Russellville, Arkansas

Alongside the banks of the Arkansas River was once the site of the Western Cherokee Nation. The Indians settled in this valley in the late 1700s. A group of Cherokee left western North Carolina to escape the encroachment of the Europeans. Now the lock and dam facilitates traffic on the river. The only smoke signals in the area now arise from the nuclear power plant in the background.

The Corps of Engineers campground on Old Post Road suited us fine for a weekend. Just 1 1/2 hours from home and we were camping again!

We had a peaceful spot high on the banks of the Arkansas River.

The locks can be seen on the right side of the dam. This was also the area of a bustling riverport town, Norristown, an early settlement along the old post road. The mail crossed the river here by ferry until the late 1800s when the longest pontoon bridge to cross moving water was built. It did wash out four times in it's 30 years of service.

Our reason to be here was the Russellville geocaching event being held at the day use portion of the park. Here we all looked for a cache on the bleachers at the ball field.

Sometimes it takes a taller person to help retrieve a cache.

After a morning of caching we enjoyed a fine potluck with hot dogs and hamburgers.

A little geocaching around Russellville on Sunday morning led us to this "London calling" cache. I thought if anyone was watching (a muggle) that I would make them think I was just making a phone call.

On the way home we made the steep winding ascent up Mt. Nebo.

What a view from every side. This is the Arkansas River and Lake Dardanelle below.

The 375 Step cache led us down this path. We did not count the steps. It took all the energy just to get up them! There are several interesting hiking trails on Mt. Nebo.

And we thought the road from Hot Springs to Russellville had some serious curves.

They were really releasing some water from Lake Nimrod, further south towards Hot Springs, where we stopped to see all the water flowing down the Fourche La Fave River.