Fall Foliage Ride I; 10/29/14

We left our motel in Clarksville and rode south and east. There was some heavy fog in the area of the Arkansas River.  It was 52 degrees.

In Mt. Magazine State Park we stopped at the visitor’s center, a scenic lookout  and at the lodge for pictures.On the way out of the park a buck crossed the road in front of us.  That reminds me – yesterday on the way to Devil’s Den State Park we encountered a deer that crossed the road in front of us.

We rode down the south side of the mountain and east to Russellville for lunch at Colton’s Steak House.

Then we visited Mt. Nebo State Park located south and east a bit from Russellville (7 miles east of Dardanelle, in Yell County; home of Mattie Ross in the movie, True Grit).  The view from the top of Mt. Nebo was impressive.

There is a hiking trail on Mt. Nebo called the Rim Trail.  It is 3.5 miles in length and advertised to take about 2 hours.  Chris and I decided to hike it.  The views from the trail were great but it was brutal in places.It would have been helpful if Chris and I had some mountain goat in our gene pool.  But we don’t so it was a little scary in some places.  About 1.5 hours into our hike we were a little over half way around.  Our geriatric butts were ready to quit so we left the trail and walked back to the visitor center on paved roads.  Our hike lasted 2 hours but it wasn’t all on the Rim Trail.

We toured around on the roads at the top of Mt. Nebo before leaving.  We saw dozens of deer – all off of the road.

Our lodging for the night was a Best Western in Russellville.  We rode 125 miles today under mostly blue clear skies.  Now we are hoping the Royals can win the World Series.

For more pictures click on the following link: https://plus.google.com/photos/104542123131082631220/albums/6075806546653831969?authkey=CI_K6rnDvbHFCA