Petit Jean State Park - Cedar Falls

Our arrival here at Petit Jean State Park wasn't exactly uneventful.  Thankfully, we arrived on a Tuesday, and the place was pretty quiet & peaceful.  Our reserved site was technically plenty long enough to accommodate our 40' rig, but despite being a pull-through, it was so curved and there were so many trees hugging it that there was no way to actually safely get in.  Steve pulled in just enough to get off the road, then called to let them know the site wouldn't work; they were flexible, of course.  Backing out of that site proved to be rather sticky...I don't personally like to see trees, or any obstacle for that matter, quite so close to the rig!  Kudos to Steve though because he did indeed extricate the truck & rig from the site without hitting anything!

Off we went in search of another site.  We found a back-in site we liked.  There were also plenty-o-plenty of trees lining the site itself and also lining the road opposite the site.  Considering how long we've been doing this, it's slightly embarrassing to admit how long it took us to get the rig parked....but, once again, we did it, without incurring damage.  Thank goodness the campground was nearly empty because we would surely have been tying up traffic...and I definitely would have burst into tears and begged to give up!  Yeah...it really was that stressful, and I wasn't even the one doing the driving!  (For those of you with big rigs that would like an easier parking job, there are full hook-up sites that are also beautiful & a breeze to get into, but they cost more!) I have to say though, that it was a beautiful, idyllic site (except for all the poison ivy, but it was avoidable), and we were all sooo glad that we were staying for more than a night or two after all the effort it took to get in!  Needless to say, we spent our evening after arrival unwinding.  Whew!!

It doesn't look too bad in the photo, but what you can't see are three trees directly across from the front of the rig that I had to avoid with the truck.

Our first full day here we hiked probably the most popular trail here at Petit Jean State Park, Cedar Falls, the "poster waterfall" of Arkansas.  The girls were bummed they didn't have their swimsuits on as they saw others that did when we reached the falls.  They still got to climb on the rocks a bit and dip their feet in the water.  We were all struck by how beautiful it is here; this is my kind of hiking, minus the poison ivy, of course.  I might not be allergic, but Steve & Alyssa are!  

The hike to the falls

Cedar Creek

After hiking to Cedar Falls, we went to Rock House Cave for lunch.  While there, Steve discovered that the memory card on the camera wasn't working; the pictures we'd just taken at Cedar Falls weren't there!!  Fortunately, he'd just uploaded all the pictures just before, so the only pics we lost were those from Cedar Falls, and he had taken a few shots with his phone.  Soooo...an annoyance for sure, but what a blessing that we didn't lose tons of pictures!  

After Rock House Cave, we stopped at the playground to reward our littlest hikers---Genna, who has surprised us all with her endurance & tenacity on the trails, and Jake, who has been a real trooper being confined for hiking with little opportunity to get down & burn some energy.  What a great, full day here!

Of course we had to visit the playground!