Left Withrow Springs state park (Arkansas) around 11:00am with today’s destination being Robbers Cave state park in Oklahoma.
Arkansas fun fact: state law prohibits any billboards within 660 feet of any state road or highway. Seems weird not to be inundated with billboards as you are driving.
Arrived in the dark in torrential rain (4″ over a few hours), in the midst of flash flood and tornado warnings. Could hardly see the park campsite roads (no lights in the park) and ended up driving straight into a “back-in site”. Had to back up (poor B standing out in the downpour giving me directions as I couldn’t see a thing) in order to get onto the road again. Both of us were totally drenched by the time we got set up in our site!
Robbers Cave state park was originally created by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) between 1935 and 1941.
The CCC was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal”, a depression era government program aimed at hiring unemployed, unmarried men who were paid $30/month and had to send $25/month back home to their families.
The CCC program was responsible for the development of many state parks in the USA.
Many of the original structures built by CCC can be seen in the park. Including a jail cell!
This part of the state was amoung the largest producers of coal in the USA.
The park has seen some significant upgrades with the recent opening of a chi-chi lodge.
The new lodge is located at the edge of a ridge and overlooks a beautiful valley.
We didn’t get to see the actual Robbers Cave (where Jesse James and others hid out) as there were dozens of people in attendance (some with dogs) and Lump & SweetPea were not on their best behaviour, so we decided to beat a retreat to a less used trail.
We did the Rough Trail with the dogs in a couple of hours, and there are several other trails in the Park.
We attempted the Belle Star trail, but it started out with a steep, rocky descent and Lump was not having any part of that.
We stayed in Robbers Cave SP for four nights. Lots of chilling and hiking. Also spent a chunk of one day installing Rosita’s new trailer hitch plug, of course the wires in the old and new plugs had different colours, so some careful investigation was required to ensure that we didn’t end up turning on the indicator lights when the brake pedal was pushed, or visa versa which may be worse!
Trip Summary:
Depart from: Withrow Springs State Park, AR
Depart time: 11:00 am
Odometer: 126835 miles
Arrive time: 4:00 pm (Robbers Cave State Park, OK)
Odometer: 127009 miles
Gas Summary (fill-ups):
Odometer: 126913 miles, 10.3g @ US$3.36/g (US$34.69)
Wow, you really have covered a lot of territory. Great pictures and text. Safe roaming!