Devil's Den

This has been an awesome and exhausting weekend. It really started Thursday with packing everything we THOUGHT we might need and then checking and double checking and triple checking that we had everything. I know we over packed for a 2 night 3 day trip, but you never know and I didn't want to have to spend money on something that we could have brought with us.

This is just what Savannah and I packed not counting Cuppy's stuff and the food we bought before we headed to Arkansas.

She was making sure she didn't forget anything.

Kevin dropped Cuppy off at our house and they loaded up her stuff in the van and said their goodbyes.

And we were off to the store to get our food for the weekend. Then headed down the highway to Devil's Den state park in Arkansas. The drive was fun with making fun of each others silliness and chit chatting and all the pretty scenery.

The Drive into the park was twisty and turny and steep and scary, But I did it. I'm proud of myself for not freaking out to badly or having Cuppy drive us down. I was nervous but didn't have a panic or anxiety attack.
The Cabin was awesome, but the climb up to it with all of our stuff, including the huge ice chest full of food and ice, was a b*@#h, but it was worth it. It was a cute little studio cabin. It wasn't completely secluded but was far enough away from the other cabins that it was private.

After we got everything hauled up and explored the cabin Cuppy and I decided we wanted to explore the immediate area around the cabin. So we changed clothes and headed up to the visitor center then down to the "lake" area where there was a cafe, store, and pool. We checked out the dam and walked along the creek to the picnic/playground area then back up and around to the cabin. I think it was just about a mile that we walked Friday. While we were out exploring Savvy was laying on the couch in the cabin watching cartoons and Savvy was asleep before 8pm. Cuppy and I stayed up and read a bit and watched a movie then went to sleep ourselves by about 10ish. The next morning we were up by 630ish. We all got up and dressed in jeans and hiking boots and walked down to the Ridge Runner Cafe for breakfast before we started our hikes. After breakfast we showed Savannah the area we had explored the day before then started  a short trail, just 1/4 mile. We saw 2 baby deer and a bat on this trail. After this short trail we headed up to the visitor center to start another trail. The walk to the cafe and then the short trail and then to the visitor center was about 1.25 miles. Next we started up the Devils Den trail, which is labeled as strenuously moderate. It was about 1.5 miles and took us an hour and half. It was a strenuous trail for sure, But some very beautiful scenery.  When we finished this trail we walked back to our cabin which was another .25 miles and had lunch and rested up. Then we drove down to the Ridge Runner Cafe for some Art in the park. They had water colors set up and paper out for us to paint our favorite things we saw in the park.

Savvy's painting

my painting

Cuppy's painting

After painting we drove around the park and found the overlook, where we finally found cell phone service and we tried to call our honeys but they were busy working or sleeping. Then we went back to the cabin and read and rested and watched tv for a few hours. Then had some dinner and decided to head out for another hike. This time we did the Lake trail to the Woody plant trail and back. It was really pretty and an easier trail than the last one we had done. But on the way back it started getting dark on us and we were hurrying faster than we should have been in the growing darkness trying to get back to the van before full dark. Savvy got stabbed in the leg by a stick so we had to stop and doctor her leg up. It wasn't bad but she was bleeding. Then we were maybe .10 away from the van and Savvy and I had gotten ahead of Cuppy because she had stopped to snap a photo and we hadn't realized it, so Cuppy was running to catch up to us and slipped and fell. Luckily she didn't fall down the hill but just landed on her hands and knees but she cut her hand and scrapped her leg up pretty good.

Cuppy's hand

Cuppy's leg

Savvy's leg

 Some how I managed not to get hurt during the entire weekend.
So Friday we walked  .92 and Saturday we hiked 4.76 miles. I would have liked to have done more, but it was very hot and muggy and as it was after the first two trails Saturday we were so sweaty we looked like we had been in a pool and had to shower and change clothes before we did anything else. And the humidity did make it hard for me to breath at times. All in all was a great weekend and I can't wait to go back.
Today, Sunday, is my rest day and then tomorrow morning Cuppy and I are meeting to walk our furbabies!