The Buffalo River Trail is one of the famous through trails in Arkansas, although there is some debate about where it starts and stops. Mom and dad had done a section of the trail near Steel Creek, but we had not done it as a family. This trail has the most spectacular view of any trail we have done, so it was definitely worth the time to do it again. Steel Creek is an amazing tent only campsite. If you want to get a site for the weekend during nice weather, you need to arrive on Thursday morning and hope to get lucky. If it is floating season, get there on Wednesday. This time of year the water is shut off and the campground was empty.
From Steel Creek, we did the section that heads east towards Kyle's Landing. The best view comes 1.5 miles in, so we set that as our goal. The trail is pretty the entire way with lots of ups and downs, rock formations, and a creek crossing (i.e. Steel Creek). With the dead colors of winter, the green ferns and mosses really jumped out. The pièce de résistance:
We hiked back down and had a picnic lunch at the campground and splashed in the river, which is right at the base of the bluffs you see above. It was great to just sit by the river and let the kids interact with nature without any adult intervention. They threw rocks, built a dam, found a cave, and got wet.
Less than 10 minutes from here is Lost Valley, which we have done many times. It is one of our favorite spots in the state, so we don't really get tired of it. The highlight of the day is that it was the first day our four year old walked the entire day, which was a total of over 7 miles!
Travel time from home: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Today's miles: 7.28
Remaining miles: -9.57
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