Hike #12 - Pigeon Roost

One of the nearby state parks that we had not checked out at all is Hobbs State Park, which is actually a Conservation Management Area.  We weren't sure what that meant exactly until we looked it up after the trip.  I assumed that it was meant to protect some threatened species, but it seems to be more about lack of development/roads to preserve the natural environment.  I also learned when I added the link above that Hobbs is our largest state park at 12,000+ acres.  The real draw of Hobbs is that it has 22 miles of lakefront.

 

We were also pleasantly surprised to find that Hobbs has the best visitors center that we have seen yet at a state park.  It has a cave simulation that was realistic enough for us to wonder if it was a real cave rather than a simulation.  It also had a large 3D map showing all of the trails and features of the park, and they would light up when you pushed the appropriate button.  There were several ladies working in there who were very excited to help.  They suggested several trails for us, but when they saw all of the kids they started suggesting half mile hikes.  We found their lack of faith disturbing.  We decided on the 4.5 mile Pigeon Roost loop.  There is actually a second loop off of the main loop that makes it 8.5 miles.  There are five first-come-first-serve backpacking sites on this loop, but we will save that for another time.  There is a lot more to see there than we had time for because they lock the gates of the visitor center parking lot at 5:00.  If your hike will take you past that time, like ours did, be sure you don't park there.

Pigeon Roost is a very pretty trail.  It is not overly strenuous, but it has some nice ups and downs, so you do get a workout.  About a mile in you get your one view of Beaver Lake.  Our kids can never quite comprehend that it is the water we drink.  There isn't much else of note on the trail other than standard Arkansas nature, which is never bad.

We had a great unexpected learning moment for this kids as we got towards the end of the trail.  Our
five-year-old spotted a pretty butterfly on the ground.  We quickly realized it was injured.  He was very concerned about this and began asking questions about how he could help it.  It was heartbreaking to tell him that he couldn't help it, but they all understood very well.  Since we couldn't help it survive, we settled on surrounding it with wildflowers to give it a peaceful death.

We will definitely have to head back to Hobbs to check out more trails.

Travel time from home: 45 minutes
Today's miles: 4.4
Remaining miles: 57.89