A Few More Nights at Mount Magazine

At Camron Bluff Campground, Mount Magazine State Park, AR

After Saturday’s downpour, we have had three pretty good days at Mount Magazine…with Monday being one of the best weather days.  I just happened to look out my window Monday at sunset and this is what I see.  Figure by the time I gather up the camera, get my shoes and shirt on, and out the door and drive to the overlook…the sun would be gone.  Promised myself that Tuesday would not slip away like this one did …

…and it didn’t…but it also was not as good of a sunset as Monday was.

The thing about sunsets is that they are never the same.  Perhaps Wednesday’s sunset will be better than Tuesday’s…then again, they are expecting storms again for Wednesday night, and Thursday will be our last night here.

Sunday Marcia and I traveled over to Fort Smith to meet her cousin Jim and his wife Pat at Cheddar’s Restaurant.  After a 2+ hour meal and great conversation, we headed over to a grocery store and then hurried back to the motorhome so the doggies could be let out.  That was it for Sunday…on Monday I decided to groom both of the dogs (pictures will follow in another blog), then I drove around to get a few more pictures of the state park.  Above and below is the Visitor Center.

The visitor center is the first building in the park, and you have to drive by it to enter the park.  This is where you check-in if you have a camping site.  Let me tell you, the folks working here are super nice.  I had paid for our entire week online.  When I checked in, they first tried to give me the ADA rate, but when I said that Marcia was not 100% disabled, they said, “How about the senior citizen rate?”  That rate is 25% off the normal campground site price…and “I” qualified for it, so I did not have to use Marcia’s ID to get it...and they made a credit to my card which they had in the computer system.  Went back on Sunday after our trip to Fort Smith, and paid for one more night, so we will be here until Friday morning, and we have three days to get up to Blue Springs Lake Campground near Lee’s Summit Missouri where we will be for Ryan’s graduation on the 26th.  Still not sure where we will stay on our way up that way…but doing laundry will be one thing on our list.

I then headed over to the lodge, (I showed an outside picture of it a few blogs ago).  Above is the main entrance to the lodge…my back to the door.  That is a rock waterfall, three flags, and the wood canopy where you can drive your car under to drop or pick someone up.

  

I have been in a few of the state park lodges, and they are all very comfortable, with a large window and lounge area to look out the window from.

Above is the panoramic view of what you see out that window is a view of the Petit Jean Valley below.  If you get one of their cabins, each has a hot tub which also has a nice view of the valley, and the hot tub is on a back enclosed patio except for the opening to the valley below...so you truly have some privacy to go with it.

The lodge also has a nice restaurant, which also has a view of the Petit Jean Valley below.  When we were in a cabin back in February 2011, we ate at the lodge a few times.  This time, I think we will stick with our motorhome kitchen, although we found the food to be fairly good back then.

They also have a bar lounge right by the restaurant.  Due to Arkansas law, it is a “member’s only” lounge, which means you have show your ID, and then fill out a membership form…there is not cost for membership, just for your drinks.

There is no price to enter the park, there are picnic areas, a tent only area, 18 camping sites which are all full hookup, and just about everyone of them can handle a 40’ motorhome along with a tow car.  The bathrooms have showers which are not bad, but the water pressure ‘could’ be a bit better.  The lodge does have 2 washers and 2 driers, but we would rather wait for a laundry mat somewhere down the road this weekend.