Gayla, our photographer friend Daniel Shortt, and I left early Sunday morning from Springfield, MO, and drove south on US HWY 65 to Harrison, AR. Here is where the scenic drive really began. Along Hwy 43 South out of Harrison, driving the very curvy and hilly roads, we had a few opportunities to pull over and snap a few pics of the fog that was down in the valleys. We thought we’d throw caution to the wind and navigate to Hawksbill Crag without our GPS. We thought surely since it was the most photographed area in Arkansas that signs would be everywhere. We kept driving along all the while thinking that it wasn’t going to be long before we were there.
We made it to Ozone and stopped at their campground to check the map and broke down and turned on our GPS. We realized we had driven an hour past the turnoff to get to Hawksbill Crag/Whitaker Point. We turned around and headed back towards Ponca, AR. On the way back, we stopped and had lunch at a mom-and-pop diner near Fallsville and had some awesome chicken fried steak. After our bellies were full, we were on our way. The turnoff to Hawksbill Crag was a simple unmarked dirt road that was 6 miles of tight turns and steep hills. When we finally arrived, there was no place to park. The skinny dirt road was lined up with vehicles up and down both sides for nearly a half-mile from the trailhead. By the looks of the parking situation, we must have been the only ones that missed the entrance. Apparently, everyone else knew exactly where to come.
The trail itself was 1.5 miles long, kind of rocky and had some steep parts, but not too tough. At the end of the trail was a huge rock that people walked out on that overlooked the valley below with all the beautiful colors of fall on the trees. There were way too many people there for us to really enjoy ourselves. I don’t know why we expected any different, after all, it is the most photographed point in Arkansas and it was a beautiful day with the fall colors at their peak. We did make the most of the crowd and took advantage of the beauty and snapped off a few panoramic pics and a couple of travel poses before making our way back the 1.5-mile trail to our vehicle.
We grew up in Southwest Missouri and even though we are close, we’ve never really taken time to explore much of Arkansas. We will definitely go back because there are many more things we want to explore.
