Friday, September 23, 2016
We were glad to leave Fayetteville! The bikers were up late last night, revving up their engines, and generally having FUN I guess.
Anyway, we drove just a short distance southwest of Fayetteville to the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park. Prairie Grove Battlefield has been nationally recognized as one of the most intact Civil War sites. Prairie Grove (December 7, 1862) marked the last major Civil War engagement in northwest Arkansas. We checked out the Museum first then we enjoyed the self-guided walking tour and all the history along the way. We also did the self-guided driving tour. A very well done and well preserved place in history.
I love this old tree!
After touring the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park we once again headed west and in no time at all we were in Oklahoma! We immediately saw this sign......
.....this is where we should have drove to yesterday evening (in hindsight) instead of paying that outrageous price for a room in Fayetteville. Oh well.
What a beautiful area! The Falls are suffering from the extended dry weather we have had but it is still quite lush and enjoyable.
We continued westward. Our next destination was Pawhuska, Ok.
I have followed the Pioneer Woman blog for several years, I have also bought all of the Pioneer Woman Cookbooks, I have even met the Pioneer Woman (at a book signing in Dallas) and got her to autograph my cookbooks, so I was looking forward to visiting her new PW Mercantile in Pawhuska, Ok.
However, before we left on this vacation she moved her opening date up a month.......Oh well.
We enjoyed walking and looking around the small town since we were there anyway. This is very unusual wedge-shaped building in Pawhuska.
We climbed the many steps up to the Courthouse and got a good view of the surrounding area from atop the hill.
Next we headed south to the tiny town of Hominy, Ok. Hominy is home to several sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We toured the Fred Drummond Home, built in 1905 by Fred and Addie Drummond who had built one of the most successful trading and ranching operations in Oklahoma.
We admired this wall covered in murals depicting local history.
This is the Marland Oil Station, built in 1921, along with more than 50 of the same design across the state. After Marland was bought by Conoco, the building became home to Hominy's historical archives.
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Last evening we drove to the outskirts of Tulsa where we found a nice hotel for the night.
We planned to check out a park in Tulsa. When we arrived we discovered that there was a benefit run in progress so a lot of streets were blocked off and there were hundreds of runners and also more hundreds of folks along the way cheering on the participants. But we managed to find a place to park and enjoyed walking around.
Cool cut-outs on the bridge railings over the RR.
I guess we were in the Arts district?
Needless to say we were soon ready to head south and try to make it home this day. This is the sign we have been longing to see!
Welcome to Texas! No place like home!
Thursday, September 22, 2016
We got a good night's sleep in a nice hotel in Russellville, Arkansas last night and are ready for another day of adventure.
We drove north and found scenic Hwy. 123 toward Haw Creek Falls. Just before arriving there,
we encountered this....
Now what?
We waited a few minutes and the workmen lifted up their truck's jacks to let us pass thru.
Right afterward was the entrance to Haw Creek Falls National Campground.
We immediately had to drive across a low-water crossing....
.....the Falls were amazing!
We are the only ones here today but I can only imagine that this must be a popular place in the Summer time for kids to play along this creek and in the Falls.
Yep, we had to drive back across the creek on our way out!
Our next stop was at the Alum Cove Natural Bridge.
We hiked a half mile trail to get to see this Natural Bridge.
We then headed up to the Buffalo National River in search of Whittaker Point, the most photographed rock in Arkansas.
After searching in vain, we finally stopped in Ponca, Ark. at a local store to ask for directions. The lady working there was very familiar with Whitaker Point and kindly gave us directions.
Boxley Canyon on the Buffalo River is a very beautiful area.
The directions we were given seemed so easy and a short distance, however we had to navigate the most steep and frightening one-lane gravel road curving up, up, up the mountain (too scary to get my camera out to take a photo!) it went on and on until we felt sure the directions must be wrong? But eventually we came to tiny trailhead parking area. Yea, we made it!
We did our duty and signed in at the trail register.
We had read about this place in a brochure or magazine somewhere along the way. It is a popular destination. Hard to find though. We did see several others on the trail out to the Point.
Along the way there were many dramatic rock formations high above the river valley.
But this is Whittaker Point/Hawksbill Craig!
Reminiscent of McAfee Knob on the Appalachian Trail!
Pretty amazing!
After our frolic on the cliffs, we headed out west (not the way we came in!) to Red Star, the road much more to our liking. We hit Hwy. 16 toward Fayetteville. There are many, many motorcycles also heading toward Fayetteville?
Unbeknownst to us, there will be a half million people (most of them on motorcycles) in Fayetteville this weekend for the Bikers-Blues-Bar B Q Festival. Oh my how did we get so lucky!
Needless to say, we felt price-gouged by the only hotel we could find with a room available for the night. Lesson learned.....Check ahead of our vacation for any possible festivals in towns we will be visiting. Also in hindsight, there was an awesome State Park just a few miles past Fayetteville! Oh well..........
