Having a peek at North Central Arkansas

 After our 2 night stay in Alabama, we headed over to the Norfolk Lake area in northern Arkansas. The drive was most excellent with beautiful and lush scenery. In particular, the roses!! So many homes and businesses had large red rosebushes, obviously they know the secret of growing/tending them just right. Best of all they had a delicate fragrance which has been bred out of many of the hybrids.

The drive from Alabama through Mississippi and into Arkansas was very pretty. Dandelions are in full pop-out mode and carpeted the gently rolling hills and verges along the highways. Lots of rural farm land and cattle pastures, great eye candy to say the least. Miles and miles of it.

This is how every roadside looked. What a great drive!

Once in Arkansas we passed by a lot of creeks, rivers and lakes. There seemed to be plentiful water about, and it seemed like we were crossing the White River over and over.

Lush, grassy banks make for a pretty backyard.

A couple of fellas set up camp right river side and get out 
in their john boats for some fishing. Looks like a great vacation.

The weather was warm but not bad, and our cabin at the Mockingbird Bay Resort on Lake Norfolk was pleasant.  The owners of the resort were really great, friendly and funny and more than willing to bend over backwards to meet expectations. Loretta was an amazing quilter and stitch-wizard as well and we had a fun conversation about crafting of all sorts. I learned a lot about quilting, and she too had skads of bright and colorful batik squares etc.

During our day touring we crossed the White River and while on the bridge, the swifts were swarming and swooping. So cool.

Check out the swifts having a field day.

Later we checked out the historic City Rock Bluff or Calico Bluff. It's a bit of an historic site which you can read about here; 

https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/calico-rock-izard-county-1272/ 

City Rock Bluff, looking one way..

and the other. Pretty special.

Really great views in both directions from the top of approx. 150' cliffs above the White River.  All in all a beautiful glimpse of Arkansas. We didn't go fishing but the lake is reputed to produce some huge fish.

"The bite’s on at Norfork Lake, and they’re hitting hard. For the best crappie, striper, bass, and walleye fishing, it’s clean water, clear water Norfork Lake. Both morning and evening you can expect to catch bass & BIG stripers, so now is the time to come fish the best lake in the mid-south for stripers." 

Snippet coutesy of https://www.norforklakefun.com/fishing/

                                       Shot also courtesy of  the afforementioned website.

Our last day there we took sandwiches and had lunch in a fun little creekside park running through the town of Calico Rock. 

Picnic spot, waterside.

After lunch we took a good, long look through the Calico Rock Historic Museum which was fascinating; many diorama's depicting the Native Americans and ways of life for the early settlers, and the folks up through the mid-1900's. So great to see it preserved and to realize just how far we have come in 100 yrs. These folks have done an excellent job of sourcing artifacts and putting it all together in a unique way.

Courtesy of the Calico Rock Museum

Here's a link to it:  http://www.calicorockmuseum.com/exhibits-1.html

From there we headed out west through Oklahoma and into the southern part of Colorado. I'll cover that in the next post.

Thanks for reading along - it was a great stop through a very pretty state and we're sure glad we went through and spent a little time there. I, for one, wouldn't be at all opposed to going back for further visiting.