Arkansas State Parks(10-29-11)

                                                                       The last two places we stayed in were Arkansas State Parks, and I must say, they have some of the best I have seen.  Full Hookup, nice hardtop driveways that are long, and easily accessible.  The last one we were in, Crater of Diamonds State Park, even had great Wi-fi!  Devil’s Den State Park did not, however.  I didn’t even have cell signal.  We had to drive to the top of the hill to make calls and check email.  That situation was the straw that broke the camel’s back, for me, but I’ll get into that in the next post. So…..
Devil’s Den State Park:
According to the Ranger,, no one really knows why this park was named Devil’s Den.  I am guessing it has to do with some of the unique rock formations or caves, but that’s just a guess.
     There are a few reasonably short hikes in the park so our first day here we decided to do several of them.  We kind of put them all together to make one 8 mile hike.  In fact, we started at the campsite, so we didn’t even have to drive.  After hiking the Yellow Rock Trail with an elevation gain of about 400 ft, we continued on with the Devil’s Den Trail, which, we found out after we got there, is an interpretive trail, with numbered displays along the trail.  Of course, you have to buy the booklet in order to know what you are looking at, and the Visitors Center was too far away for us to bother going to buy one, so we just hiked the trail.
   
Usually there is a lake here, but it’s been drained in order to make repairs to the dam.  The pedestrian walkway over the river is also closed- and it’s clear that although the river is very low right now, it was flooded at one time, because the debris is still on the walkway that the flooding demolished.  Oh, and the caves are closed as well, due to the threat of White Nose disease- a disease that is wiping out bat populations all over the country.
     Our second day in the park was our “big hike” day.  We had to register with the Ranger in order to hike the Butterfield Trail.  They wanted all kinds of information from us, including wanting to know what we are carrying for safety equipment, (cell phone, GPS, flashlight) and they also gave us tips- like, “shut off your cell phone (since there is no service) to conserve the battery in case you get lost”.  The hike loosely connects with the route that the Butterfield Stage Coach line took back in the early days, and most of the trail is in the Ozark National Forest, not the state park.  We loved the sign at the entrance assuring hikers they will get lost if they don’t have a map.  And they really aren’t kidding.  We lost the trail 2 or 3 times and had to refer to the map and the GPS repeatedly.  By the time the day was over, we had hiked about 9 miles.  It was a really difficult trail for me because so much of the trail was loose rock which is tough on my foot, and a little slow going because it would be so easy to twist an ankle.  It’s hikes like this that make me glad I have really good high profile hiking boots! 
    There were some interesting rock formations along the way and several “unofficial” campsites, like the one in the picture.  Sorta made us wish we had a tent, but then, the temperature went down to 32 degrees that night, so maybe not.
Crater of Diamonds State Park:
    
        Since we’re already in Arkansas, we figured we’d check out this park.  It’s one of those unique experiences that you take advantage of because you happen to be there and it’s available.  Crater of Diamonds is literally a crater that is full of diamonds.  It’s the only diamond field in the U.S  where the public can dig for diamonds, and keep what they find.   They charge about $7 per person to dig for the day.  The day that we were there, there were at least 3 diamonds found, and since it became a state park  in 1972, there have been over 29,000 diamonds found by park visitors.  Did we find one? Nope, but the 10 year old girl we met did.  In fact, she found two.  We did have some fun trying, having gone there with the understanding that it was  going to be a muddy, dirty day. There are two methods of diamond sifting-the dry method and the wet method.  We chose the wet method because you can sift the dirt faster.  They plow the field once a month to stir up the dirt, and it seemed pretty clear that after the plowing, or after a rainfall, would be the best time to look for diamonds, but we’re not going to stick around that long.
       Of course, most of the diamonds found here are small, or reasonably flawed, but there have been many that were over 5 carats, and one of the diamonds here was rated as a “D” perfect diamond,  a one in a billion diamond, the likes of which most gemologists never see in their lifetime.