Petit Jean State Park with Surprise Guests!

It's hard for our sons to keep up with what state we are traveling in. Our blog is often a week behind, and we are crossing state lines pretty fast right now. So when our youngest son called us, he was surprised to hear we were in Arkansas. Interestingly enough, he and his girl friend were going to be in Arkansas this weekend as well. So let's go hiking together!

But we must back up a few hours to when they arrived for an evening of playing games, eating cookies, and playing piano duets. We also told them about the dog agility competition, so we started our next day there. They thought the dogs jumping over barriers through the course was interesting too.

We stayed long enough for them to get to see some of the dogs making their way through the more complicated obstacle course as well. Some of the people we met the day before were surprised to see us back again. There obviously aren't many random returning spectators at these events.

After getting our doggy-fix, we made the 45-minute drive over to Petit Jean State Park for some hiking.

We kept our feet on the ground some times, but this group also did a lot of rock scrambling and tree balancing. Claire's ballet training makes her an excellent tree walker.

She also likes the heights almost as much as Mark. We have now hiked to Natural Bridge, and Claire and Mark climbed to the top of the arch.

It's hard to get a picture of the arch because tree foliage fills in the arch. The best we could do was a picture of Blake standing under the arch, and Claire and Mark waving from the top.

We also got a  picture of the four of us standing under the arch.

When Mark googled, "Best Hikes in Arkansas" the Seven Hollows trail at Petit Jean state park came up as the number one in his search. We liked it because there were lots of things to see along the trail. There were caves to explore,

rock piles to scramble over,

tall rock wall lanes to walk through,

and crevices to lay in.

The swirly rocks were very picturesque,  especially with a couple of handsome guys on them.

There are also "turtle rocks" at Petit Jean. Denisa and Claire are on one of the boulders that look just like a turtle's shell.

Here's a picture of the two of them from a distance, just to show that Denisa likes rock scrambling too.

We took the half-mile spur trail towards another main feature on this Seven Hollows Trail.

That trail brought us to the beautiful Grotto at the end of the spur. 

It's hard to take one picture that show how big this giant cave opening is, so we obviously took many.

At a wetter time of the year, there is also a waterfall at the side of the grotto, and water that runs through the cave opening. But Arkansas is experiencing the same drought that we have seen all over the east.

There's still enough moisture to keep that lower green stripe of ferns and velvety moss growing even this time of year.

The last mile or so of the hike was under tall trees flanked by even taller rock walls. This 4.5 mile hike is interesting, entertaining, and beautiful. We can see why many people think it is the best in the state.

We saw lots of yellow and brown leaves on our hike, but much of the forest is still green in this part of Arkansas. It was fun to see this American Beautyberry plant, turning its branches into shish kabobs of bright purple berries. The local birds and deer love this purple delicacy.

Blake cleared enough pictures off his phone from the last time he visited us in Virginia, to take one more picture at Petit Jean State Park. He still has to wash clothes and pack for a business trip tomorrow, so they had to leave quickly after our hike. It's a 4.5 hour drive back to Oklahoma City, and he had a full evening of tasks ahead of him when he got home.

So we bid them farewell on this surprise visit. In 2016, we have seen Blake in Little Rock, Arkansas for his birthday in March; in the mountains of northern Georgia in May; at the ocean in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in June; back in Oklahoma in August; in Virginia and West Virginia in October; and here in the hills of Arkansas in November. We'll also see him back in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving and Christmas. He obviously loves to travel as much as we do, and he has a job with good vacation time and flexibility that allows that.

It was still light enough to spend some more time exploring Petit Jean State Park after Blake and Claire left. So we hiked down to the Cedar Falls Overlook. The falls are hidden far below in the shadowed area in the center of the picture. We remember hiking to the falls on a family vacation with our sons many years ago.

This is a good place to see another of the strange rock formations in this park. This is an example of the carpet rocks.

This phenomenon is caused from fractures in the sandstone long ago that were filled with quartz. When the softer sandstone eroded away, the patterns of the fractures can be seen in the harder quartz that is left behind.

We wish that Blake and Claire would have had a few more minutes to play with us at the Bear Cave trail. It winds around huge boulders that make Denisa look tiny.

Some of the boulders lay so close that they make a tiny key hole, with the lowering sun lighting up the narrow chasm.

We scrambled up and over and through the rocks. We could have spent more time here if our legs weren't already tired from our earlier hike.

This is truly a playground for rock scramblers. It's also a beautiful place to see. We have once again wandered into another of God's wonders.

We don't like how very early it is getting dark with the time change. On our drive home, this gaggle of geese flew right over us as they were looking for a place to bed down for the night.

We too were looking for our bed back at Toad Suck Campground as the sun was sinking in the sky. It had been a beautiful weather day filled with a great hike with fun people. What a surprise this full-time life-style has been!