Thu Apr 11
We stayed at White Oak Lake state park another day. Following the advice of the girl at the visitor center, we drove a few miles to see the Arkansas Grand Canyon. We found the parking area on google maps, but there was no sign saying we were there. So we parked and took the little trail around, and soon found a nice view of the river and some rock formations that very vaguely resembled the view of the real Grand Canyon. At least, to someone who'd only ever seen the Grand Canyon in photographs.
But it was pretty and peaceful and made for a nice day trip.
For Molly's walk, I was determined to see the singer of the bird son on the little nature trail by the group shelter/basketball court. It required going off trail and standing still for a long time, but finally I had it! Louisiana Waterthrush.
The location was correct, but the behavior not I would have expected. The books say it walks alone the ground and waggles its tail like a fine Southern lady. But this one--and presumably also the one up the hill it was calling to--was just sitting still on a lower limb of a tree. And singing his loud, distinctive call.
New life bird for me. I didn't get a picture, but it was unmistakable.
After that we went down to find the other trails on the map. There is a very well-marked sign, with maps, down at the tent camping area. There were three or four trails of varying lengths going off. Again, they were very well marked with color-coded blazes.
We took the shortest one, the Beech Ridge Trail, which was 2 miles. The others were 3 miles or 9.8 miles. It was a lovely little trail, no birds to mention but a very pleasant walk for us both.
I don't have much good to say about Arkansas except that they have some great state parks.
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