Devil's Den 2011

Our 2011 Family Vacation was to Devil's Den State Park in northwestern Arkansas for July 4th week.

Duration, timing and travel time:

We drove there on Monday and came home on Friday and that was plenty of time for this trip. It's about 7 hours drive time including rest and lunch stops. July is too deep into the

summer to vacation in Arkansas!! Hot, hot, hot!

Accommodations:

We stayed in a cabin that was built during the depression by the CCC. We made the reservation in mid-April and it was literally the last cabin available in an Arkansas state park for the whole summer. The rate was very reasonable at around $100/night. It was a studio, so smaller than we would have liked, but we managed by pitching our 2 man tent in the living room each night. That made a place for Sophie to sleep without the worry of her falling off the futon couch or getting up in the middle of the night with her feeding tube. The look and feel of the cabin was really cozy and everything was very comfortable. The kitchen was fully equipped, and there was a picnic table outside with a grill. The cabin was on a hill and was near other cabins but still private. This was not really roughing it as the cabin had AC, satellite TV, DVD player, and some sort of game system. It also had an impressive fireplace that was closed for the summer.

What to do:

This park has some really nice hiking trails. They weren't as challenging as Petit Jean, but there easily were enough shaded trails to hike a few hours for three days.

On Tuesday we did the Devil's Den trail and saw three interesting animals of note. We scared a dear sleeping near the river and got to see her run right past us. We also saw a cool tiny brown frog and an armadillo. It's fun to share these experiences with Sophie since she's pretty interested in animals.

Wednesday was our longest hike. We packed a lunch and did a 4 mile loop trail that was moderately interesting. Sophie went tee tee in the great outdoors for the first time. We sang lots of songs while hiking and got Sophie involved with the singing. She seemed to enjoy the responsibility of the 'boom boom boom' in Alice the Camel, but it did take alot of prompting. Brian and I got chiggers on this hike, so that's unfortunate.

We enjoyed a fun and informative Ranger led hike on Thursday morning to Yellow Rock. The views were great and we met some interesting people. We learned about the caves in the park which are more crevices that true caves. There's a large bat population in the park, and all of the caves were closed to protect the bats from a fungus that is killing bats in other parts of the country. We heard that the caves used to be fun to tour. They've been closed for years and may be closed for a long time to come.

Every late afternoon included time at the swimming pool. The park has a large play pool with two slides that Brian and I enjoyed. Sophie liked the wide steps that spanned the width of the pool. Since they allowed floaties in the pool, Sophie had some independence. She's very comfortable with the water but not swimming yet. The pool also had a sprinkler area that was a good diversion. This pic is of the edge of the small sprinkler area and doesn't show the sprinkler. The actual pool was pretty large but we didn't get a picture.

Sophie also enjoyed the luxury of satellite TV and watched Nick Jr for an hour or so in the heat of the day. There was also a very nice playground an easy walk from the cabin that we visited most evenings. The park is in a valley with a small river running through it. A portion was dammed off and canoes and paddle boats were available for rent. The open part of the river was really small due to some flood damage earlier this year. We did a short trip in a paddle boat which wasn't too exciting but did make for a cute picture.

The park also has a small store, snack-bar type restaurant for breakfast and lunch which we didn't visit, and laundry facilities.

Other points

Always travel with antihistamines. I had an allergy attach mid-week that made me pretty miserable for a day or so. We had to make a trip into town to buy medicine, an hour's round trip ride.

No cell phone coverage, but there was free wi-fi in the main visitor area near the pool and store.

July is too late! This trip would be better in early June before it gets so hot.

Plan trips to Arkansas sooner to ensure better cabin selection. We got really lucky this year. Try making a reservation by December.

May 2010 Vacation - Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas

May 2010 Vacation
Stats:
Dates: Sunday May 16 through Friday May 21
Destination: Petit Jean State Park, outside of Morrilton, Arkansas
Accommodations: Duplex one bedroom cabin rental with kitchen, 5 nights
Activities: Hiking, play grounds
Car time: ~ 7 hours each way including play stops
Temperature: mid-high 80s mid-day, 60s at night.
Sophie’s age: 2
Cost: Cabin @ $100/night for 5 nights plus tax = $540.
Dog sitting @ $36/day for 5 days = $180
Diesel, 1 tank = $48
Automobile Museum = $15
Total: $783 not including food which was similar to at home

General Overview:
This is an excellent destination for a family vacation. The main activities are hiking, swimming, and lake activities. Our main activity was hiking because the boat rental doesn’t open until Memorial Day and the swimming pool was still pretty cold. While our plans for fishing and swimming were out, there was still plenty of other activity for a 4 day stay. We would definitely consider coming back on a family vacation or inviting friends and family to join us at this park. We liked the Sunday-Thursday night stay because it was less crowded. (Apparently, weekend cabin rentals book up for the summer before mid-April when we planned the trip.) The park has both cabins and a lodge with restaurant. I suspect the park is pretty crowded on the weekends and during the summer. The park is on a mountain with spectacular overlooks at ravines and the river valley farm land. There’s been talk of making this a national park and it compares favorably with Smoky Mountain NP.

