Bright yellow leaves shine on top of Mount Magazine in Arkansas.
I followed
my own advice this weekend and headed south. I was not disappointed.
At all.
Sunday morning, aided by the time change, two of my three brothers and I headed to the highest point in Arkansas for an early morning hike around the top. As I said in my blog post last week, the southern part of Arkansas and Oklahoma were not quite at peak foliage while northern parts of the states had already seen peak come and go. But between, along the Arkansas River Valley where we were, we found the peak.
And I took way, way too many photos. I’ll now share those with you, because I’m just that generous.
First, we went to
Mount Magazine State Park, about an hour south and east from the family homestead in western Arkansas and about 2 and a half hours southeast of Tulsa. The yellow, red and orange leaves were vibrant in the bright morning sun and even more vibrant against the deep blue sky.
A lodge was just built at the top of Mount Magazine that faces south across a long valley to the Ouachita Mountains. It’s a long way down and a long way across.
After taking that in, and finding this little guy:
We took to the North Rim Trail, which went along the edge of the cliff facing the Arkansas River and Ozark Mountains. Here is where we found this. Words escape me, so I’ll just leave these here.
And you absolutely must click through to see this,
a panorama I took from this lookout point along the trail.
Incredible. We sat there on the cold rocks looking over the vast expanse, taking in all the color nearly as long as it took to hike the 4-ish miles.
Here is another point along the trail. On top of the mountain there is a hill. That high point right there is Signal Hill, the highest point in Arkansas at 2,753 feet.
Those were by far the best views of the trip. The rest of the hike was through the fallen leaves, bare trees and my brothers’ silliness.
As you can see there, the trees at the top of the mountain were nearly bare already and there were spots through the forest where the gray limbs stuck through the bright colors. So, it’s fading fast.
But you still have time! Head to the
Ouachitas this weekend!
Send me you photos! And follow me on the Twitters
@jerrywofford to see more of my adventures!
--Jerry Wofford
