjoyed watching a mountain bike class, as the adults taught a group of children the proper way to bike through water.  In a town famous for its bike trails, it's important to train the next generation how to properly use them. We watched until the group headed over the singing bridge when their lesson was over.

It was after 5:00 when we headed back towards our trailer in Bella Vista. Our last stop of the day was the Mildred D. Cooper Chapel. It reminded us of the Thorn Chapel near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. That's because the two have the same architect. We would have enjoyed seeing the chapel from the inside, but a private event had it closed to the public. 

Isn't that the way we have felt about everything in Bella Vista--we weren't invited to the private events going on in this city. We managed to get a zoomed-in picture of the church, but again we felt very un-invited in Bella Vista.

We had a pleasant two-night stay with a Boondockers Welcome family that we now consider as friends. We hope to come back some day so that Denisa and Marcy can sew together, and Denisa can see all of Marcy's wonderful crafting tools in motion! In the meantime, we always try to leave a Boondockers Welcome site better than we found it. Mark offered to mow their grass, but their mower was not working properly. So instead, Mark buried a pvc pipe that carried the electrical cord that had worked its way out of the ground.

Our summary of the differences between these two adjoining cities was how welcome we felt in each. We certainly didn't feel very welcome in Bella Vista. It might be a great place to live, but we wouldn't recommend it as a good place to visit. On the other hand, Bentonville welcomed tourists with open arms. Blessed with the money that the Walton family has plowed back into their community, they have some great places to explore--and most of them are FREE! Bentonville is a great place to visit! We will only return to Bella Vista if it was for Denisa to sew with our new Boondockers Welcome friend. But we are already anxious to return to Bentonville again to see the completed work on the new projects we saw in progress.

Happy Birthday for Mark on the Elk River

It might have been Mark's birthday, but there was no sleeping late this morning! We ate breakfast, dumped the tanks, and drove out of Crawford Lake State Park by 8:00. It was a two-hour drive to Big Elk Floats and Camping in Pineville, Missouri. We had arranged for a shuttle so we could float the Elk River. Isn't that what everyone wants to do on their birthday?

Mark drove our pickup and trailer to the take-out spot on the river, and then we paid the shuttle driver $40 to return him to the put-in spot. There was a time when we would think that was an expensive ride, but with the high price of gas it almost seemed like a bargain. Besides, that allowed us to launch our kayak from their private launch site, and end our journey at their private take-out spot.

We left at the head of the Elk River a few minutes after 11:00. We were scheduled for an eight-mile float that they estimated would take us 3-4 hours.

But the recent rains have increased the current and the water level. So we floated faster than average.

We might as well say it, because surely you have noticed how long Denisa's hair has grown this winter. It's the first time she's been able to pull it back into a pony tail for many years, and it just keeps growing!

We were entertained by the baby geese and hundreds of turtles and one snake (that's one too many!)  On this first camping trip of the year, we forgot to pack the good camera, so all we have are cell phone wildlife pictures. We completely missed the snake, but the slower turtles were better at posing.

We were also entertained by the only other boat we saw in the eight mile journey. The local high school coach was enjoying a day off of school to go fishing. He kept up with our float pace for a while, and we found out that there was only one high school in all of the fifty-mile width of McDonald County.

The wind was blowing out of the west at 8-10 miles per hour. At times it felt more like 20 miles per hour when it was in our face and we had to row against it. But the Elk is a winding river, and just around the next bend we couldn't feel any wind at all. At times we were going with the wind, and we floated quickly with the current. We had a few riffles in the water, and you can see water coming in over the bow of the kayak in the choppy water picture below. But overall the Elk River provides a family-friendly easy float in the southern part of Missouri.

We arrived at the "four mile pick up point" at 12:20. We were glad that we chose the longer trip today because we weren't ready to get off the river yet.

Coach told us that there would be thousands of people on the Elk River on a summer weekend. But we had the place to ourselves on a Monday in April. The big herons didn't even bother to fly away for one lonely boat floating by.

We knew we were close to the end of our eight-mile float when we crossed under the high railroad bridge . . . and could see the low car bridge ahead on the right.

Because the river was swollen from recent rains, we worried that there wouldn't be much clearance under the low water bridge.

But we floated under by laying down to avoid scraping our heads.

Just around the bend was our pickup and trailer--just where Mark had left them earlier on this birthday.

Also around the bend were some pretty orange poppies wishing Mark a happy birthday.

