With the holidays fast approaching (I swear Christmas comes earlier every year!) and all of the budget constraints involved with them we decided to slow down and wait for warmer weather.Well you know what they say about the best laid plans! With the weather transitioning between the humid days of summer to the cool days of fall the forests had begun to display one last masterpiece of beauty before the leaves fall. A collage of colors beckoned us from our windows and on the news every day. To put it simply..we couldn't resist.
We decided to visit Mount Magazine State Park and enjoy a Sunday afternoon on the mountain. We arrived and decided to have a picnic before we set out along the Greenfield trail. My wife is quite the "picnic gourmet." The kids always look forward to eating whatever she's cooked up, or maybe they just get excited because it's the only time we let them drink Mt Dew.:) Regardless, it's always a treat. As my wife prepared our feast the kids were busy collecting walnuts from around the picnic area and trying to crack them open. We enjoyed our picnic while watching the various travelers on motorcycles and various other vehicles go by. I did notice how so many were very nice. Looking at our parked "jalopy", which has been the source of apparently many jokes, I felt reinvigorated to continue working on getting more people to experience the joy and wonder of our state.
With our belies full and the kids hyped up on caffeinated soda, we started off from the picnic area to hike down the trail in search of the 10th Anniversary Cache / Human Remnants cache by hot rod on foot and bike.
The trail was wonderful!
The temperature was perfect for a hike and we were having a ball listening to the leaves crunch beneath our feet and just generally horsing around. Our six year old daughter was hiking in the lead and would occasionally stop us to tell everyone we needed to stretch or call a family meeting about whatever important topic had entered her mind. It was so cute! We made the short hike to where we needed to leave the trail and bushwhack to ground zero and find the cache. The placement of this cache was perfect. Well stocked so the kids were very excited and far enough off trail that a geo-trail shouldn't form and you could let the kids look at the contents and sign the logbook without worrying about being muggled.
The kids decided on their "treasure" and we traded items from the cache and after a quick inventory I recorded everything in the logbook as well as a thanks to the owner. The hike back was great. The boys were doing the worm and the twins even decided to roll down part of the trail. We had so much fun and it really reminds me of how the good lord has blessed our family so much. I honestly pray in thanks for all of our financial difficulties. 
I believe without those we would have lost sight of what is truly important and what true happiness is.After our hike we spent some time in the visitors center and enjoyed watching four chipmunks run around below the wildlife observation room. The kids were thrilled and a couple of older ladies really enjoyed watching the kids laugh and squeal with excitement whenever one of their furry objects of fascination would chase another or climb close to the windows. It was awesome!
Leaving the visitor we made our way to park at the trail head for Signal Hill Trail. Our thirteen year old had never visited the summit and wanted to see the state map monument there. I was also very excited at trying to attempt to recover the original triangulation station MAG.
We enjoyed the short hike up and I set about hunting the station with our oldest son. It was the first time he had ever helped me and we were both very excited about finding the "Holy grail" of Arkansas benchmarks. It wasn't too long and as I checked a location he exclaimed he saw it. Yes! I was so thrilled. We recovered the both reference marks quickly after that and then I let him find the cache. 
It was depleted of swag pretty bad so we restocked it and I signed the log indicating our visit. We took some photos and were preparing to head back but the kids asked if we could stay awhile and let them play. It's those little moments I'll always remember. All the kids were playing catch with a foam ball one of them had brought along. My wife and I sat on a nearby bench and held hands while the kids scampered around laughing. Our eight year old even told some hikers which trail they needed to take to reach the lodge. It was getting later in the afternoon and we had to sadly end our visit and head towards home. We stopped at a couple overlooks along Cameron Hill Overlook Drive on the way out for some pictures and just to soak in the view. Mount Magazine is a wonderful park and we'll look forward to returning time and time again. I hope they hold the ArkGeo annual event here next year. So far that's the only event we plan on attending if possible. We'll just have to see. We have a wish list that seems to just keep growing and growing. There are just so many wonderful places to visit and enjoy together. We're already looking over locations to camp and visit when the weather warms up. It's going to be great! Is it spring yet?
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