Adventure In The Ozarks

We had originally planned to spend the weekend of June 21 camping at Lake Dardanelle State Park. I really wanted to hunt old river runners "Main Street" cache but our plans fell through. We settled on traveling north along old highway 71 to do some caching and visit some waterfalls. Our day was to conclude with a visit to Devil's Den State Park and the Devil's Den cave.

We left out early Saturday morning and started down scenic 71. It really is a beautiful drive. We traveled north until we reached Mountainburg and the MPC Walk cache. It was a great cache located behind a church on a neat little walking trail. We let the kids take a GPS each and conduct the hunt themselves which really added to their enjoyment. You can tell that by the look of victory on our son's face. They enjoyed it alot and it was just the beginning of what would be one of our best weekends ever!

After finding the MPC Walk cache we made our way to Artist Point Gift Shop. It's a neat little roadside attraction that has a mini-museum inside and of course tons of souvenirs. The best thing about it was there is a privately owned trail behind the store,(owned by the gift shop owners), which leads down to a wonderful waterfall named Artist Point Falls of course. The trail was great! There were some Indian carvings and a natural rock bridge along the way. The falls were running pretty well for late June and were well worth the trip. It was a very popular trail too! We met tons of other hikers and took loads of photos. Round trip it was 1.3 miles. It was a little steep going in and of course the hard part which is hiking out. The kids were fantastic. They just hiked along. The whole family just enjoyed ourselves being together and being among the wonderous beauty of the Ozark mountains. There's a magic at that location I can't quite put my finger on but we had the time of our lives. The photo on the right is about the best one my wife and I have ever had taken of us together and as a bonus our five year old son took it. It was taken along the trail after we had arrived at the falls and you can tell we were enjoying ourselves. It's a wonderful memory we'll always have and the day only got better from there.

After hiking to the falls we grabbed a few geocaches along the way and even recovered the Gaylor triangulation station. Seeing the tower was neat and we visited with someone who lived next door to the azimuth mark. Her kids even helped me find it. Of course bothe her kids and ours played for awhile while we talked about how it was such a shame to see this unique area so deteriorated due to the interstate being put in.

We arrived at Devil's Den State Park early afternoon and made a half hearted attempt to find a cache there but we were hungry so we gave up and had a picnic. Let me tell you, when Mrs. Navigator puts together a picnic it is out of this world! Yet another reason I'm on a diet. LOL : ). After filling our bellies and the kids playing at the playground, we started our hike along Devil's Den Trail. It's a self guided tour that is just packed with tons of things to see and explore. Our main goal was to explore Devil's Den Cave. I was a little worried about how the twins would do but once we got in there they absolutely loved it! The cave itself is 550 feet long. We were climbing around getting muddy and wet but also having the time of our lives. We made it roughly 450 feet into the cave before I decided it was time to turn around. It does get a little technical towards the end and with the kids and the lights we had it just wasn't the right time. I never could have imagined that I would have had three kids upset about leaving a dark cave!

We were so excited after exciting the cave we decided to just go ahead and hike the remainder of the trail. There was a lot to see. Even another waterfall which unfortunately wasn't flowing very well despite it having rained on us for a short while during our hike. It did provide a nice place to get your head wet and cool down though!

We got back to the trailhead and cleaned the kids up before our return trip home. As we drove back the way we came to take I-540 for the return trip home we saw seven deer along the road.

The following day we took the kids swimming at Natural Dam. That location is just spectacular. The locals have trashed it pretty bad which is a shame. When we finally found the cache there it was destroyed. It's an older cache and the can had started leaking ruining the contents. I had an extra on hand so I replaced it and the swag. In a weird way I felt honored to help out in keeping such a fantastic cache going. I'm taking the summer kids out again later this week and then we're planning a trip to the Womble Road Auto Tour and all the neat caches placed there. I just love summer. Happy Caching!