NO Adventure

So where did I leave off… oh yes, we headed up Scenic 7 to the Ozarks. If you want to do some serious rock climbing, stop at Sam’s Throne – it’s the premier crag in the state. We skipped it and dropped in on Mystic Caverns instead, where I snagged a pretty rad hat in the gift shop.

Speaking of rad hats, Arkansas is chock full of thrift stores(that haven’t been over-mined by hipsters). We stayed in Harrison at this killer 1930s historic hotel called the Seville(it was awesome and cheap). Within blocks of Hotel Seville were 5 fucking thrift stores in downtown Harrison. Jeeeesus.

I also whipped out the iPhone Urban Spoon to find some tasty Thai food in the culinary wasteland that is northern Arkansas. BBQ aside, they are really hurting – PLUS, like most of Arkansas above Little Rock, it’s a dry county. Snap!

Definitely picked up one of these Goblins P.E. shirts at one of those thrift shops.

There are a few cool things to do in Harrison. One is peeping out some elk near Ponca. Here’s Beck on the stake-out.

He spotted us!

We saw 20 or so elk; mostly females with a bull or two in the mix. I even popped off this video of a bull elk “bugling.”

Harrison is also the jump-off spot for the Buffalo River, which is the country’s first National River. In a simple description, it’s awesome. The Buffalo is known for its clear blue water and high stone cliffs, some of which have Indian petroglyphs on them that could be centuries old.

The leaves were just starting to change color, which was nice, but if it had been a couple of weeks earlier I would have enjoyed jumping off some of these cliffs, as is my custom.

Next, we cruised on down to Little Rock on our way out of the state. You may not think of Little Rock as a “rocking” town, but they’ve got some pretty progressive things happening there.

Take the Big Dam Bridge for example:

The bridge is the longest pedestrian/bicycle-only bridge in North America built exclusively for this purpose and connects approximatley 15 miles of scenic riverside trails right in the city! They just built it on top of the already existing dam.

Above photo Big Dam Color by David Screeton.

I love how slick it looks at night. Can you imagine how incredible it would be if New Orleans had a pedestrian/bicycle portion piggybacked on to the GNO bridge? The Brooklyn bridge has it. Shit, even Little Rock has it – why can’t we?

Little Rock’s ex-governor Mike Huckabee even went from being a 300 lb. fat-shit to losing over 110 pounds and running the New York Marathon. The New York Times called the weight loss so rapid that “it was as if he simply unzipped a fat suit and stepped out.”

Looks like he took some advice from NOadventure. *Wink*

There’s also this weird Martial Arts Park downtown which seemed very out of place and unnecessary, but whatevs.

There is also a cool neighborhood called the Heights, where some nice dudes at Ozark Outdoor Supply gave me some free chapstick and told me about Pinnacle Mountain State Park which is an awesome place to bag a quick peak or trail run. Personally, I made a teepee and saw this blurry deer who absolutely did not give a fuck and was not afraid of humans.

All in all, it was a really fun little tour of our neighbor to the north… Arkansas(no not Canada, you dumbass).

You just read Part 2. For Arkansas Adventure: Part 1 – Ouachita, click here.