Tuesday April 16, 2019
The previous day, I had stopped into the Hot Springs visitors center for a trail map. The ranger gave me some good advice and her description of the trails was spot on.
I ditched the car in the free garage and started walking. The ranger warned me the start of the trail was the steepest part. Much of it looked like this...
A side trail went up a flight of stone stairs to “goat rock.” I liked the view, but expected a goat shaped rock.
Distances were indicated on the trail map, but I was doing stretched to other trails as well. Best guess, between five and six miles.
The Park Service has turned the Fordyce Bathhouse into their headquarters and a museum. Down in the basement is the men's section of the bathhouse. That's a statue of Hernando DeSoto in the center. The skylight is comprised of eight thousand pieces of glass. The design is supposed to represent Neptune's daughter, dolphins, mermaids and assorted fish.
Hwy 7 took me out of town. At some point I knew I had to cut across to Hwy 9 to get to my motel. I had plenty of time. So, when I saw a sign for the Winona Scenic Drive, I made the snap decision to check it out. Seriously, I saw the sign doing about 60mph. No hesitation. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, nor where the road would come out. It was was narrow enough that I was practically committed anyway.
What I didn’t know, I was in for twenty-seven miles of road like this...
Some stretches I was doing fifteen miles per hour and staring at the road just a few car lengths ahead. The last thing I needed to do was drive over a large, loose rock. Most of the time I was doing twenty, with the occasional stretch that were almost like pavement and I felt comfortable doing thirty.
Every once in a while there would be a break in the trees.
If there's one thing you don't want to see on a road like this, it's a fork. At the seven mile point, I came to one. By now, I was well off cell service. The road wasn't on either my road map or the GPS. I could go straight, or follow the partially hidden sign showing a picture of a car
Just up the road from the car sign was this.
Twenty-three more miles to go. At least I knew where it was going. One mystery solved. My other concern was the possibility that the road would be impassible at some point, especially considering the storm a few days prior. I hated the idea of turning around. It was a tight squeeze when the first Jeep passed me coming the other way. At least I knew the way was clear.
I passed numerous short side roads to scenic vistas. I only took the ones that seemed okay. Others looked a little rough.
There was also a sign for Flatside Pinnacle. A dirt road led off around a blind curve. With no way to know how far it was, I passed. It turns out the road is two miles to a trailhead to the pinnacles. I had the time, I just had no way of knowing. In hindsight, it's definitely a place to consider a revisit.
You can imagine how good it felt to be back on pavement on Hwy 9. So, how dusty was it? The black leather tire cover on the back of my CR-V was now beige.
My home for the night was the Morrilton Days Inn, just thirty miles further. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and decided to stop at the first non-chain restaurant I came across, no matter what. That turned out to be Colton’s Steakhouse. I hadn’t had a steak in a long time and it was oh so nice. I used this rule numerous times on this trip. It would provide some interesting culinary experiences.
The Days Inn is exactly what I expected. To their credit, they spread the guests out, so it was nice and quiet. My only issue, they put me in the furthest room from the lobby. The room was perfectly fine. But, once again the wifi was weak. I wound up taking my laptop to the lobby to write up some notes for the day and figure out just where I had driven. First World Problems.
With sunset looming, I took a short walk to a parking area up the road. Being wide open, I had a pretty clear view of the waning sun. In the end, this is what I got.
I wasn’t in the mood for food again, but two doors down was a small restaurant and bar called Yesterdays. The beer list included the usual choices. Sipping a Stella, I was much humored by the animated conversation a few seats down at the bar. A group of four twenty-somethings were debating who did “In the Air Tonight” better. Was it Phil Collins or Shinedown. The bartender kept coming back and chastising them for their use of the f-word.
Coming up...
No, the other Paris
No comments:
Post a Comment