Mount Magazine & Petit Jean State Parks, AR

10162 Hits
73.05% Score
3 Votes

Mount Magazine-Signal Hill
- Additional Parents
Mount Magazine & Petit Jean State Parks, AR

Page Type:	Trip Report
Date Climbed/Hiked:	Oct 24, 2009
Activities:	Hiking
Season:	Fall

Mount Magazine/Signal Hill Weekend

We left out of Prosper, TX bright and early Saturday morning heading for Paris, AR with a good weather report for the weekend and the hope of seeing some fall foliage and claiming our third state Highpoint. After an uneventful drive through eastern Oklahoma we arrived in Pairs and met up the owner of accommodations for the weekend, Hazel’s Cabins. These cabins are located by Cove Lake Park about halfway between Paris and Mount Magazine. Once settled in we headed up to Mount Magazine State Park, only nine miles away. We stopped at the Visitor Center to collect our customary coffee cup for our collection and to snag a park brochure and trail maps. We parked at the Cameron Camp Ground across the road from Signal Hill Trailhead. The hike to the top was just under a half mile and was fairly easy. At the top we found the Signal Hill Geocache (GCH3FN) and then used a bench to set up the camera with a timer to do the push the button and run routine with the camera. Not much of view from up top due to all the trees but the trees were turning so there was lots of color. We headed back down to the car, loaded up and drove the roads in the park, stopping at the various overlooks to take in the view. It was a mostly clear day so you could see for quite a ways and the tree tops were full of color. After making the rounds through the park, we set out to find the Mount Magazine State Park Cache. The Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism has placed a Geocache in each of its 52 state parks. If you visit all 52 state parks and collect the clues at each of the geocaches you will be able to figure out the coordinates to a bonus cache. Let’s face it….. if you are going to be hitting Highpoints you may as well take up Geocaching since there is probably a cache at each Highpoint….. You can learn more about Geocaching at geocaching.com. Anyway, the next day we ventured over to Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas’s first State Park, and it was well worth the hour drive…… We hiked Seven Hollows Trail (4.5 miles) and Cedar Falls Trail (2.5 miles. The first .75 miles of this trail is straight down and you guessed it, the last .75 miles is straight up……)and the scenery was just great (check out our pics…). Cedar Falls is a beautiful 95’ waterfall. Well, all good things must come to an end………. With darkness setting in we headed back to our room not looking forward to the five hour drive back to Prosper the following day.