Welcome to JOYFUL REFLECTIONS. Also welcome to MARCH!!!! My header picture this month is a photo I took of the pretty Crocus blooms in our yard... The Crocuses and Daffodils are the first signs of spring here in Tennessee. I am definitely ready for SPRING...

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Awesome Arkansas Vacation -Feb. 2016

Hi Blog Friends,  Is there a special place where you visit once a year or so --and love it even more every time you go back?  For me ---that place is our little cabin on the mountain at Mt Nebo, Arkansas.  George and I have been going to Arkansas in February or March for about 10+ years now.   I absolutely love everything about being there--even though we mostly  do the same things from one year to the next...

However,  to me,  each year just seems to get better and better.  AND---each year,  Mother Nature provides lots of differences for us..  Some years,  we have lots of rain or ice.  Other years,  it is very warm--or very cold... Some years the sky is prettier than other years,  etc. etc. etc.   You get the idea!!!!!  It's the same yet different.  I LOVE it no matter what.

This year --we visited from the 21st-26th of February.   Except for one day,  the weather was perfect (sunny and seasonably cold)...  This year,  the skies around us all day long put on a SHOW 'just' for us!!!!  We saw three of the most beautiful sunsets that week that I can remember.  My sky and sunset pictures from this year will be a blog post soon I hope.

We love hiking ---so we got to do some of that.  AND---as you know,  we love waterfalls --and enjoyed seeing several this year.  There are three state parks fairly close together in that area of Arkansas.  We stay at Mt. Nebo--but we always visit Petit Jean State Park and Mt. Magazine State Park during our stay...  This year was no exception.

Today I will give you a few highlights of our stay at Mt. Nebo.... The picture above is of us sitting on the top of our picnic table on our back patio --enjoying the view of the valley below --and patiently waiting for the late afternoon sun to brighten up the area followed by a sunset...  What an awesome setting!



This is the back of our little cabin --with the late afternoon sun hitting the area.





Our fabulous wood-burning fireplace in the cabin which we enjoyed the entire week while there



They have had a very mild winter in Arkansas this year --so they definitely were having a very early spring!  I love Daffodils...



Our favorite hike and waterfall of the week was at Petit Jean State Park,  when we hiked to CEDAR FALLS.  I hopefully will do an entire blog post on this area/hike soon.  What a gorgeous waterfall!!!



We love seeing the deer when we go to Mt Nebo.  This little lady was in a group of about four I think--but I chose this picture because she was posing nicely for me in the late afternoon sunlight.



Tuesday, the 23rd, was our rainy day--so on Wednesday, the 24th,  we took off for Mt. Magazine.  The high mountain cascades/waterfalls were really pretty this year.  This beauty is Hardy Falls--on the road up toward Mt. Magazine.



This waterfall/cascade is near Hardy Falls --and its name is JESTICE CREEK Falls.  Oh how these two people LOVE waterfalls--and each other... 



Here's another picture of our cute little cabin on the mountain.  What a wonderful view we have when we are there.



On our last day in Arkansas,  we headed north on Scenic Highway 7 to check out some more waterfalls... This little cascade is named Bowman Hollow Falls.. We loved this area and the creek... Even though it was quite cold that day,  I sat on a big rock and just enjoyed being in this gorgeous place.



The biggest surprise of the week (and such a huge JOY for me) was finding lots of SNOW on the top of Mt. Magazine on the 24th... This was one of the prettiest snows I have seen in years and years.  And even George liked it --since he didn't have to clean it up!!!!! ha.... I'll do a blog post with many more pictures soon.  It was the kind of snow that clings to everything... BEAUTIFUL.



Sunset --2/24/16
Finally,  besides seeing the snow at Mt. Magazine and hiking to Cedar Falls,  the other highlight of our week was being able to see 3 beautiful and unique and very different sunsets while there.  In fact,  we got many sky pictures that week with lots of colors,  sunbeams,  etc...   Don't forget to check out my big header post at the top --and also a couple of pictures from this trip on my Photo Blog.  Click HERE.

Hope you enjoyed seeing more from our wonderful little vacation to Arkansas.  As I said,  there will be at least 3 more blog posts coming, featuring more from this gorgeous area.  IF you ever get to Arkansas,  check out Mt. Nebo... We LOVE it.

Hugs,