Road Trip

I had planned to have a bit of a slower time for my last full day in Arkansas, but ended up driving nearly 250 miles instead which was unexpected.  But then lots of this trip has been quite unexpected!

My original plan was to get out of the City and check out the Ozark National Forest.  You can see from that website that information on actual walks and trails is a bit sketchy so I decided to go to one of the Ranger Stations where I was promised maps and guides.  Two hours later I rocked up at the designated place and was met by two very nice rangers.  Who didn't really have any info that could help me.  They were keen for me to take the below map...

...which I'd already downloaded and didn't really give me quite the detail I needed to do a decent walk...  It's a times like this that you feel really grateful that we have Ordnance Survey in the UK.  I finally managed to winkle out enough information to attempt a walk.  It was nice enough and I persevered for a couple of hours but the trail was pretty indistinct and after Yosemite (perhaps I've been spoiled a bit!) the scenery was a bit unspectacular.  

So, having read about the Thorncrown Chapel which didn't look that far away (ha!) I hopped back into the car and went to check that out.  I was very glad that I did despite the 90 minute drive - it's an unexpected delight pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  I only had about 15 minutes as they were closing up for the day but managed to grab some photos of it.  The chapel really is very peaceful and a great addition to the landscape - not being religious it's hard for me to understand what it must be like to worship there but as a lover of the outdoors it's a spectacular piece of architecture.  

Finally back at the hotel I had a glamorous evening of washing my clothes in preparation for the final week of my trip: Atlanta, Nashville, DC to navigate before I get home.  Oh, and a Presidential election...