Northwest Arkansas and Missouri

This trip into Arkansas's Northwest didn't take much planning. It was more a spur of the moment thing. I headed North on Hwy 7 into familiar territory and then the trip took a change for the better. I took the turnoff to Deer and made a right to Alum Cove Natural Bridge. This is designated as Hwy 327 now. The last time I was on it, it was just a county road and half of it was dirt. It goes to Parthenon, Ar. and now it's paved all the way and is a beautiful, winding, mountainous road. It should end up being well liked by sightseers and bikers when it gets a little more well known.

This is the mailbox of an old house between Alum Cove and Parthenon, it looked neat so I stopped and tooks some pics.

Above is the same mailbox, only about 7 years earlier when the road was still gravel. It was rough riding on that stock Honda seat.
Probably had a nice front yard years ago.

This is how it looked 7 years ago.

The roof is on its last shingle. See the central fireplace that was probably a feeble attempt to heat the entire house in Winter.
So I'm assuming by the degradation of the place over 7 years, the house had probably not been abandoned long when these older pics were taken.

Nice design on the sofa, I wonder how many abandoned dogs have slept on it.

The fireplace inside. This is as far as I went, the floor had already gave way in much of the house so I didn't take the chance.
Another archive pic, this is Parthenon, Ar. There is actually a little more to it and as usual, I wish I'd stopped and taken a few more pictures.

One last archive picture, this is after leaving Parthenon and entering the valley.

I would suppose this is the Little Buffalo River valley since that is what cuts the bluffs thru here.

Nice cattle land, the river is in the distance.

These are some white bluffs.

Just to the East of the white bluffs are some rusty ones.

This strange local asked me if I could play a Banjo and tried to grab me, I left in a hurry.

After taking a right onto Hwy 74 then a right on 7, I arrived at Jasper. This is the Newton County Jail.

Newton County Courthouse in jasper. The Court House, Jail and other buildings in Jasper are built with the same color of grey stone. I can't think of another town that uses this color of stone. There are alot of towns in which brown sandstone is used. I suppose Jasper has a quarry nearby that has this stone.

After having a World famous Ozark Cafe Burger, I sat outside for awhile. Lots of bikers were on the road. This group was from Oklahoma City. They had travelled down the Pigtrail (Hwy 23) and then came up Hwy 7. I believe they said they were headed to Branson.

I like this shade of blue. Shotguns look good.

After leaving Jasper I headed on up Hwy 7. Coming to old Dogpatch USA, I thought I would go up and see if the Hub was in business or not. It was not, looks like the only thing going is the motel. The picture above is another business that was once on the famous slab of pavement.

After passing thru Harrison, I continued North on Hwy 65. Crossing into Missouri, I took Hwy 86 to the West. I'd heard alot about this road. I heard it was curvy and kind of roller coaster like in spots. It was definitely all that and more. A very scenic road, that also has attractions. Above is the bridge across Lake Tallycomo.

I stopped on the bridge and took this picture. The lake was crowded.

One other thing I found out....I wanted to go down and look at the Big Cedar Lodge. There was a sign on the way which read - Motorcycles - do not even think about taking this road. It didn't sound very biker friendly.

I took the turnoff to Eureka Springs and it was a busy place, I didn't stay. I just continued on down Hwy 23.

After taking Hwy 12 South I came to the Hobbs State Park information center. I went in for a few minutes then hit the road again, it was almost 5pm and the War Eagle store closes at that time. Too late, the store was closed as well as the bridge for repairs (bridge is supposed to reopen by Sept. 30).

If you double click the above pic, you'll see a deer running across the field, between the nearest tree and the one to its right.

These people were not very safety conscious. I would never break a safety rule :). Actually this time I really didn't. Night was getting closer, needed to get back on the road.

This Goose was nesting just above the water wheel on the mill.

Next few pictures are of an old store at War Eagle.

After getting back on Hwy 12 for a ways, I took Hwy 45 South and eventually 23 South to Huntsville. Stopping at the Acapulco Mexican Resuarant. I had the Acapulco, two plates, a hot one and a cold one. The hot had a cheese and a chicken Enchilada and a beef tamale with refried beans and rice. The cold one had two tacos and a tostada. More than one normal person can eat and all for $7.99. Great Mexican restuarant.

Traveling South on 23, I took Hwy 74 East towards Kingston and found this old house. This is as close as I could legally get so I just did what I could. It would be great to look around this place, do a little shoveling for old bottles and some metal detecting. I rolled into Kingston and rolled out. I like the town and usually stay awhile but didn't hang around, the day was getting long.

When I arrived at the intersection where Boxley Valley begins. Ponca is left and Clarksville right. There were cars pulled over to the side of the road looking at Elk. In the above pic are two bulls, small one on the left while the one to the right had huge antlers.

I made a left towards Ponca and saw a couple more.

Buffalo River looking downstream, water was at 3.5 ft.

Upstream.

After looking at the river, I went back toward Clarksville thru Boxley Valley. Here are two more bull Elk munching on some grass.

At first I thought the cow Elk on the left had a calf, but thats a deer. I didn't see any calves. Probably saw about ten Elk total.

There just aren't many places on Earth prettier than Boxley Valley. There is something about the valley, it has an air of serenity. If I could retire here I'd be a happy man. I actually have more pictures of the valley, they're in my archives. I like all the old houses along the road.

The trip home down 21 was uneventful, arrived at the house around 9 pm. The end to a perfect 12 hour day in the beautiful Ozark Mountains.