Fri Apr 12
Today the travel took us to Mississippi River State Park, which is in Arkansas and is NOT on the the Mississippi River. (It's on the St. Francis) But it comes pretty close to being in the river's flood plain.
We went there a few years back on that fateful adventure of the leaking hydraulic line. But this time, knowing where to go and what to expect, it was easy breezy. It's a long--three mile?--drive from the visitor center to the campground, on a curving peninsula out into a little lake. It's well-laid out and beautiful. I'd reserved the very best site at the end of the peninsula; just past out picnic table is a bench that looks out over the water. It's not technically our own private bench, but it's certainly convenient.
I realized later that the two spots at the south end of the penisula are better for birding. There's a tree there which seems to breed little warbling birds. So if we go to that park again, I'll get one of those even though they're spaced a little too close together. One of them has it's own lake viewing bench, too.
The only fault I'd give this park is the lack of trails--there's a lovely nature trail just across the road, very vertically challenging. But it's only about a mile long, and the only trail is south of the campground in the National Forest area. But I got to thinking, there might be some good places to walk along the road toward the visitor center.
Lots and lots of birds, especially Orchard Orioles. I saw a hummingbird. But no especially birds on our walks. We went around the lake to the boat launch and back. The spillway down to the creek was a long, loverly grassy slope filled with wildflowers. I wish I'd walked down it, but I wasn't wearing boots and didn't feel like wading through knee-high vegetation in hiking sandals. Lost opportunity--sucks.
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