Arkansas State Parks & Trails
The best hiking in Arkansas doesn’t always come with a park entrance sign. Some of it does — well-marked trails, visitor centers, the reassurance of a paved lot. But some of the most memorable places, like Falling Water and Whitaker Point, sit quietly inside national forest land, known mostly by word of mouth and worn-in trailheads.
This collection brings both together. It’s built from years of visiting Arkansas’s state parks — more than 30 of them so far — alongside the trails and overlooks that don’t carry an official label but earn their place here just the same.
FEATURE STORY
Petit Jean State Park: ARKANSAS’ FIRST, AND STILL ONE OF ITS BEST
We’re starting this collection where Arkansas started its own — at Petit Jean, the state’s very first state park. This spring we hiked the Cedar Creek Trail and made the descent into the canyon on the Cedar Falls Trail, ending at the base of a 95-foot waterfall that’s easily one of the most beautiful spots in the state.
Along the way: a CCC-built lodge, a bluff-top view over the river valley, and the quiet grave of the young woman the mountain is named for.
FEATURE STORY
BLANCHARD SPRINGS -ARKANSAS’ NEWEST STATE PARK
Next up is Arkansas’s newest addition to the state parks system: Blanchard Springs Caverns, a cavern system striking enough to rival Carlsbad. We toured both the Dripstone and Discovery Trails, past soda straws, a massive stone drapery, and a chamber so vast it felt more like a cathedral than a hole in the ground.
Along the way: a spring pouring straight out of the mountainside, a swimmable lake fed by a CCC-built dam, and a nearby town where live music still fills the square most evenings.
Worth noting: the caverns close for renovation after this season, so this is the year to see them as they are.
More stories from this collection — parks, trails, and the places that don’t carry an official label but earn their spot here just the same — are on their way.