Where are the white cliffs of White Cliffs Campground?

We headed to our next camping spot at White Cliffs Corp of Engineer campground on a soggy day. When we arrived, we wondered, "Where did they get that name for this campground?" We saw no white cliffs--only trees and wildflowers. Because this camp site is so isolated, our travel day had stops at Walmart for groceries, and another stop for diesel. There was still rain on the windshield when we finally crossed into Arkansas. Instantly, the speed limit changed from 70 to 55, even though we were on the same highway. Obviously, "the natural state" wants its passengers to drive slowly and enjoy the natural scenery. 

We brag on Texas roads, and we got another reminder that not all states think that wide lanes and big shoulders are important. Our drive into southwest Arkansas today took us through a winding and patched ribbon of highway that wasn't even wide enough to warrant white lines on the crumbling asphalt edges.

Our destination is a Corp of Engineer park that we were surprised to see had an opening for the weekend. Now we know why. It is a little (ahem) off the beaten track. As we drove further on these narrow Arkansas roads, we saw a message on the GPS that we had never seen before, "Leave the road."

That's because this very nice campground is literally at the end of the highway.

Situated right on the Little River, the campsites at the White Cliffs Corp of Engineer campground are separated by that road that just brought us here, and then disappeared into the forest and the wildflowers.

We found out quickly that the main reason to be at White Cliffs campground is the Little River. Actually we see that Little River isn't such a small river.

The main reason to come here is to fish in Little River, and then meet all of your friends and relatives for a fish fry on Saturday night. It seemed like all of the camp sites had three pickups and two boats and 17 chairs circled around the picnic table. So we were a little out of place with our single pickup. With the high-speed boat traffic on the river, we didn't even feel comfortable putting our little inflatable kayak on the water during our stay. We won't have any 18-wheeler truck traffic noise at this camp site, but we certainly do have loud boat traffic.

We have noticed that fishermen tend to bring their dogs camping with them. This little dog was on a tether that allowed him to spend time right under our bedroom window, barking and whining at odd hours of the night.

So even though our stay at the White Cliffs was mostly restful, we have come to appreciate the fact that most dog owners keep their dogs inside their RVs where they can enjoy them. Since we weren't fishing or boating, it was a good place to do research for our upcoming Alaska trip. We got some reservations done and some decisions made about how and where we will travel once we fly to Anchorage. So it was a perfectly relaxing place to be right now (even though we didn't have a very fast internet connection at such a remote location.)

Even though we were remote, the dogs and weekend activity kept the wildlife away. Our only wildlife picture of the stay was this little creature. We are not experts, but we think this is a skink. He was enjoying a little sunshine when Denisa caught him outside of his home in the notch of a log.

But we still had to solve the mystery, "Why is this campground on the river, surrounded by forest and wildflowers, named White Cliffs?"

We found our answer on the third day, when we headed up the only hiking trail in the area. Even though they were totally obscured from our vision at the campground, it didn't take long to find the cliffs of white.

The gate keeper told us that there used to be a mill that mined the white powdery cliffs. The powder was floated down the river in boats and loaded into train cars. It was used to make cement years ago. The mining operation left enough of the cliffs for a short hike for us today.

We've had more rain, so that explains why everything is so richly green here in Arkansas. Our hike was a little muddy, and that mud seemed to stick to our hiking boots like--you guessed it--cement.

During our three-day visit, we got most of our exercise walking the paved highway that suddenly turned into a campground in a forest. But this day we were hiking the white cliffs.

It was a three-day stop where we never moved the pickup. We enjoyed walks down by the Little River for some nice sunset views. We'll count it a successful stay since we accomplished some travel planning and solved the mystery of "Where are the white cliffs of White Cliffs Corp of Engineer Campground?"