In Which You Just Have to Take my Word for It

Although I have plenty of beautiful pictures to share, my camera cord and I are about a thousand miles apart, so they will have to wait.  Yesterday we visited the Petit Jean State Park near Morrilton, Arkansas.  We were blessed with a beautiful, mild winter day and completely enjoyed it.  My brother lives near both Pinnacle Mountain and Petit Jean Mountain.  We picked Petit Jean because it has a spectacular 90 foot waterfall.  The trail to the waterfall was 2 miles roundtrip and listed as "moderate to hard."  If you are thinking we were a little fool-hardy to go on such a trail with 3 little kids...well you would not be too far off base...and not only because significant portions of the trail were flooded.

The trail started off with a steep decent down the mountain - about 1/2 miles worth - all crude steps made out of uncut stones by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.  At the bottom, you cross a footbridge over raging rapids and then follow a winding, rocky (and by no means flat) path up the river to the waterfall.  During this time of the year (and especially because we had heavy rains the day before) the waterfall is at its biggest - and it was immense and amazing and worth the effort it took to get there, which is saying a lot!

You can also view the waterfall from an observation deck down a wheelchair accessible boardwalk at the top of the mountain (about 0.1 mile in length) - the waterfall is just as impressive, but it was somehow extra satisfying to look down on it knowing that we had just been at its feet. 

The kids held up pretty well.  I knew Caleb had the stamina to walk 2 miles, I wasn't expecting it to be so rugged, but he walked the whole thing pretty easily.  Annalise I thought would need to be carried some, but she didn't start asking until the return trip.  Most of the trail though was difficult enough that it was really too hard to carry her far (a job we heaped on my brother!). They both liked the waterfall and the trail, and were very tired when we got back to the van!  Rob carried Natalie the whole way - again, maybe not the wisest decision we've ever made, but she sang the whole way, had a fabulous time and Rob is an experienced enough hiker that it was ok.  The pictures, I hope to post next week, but you can always find pictures of the waterfall online.