Pinnacle Mountain

On our walk this morning we spotted something large on the river. It turned out to be a tug moving barges slowly following the channel in the middle of the river. We figured from the channel markers that larger craft must use the river than the small pontoon and speed boats we had seen.

Our big adventure today, after lunch, was a hike up the West Summit Trail to the top of Pinnacle Mountain. Our research on the web showed that the lower portions of the trail are being renovated, but there's an alternate route up an emergency access road where you rejoin the upper portion of the West Summit Trail. Armed with this information, we headed to the trailhead. When we got there, a large sign said the area was closed. Now what?

We called the park and were given instructions to park across the street in the overflow parking area, from which you have to follow a walkway under the highway over to the (closed) West Summit Picnic Area. We finally figured out that the reason the area is closed is that a big festival, Pinnacle Mountain Rendevous and Fall Festival, is planned for this weekend, and setup for the event has started.

Anyhow, we saw other hikers, so we walked to the usual trailhead for the West Summit Trail, where signs pointed to the alternate route, which ascends the Base Trail for a while and then follows the gravel access road. When we got to the point where we rejoined the actual summit trail, we soon found ourselves enjoying some great views.

We had read that the West Summit Trail is much less steep than the East Summit Trail. In fact, it was described by one hiker as "easy." He also indicated that at the higher elevations, it mainly went up stone steps rather than boulder fields (like the East Trail). The earlier parts of the trail seemed to be as described, but then things got tougher. Some of the way did indeed involve some boulder scrambling.

The climb was quite steep, 700 feet elevation gain in 3/4 of a mile. Markers placed every 100 feet of elevation showed how high we were on the 1,011 foot peak. At marker 9, we rested for a while.

When we got to the summit, the views of the Arkansas River and surrounding countryside were spectacular. We congratulated ourselves on making it to the top.

The trip back down was anticlimactic. It was much easier to descend than to ascend! We got back to the trailhead 2 hours and 25 minutes after starting out, tired but happy.

On the way home we stopped at the Arkansas Arboretum, where we walked a .6 mile paved path through the forest. Various areas of the arboretum are supposed to represent different divisions of the state, and quite a few trees are labeled. Some signs describe trees that must have bit the dust--we couldn't find anything to match the descriptions. Overall it was a pleasant walk through the woods, and we did learn a few things. I now know that the pine we've been seeing that resembles a Ponderosa Pine with its reddish scaly bark is actually the Shortleaf Pine.


Just before we left for our hike this afternoon, Ken pointed out a squirrel that was behaving oddly. That reminded me of the problem we'd had with our water hose, so I went to check. Yikes! That darn squirrel had chewed almost entirely through another hose. It would have started to leak any minute. We turned off the water and stowed the hose. Now we'll need two hose repair kits.

Fortunately, we do have some water in our freshwater tank, so we just turned on the pump for now. Darn squirrel!