Exploring Petit Jean State Park

Well I was wrong.  I DID take a photo of our tent set up at Petit Jean State Park!  (Tom found the photo for me!)

It was warm enough that we opted to not even put on our tent's rainfly, therefore enjoying more airflow thru the tent.

 

Rather than driving down to the Lodge to the Cedar Falls Trailhead, we decided to walk the paved bike/walk pathway, a decision we may later regret since it was further than we thought?

 

Along the way to the Lodge we came upon this CCC Memorial.

 

We pushed on thru the Lodge, to the Cedar Falls Trailhead.

We checked out the Cedar Falls Overlook Boardwalk yesterday so today we want to venture down into the canyon to view the Falls up close.

 As promised, the trail was a bit challenging!  But I have Pyro along to help and protect me.......see how he is holding up this huge fallen tree trunk so I can pass under.

                                                     What a guy!

This is a much used trail, well marked with orange blazes, a well manicured path, and this awesome bridge across this small flowing creek.  Small today because the weather has been warm and dry for awhile however we can see along the sides of the creek where the water level has reached during heavy rain and runoff.

Here is my awesome Pyro once again helping me by holding up this massive boulder while I pass thru!  As I said "What a guy!"

                              On and on we go toward Cedar Falls.

 Most of the trail was challenging but there was a nice flat stretch near the bottom of the canyon before the Falls.

 Due to the extended dry hot weather we have had the Falls are quite small today.

 But it was so cool and peaceful we sat on the rocks for some time just enjoying the tranquility and the solitude. 

Needles to say, the walk back to the top was tougher than the walk down.  What goes down, must go up!  AND, we still have the long walk on the paved bike/walk path to get back to our campsite.  What were we thinking?

But after taking a short break and grabbing something to eat at our campsite, we decide to do a little more exploring by car so we drove around to Red Bluff Drive for some incredible views of the valley below.

 We passed by a large University of Arkansas complex.

As always we admired the enduring work of the CCC as shown here at this overlook.

We then continued along Red Bluff Drive to the Rock House Cave.

 To reach the Rock House Cave, the path crosses over what looks like a turtle's back,

                                        aptly named "Turtle Rocks".

                          Rock House Cave!

                                                  Awesome!

 Then we began our ascent back to our car......

                        .......not really, my Pyro is just having fun!

On to the Arkansas River in my next post........