Sunday, June 27, 2021

Eastward, Ho! Day 22: Indian Rock House and Arkansas Natural Bridge

 Sunday, June 27

We would end up driving around 80 miles today, first we drove over to Fairfield Bay and the Indian Cave attraction located next to the Little Red Restaurant.

There's a small but varied collection of vintage devices, stuffed animals, books and household items in the visitor center, but I just got a picture of the animals:


One of three totem poles in the Fairfield Bay area dedicated to
the 200th Anniversary of the signing of the Bill of Rights

The original homesteader's cabin, moved here to avoid being flooded
by nearby dam construction.  Believed to have been built in the 1860s.

I believe this is the main site for the petroglyphs.


Though apparently located right above the sign, Martha and I could only spot #5 and #3 of the petroglyphs.  Of my pics, only the one of #5 came out usable:



We went further along the trail, looking at smaller versions of the cave and rock formations.


Then, we managed to lose the trail and ended up walking quite a bit until we found our way back to the Little Red Restaurant!

Next on the itinerary was a drive over to the vicinity of the town of Clinton, AR.  Arkansas' Natural Bridge, I guess would be quite impressive to someone who hasn't seen the rock arches of Utah, but it was OK.

The best part of the visit was the drop of 470 feet or 47 stories in altitude via the steep road used to drive down to the arch's location!  It was originally a logging road and later a wagon road for settlers.  It must have been quite the ride down and up!

The round rock spheres are apparently naturally occurring.
Prim Rocks of Arkansas is what you google is you're curious

An example of the wagons that used the access road we drove on
to cross the area.






Not sure it was worth the $5 per person admission fee but there you go.  Perhaps if they let you on top of the bridge but in today's litigious culture, I can understand why its prohibited.

We then kept driving around the Greer Ferry Lake, through the town of Clinton where we got briefly rained on.  Then a short excursion to the Mill Creek Campground to check out possible sunset pic spots (nogo) and then back to Greers Ferry and the campsite.

Happy to continue to report we returned to camp with the same amount of coolant in the reservoir that we started with, no smoky starts and the temperature gauge nice and steady in the middle of the gauge.



6 comments:

SonjaM said...

The petroglyphs cave looks very interesting, Dom. Thanks for taking me there. As for the natural bridge... I have seen more spectacular sites without having to pay a fee to visit.

redlegsrides said...

My thoughts exactly SonjaM!

RichardM said...

I guess anything for a buck (or five). The caves and the petroglyphs were interesting. And, no smoke may be a win!

redlegsrides said...

Definitely counting the no smoke as a win for now!

Blaze Our Way said...

You find some of the most interesting places to visit! Could you imagine what that rock bridge would look like if they allowed people to climb on it. Blech!

I can't believe the scale of the cave! I was thinking it was generally "normal" sized until you put Martha in there. Wow!!

redlegsrides said...

Lori, it was quite the cave though a bit shallow....the petroglyphs were "ok", the many signs of imbeciles carving their names on the walls leading to the cave, and some in the cave as well, well that was a negative but what can you do?

And yes, I can see the point of allowing imbeciles on top of the bridge, I'm sure they'd find a way to ruin it or fall off it.