After we dried and repacked the kayak, it was a thirty-minute drive to our Boondockers Welcome host in Bella Vista, Arkansas. For those not familiar with this group, they provide free camping sites to fellow RVers on their private property. We pay an annual fee to have access to the maps and a method to contact hosts in the area where we would like to stay. Charles and Marcy welcomed us to their flat parking spot in their side yard. They also invited us over for something cool to drink. Denisa enjoyed the tour of Marcy's sewing room and also her quilting room. Before the day was over, Marcy invited Denisa back any time for a quilt-making session. They gave us good advice for the best local place to eat for Mark's birthday dinner. He even got complimentary peach cobbler and ice cream when they found out it was his birthday! Happy Birthday to the best wandering companion in God's great world!

We're On the Road Again!

We're on the road again! We had been planning this 12-day tour into the Arkansas Ozarks while we impatiently waited for winter to turn into spring. We went to early church, then loaded food into the refrigerator and freezer, and hooked the trailer to the pickup. After six months of the trailer being winterized, we were glad to flush the pink anti-freeze out of the water lines and start another season of wandering His wonders!

Our first stop was just two hours south at Kansas's Lake Crawford State Park. On a Sunday afternoon in April, we had our choice of 80 available sites, so we didn't even make a reservation. We thought we would save the $2.50 reservation fee, but found they charge a $3.00 walk-up fee. Bummer! We paid the $15 annual state park day-use fee when we renewed our Kansas tag on the pickup, and this was the first time we've used it. So we didn't have to pay today's $5 per day use fee. For some reason, it feels like we were spending more money than we were saving here at Lake Crawford!

Since this was a one-night stop, we left the pickup hooked up. On his first attempt, Mark backed perfectly into our spot in Oak Point campground. His RV driving skills weren't even rusty from taking the winter off! We have lake views in an uncrowded park on a beautiful spring day.  Since the pickup was still hooked up, our only choices for exploring the state park were on foot or on bicycle. We considered not bringing the fold-up bikes, but we were glad to have them as we started the ten-mile circle around the lake. Have we mentioned it's good to be on the road again? 

We stopped for lake views and rode the heavily shaded side roads to places like Lonesome Point.

We rode the paved road that goes all the way around Lake Crawford, and we only saw one other vehicle on this Sunday afternoon in April. We also stopped in at the butterfly garden. 

While the butterflies were few and far between in April, this hummingbird moth was sampling the pollen while Denisa snapped his picture.

We stopped at the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) museum to get information about this group. Crawford Lake was formed from a dam constructed by the CCC in the 1930's. We've seen many sights all over the United States that were built by these young unemployed men whose families were literally starving during the depression. In exchange for their labor, the young men were fed, clothed, and housed, plus paid $30 per month. $25 was sent home to their families, so they were left with $5 in "fun money" for the month. The CCC was formed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 and its goal was to enroll young men into a "peace-time army, sent into battles against the destruction of our natural resources." The natural stone structures they built almost 100 years ago are still in use today. The old stone watch tower is now a museum at Lake Crawford State Park.

This area also included a little cafe with indoor and outdoor seating. Arriving in April meant that some of the facilities were not yet open. But the purple irises out front were open.

We also walked to the Farlington Fish Hatchery just a quarter mile from the lake. It consisted of 30 ponds that stretched as far as we could see. They produce 231,123 channel catfish, 162,888 largemouth bass, and assorted sunfish, bluegill, and walleye here.

With numbers like that, perhaps even we could catch some fish here. But this area was closed to fishing.

At this point, the only thing between us and our camp site was a two-mile bike ride that included crossing the low water bridge. Because of recent rains, the water was flowing swiftly over the road. There were signs warning to not attempt to walk through the water to cross the bridge.

About this time, we heard a loud hiss right behind Mark. He had a blow out on his rear bike tire! Now what are we going to do?!? The good news was that the green slime inside the tire sealed the puncture, and it had a little bit of air left. It would be better to walk his bike home, but not across that low water crossing. What are we going to do?

It made for a very interesting ride over the low water bridge. But we made it! Now it was Denisa's job to ride behind Mark, with instructions to yell if the tire got so low that it would damage the rim.

We had to ride across the dam and through the campground. Denisa yelled more than once, but Mark just kept pedaling. While the sealant inside the inner tube stopped most of the leak, Mark was riding on very little air by the time we got back to the trailer. Being on the road again does not mean that everything goes smoothly. At the end of our first day, we enjoyed a nice sunset over Lake Crawford--still happy that we were on the road again.