Hiking:
The hiking is challenging but the trails are generally not all that long. Three of the trails are designated national recreation trails. We’re not sure what that means, but they were pretty awesome. There are 5 trails that lead to interesting natural features and one long loop trail that encompasses the whole park (Boy Scout Trail). The BSA trail can be used to link together various hikes to make trips ranging from as short as ½ mile to 8 miles. We took hikes every day ranging from 1½ hours to 4 hours and never did the same hike twice. Hiking was fine with Sophie since she rides in the backpack, but I doubt a child under 6 could handle the hikes on their own.
The main draw is Cedar Falls. The falls can be seen in two ways. The most exciting is the hike to the falls from the lodge. This is certainly the most popular trail and was fairly crowded even on a week day in May. The trail is practically straight down the mountain, so there is some challenging terrain. It takes about 2 hours to hike to the falls and back. The second option for viewing the falls is from an overlook on the top of the mountain. There’s a boardwalk leading to the overlook, but it’s still a fairly long walk. Approximately half a mile round trip.
Other interesting hike features include huge rock formations, caves with native pictographs, turtle rocks, and mountain streams. All the trails included steep descents into canyons and crossing some streams.

Facilities:
We rented a duplex cabin that was really great. It was one bedroom with a full size bed and twin bed in the bedroom and a sofa bed in the living room. The living room had a basic TV (no DVD) and glider chair. The kitchen was fully equipped but not extravagant and included a kitchen table. Along the back of the cabin was a screened-in porch complete with a porch swing. Behind the screened porch was a deck with a picnic table and charcoal grill. The deck was fully railed which was necessary since it was elevated. We had three different neighbors during our five night stay and only one night was bad. Who would expect people to party on Monday night? This is the risk with a duplex. They also had single cabins mixed in and it would be worth trying to get one of those if we go alone again. The duplex feature would be great if we’re in a group and want to rent both sides. There are two cabins that allow dogs for an additional fee. The view from our deck was really spectacular. The lodge & cabins are on a point and there was a cliff about 20 feet behind most of the cabins. No letting Sophie run free! The first few cabins were not next to the cliff, so it might be worth trying to get one of those. We’d lose the view, but gain the freedom of letting Sophie play outside.

Here’s what we saw of other facilities: lots of camping sites. It looked like there were separate tent sites from the RVs. The lodge has hotel rooms and there are also cabins that don’t have kitchens. The lodge restaurant was okay but not fantastic. The best feature was the awesome view. There aren’t many restaurant choices within a 20 minute drive. Having a kitchen is a real plus if staying more than a day.



Playgrounds:
This has become an important consideration for travel plans. We visited at least one playground every day. The area has a large variety of playgrounds. The cabins have a small playground that was old and not fancy, but Sophie still enjoyed it. In the day use area near the lake, there’s a large playground with modern equipment. This wasn’t really ideal for kids her size and close supervision was required, but she really loved it. The nearest town to the park is Opello and it has a very nice playground for young kids at the city park. There’s not much else in Opello. No grocery store or restaurants. The nearest big town is Morrillton. It’s about 20 miles from Petit Jean SP. We found their main city park and it had really good playground facilities for kids of all ages.

Other attractions and notes:
There’s an automobile museum that we visited one morning. There had been a big storm the night before, so we wanted to let the water drain some before doing the daily hike. Brian was more interested in the automobile museum than I was, but we both enjoyed it. Sophie was happy as long as I kept passing cheerios back to her in the backpack. She has no appreciation for old cars at all.
We saw signs for a petting zoo but didn’t pursue it.
The Rockefeller Institute is also on the mountain. It might have some interesting lectures for a future visit.
During the summer, there are boat rentals available. It looked like they had canoes, Johnny boats, and paddle boats. We walked to the fishing pier and the lake was really peaceful.
There’s a swimming pool at the lodge for lodge/cabin guests. There’s also a large pool with slides at the day use area, but it doesn’t open until Memorial Day.
The nearest grocery store is in Morrillton. The produce department is teeny tiny, but there are 5 different choices of baloney. There’s a Wal-mart near the interstate in Morrillton, but we didn’t go that far. I’m sure there are other restaurant and store options there.
About the pronunciation: Everyone uses the American pronunciation for Petit Jean, but it was originally the French pronunciation. The mountain got it’s name from a French exploration party.