Wes & I took the dogs on our first family vacation! 🐕🐶 Back in the day, Kensington and Sadie always either stayed at the vet's or my mom's house when I travelled, and Athena and Zephyr go to Lucky Dog Lodge when Wes & I go on vacation. Since we were going somewhere pet friendly, I decided to bring the dogs along with us. 🌄 We all went to Mount Magazine State Park in Arkansas.
I've never visited Mount Magazine but Wes did several times as a child. I've also never been legit camping, as in pitching a tent and roughing it outdoors, so I decided for us that renting a cabin is the better option. 🏡 The Lodge at Mount Magazine is beautiful and the cabins are so so nice. The last time I stayed in a cabin was when my family used to go to Lake Murray and Turner Falls when I was in elementary school. Those cabins were awful so I didn't know what to expect; cabins have come a long way in 30 years!
It was a loooong 4.5 hour drive to get there. We packed both dogs' beds to lay across the backseat for them. Athena did great in the car and napped a majority of the way. Zephyr was a nervous wreck the ENTIRE drive. We made a half-way stop for lunch and potty breaks but Zephyr was still not having it. (We'll need more practice in the car before going on our next vacation.) The drive into Arkansas is pretty boring and ugly. Luckily, the scenery changed once we got to the Ozarks so the last leg of our trip was beautiful. 🌲🌄🌳 This was my first time driving through the Ozarks (or any mountains in general). I was a bit nervous at first to drive through mountainous terrain but the roads were really wide and not as twisty as I anticipated. Plus, I drive a freakin' Subaru Forrester... this is what my car is made for!! LOL It was a very easy drive both up & down the mountain.
We stopped in Paris, AR for groceries on our way to into the State Park. Wes stayed in the car with the dogs when I went in. I came out and said that the employees at the Paris Wal-Mart are so nice and not even racist. An employee politely informed me that they don't carry fresh produce, and then the cashier chatted with me like I was one of them. Wes acted surprised and told me that we're only a couple of streets away from Klan Street... Klan with a "K". 😂
Our first stop was to check in at the Lodge at Mount Magazine. The front desk employees were also as friendly as can be (shout out to Charles and Brayden!!) We got assigned Cabin #4 for our stay. The cabin is gigantic -- bigger than the apartment we lived in when we first got married-- fully furnished and equipped with anything you could ask for. It's clean, modern, and nicer than an expensive hotel room. I was super impressed!
The pros of going to a State Park during the off season are that it is so quiet and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Wes agreed and said his favorite part of our vacation was the peace and quiet. We were the only table when we had breakfast at the Skycrest restaurant, and there were probably only 1 or 2 other tables when we were there for dinner. Our cabin neighbors hadn't checked in, yet (they did the day we left), and the we had the trails all to ourselves. The cons of visiting during the off season is the weather. 🌦☔🌧 It rained all morning the day we arrived so it was too muddy to do anything, and it rained another day while we were there. We only had one day to enjoy the outdoors.
Quick run down of our trip -
DAY 1 - checked into our cabin, unpacked, and wound down from the drive. We were all tired and the dogs were confused & discombobulated. After a power nap, we took the dogs exploring the area around the cabin and lodge. The dinner special at the lodge was pot-roast with mashed potatoes and glazed carrots. It sounded really yummy but we had bought groceries so we decided to stay in. We relaxed and watched The Masked Singer (I was so upset that the Night Owl got voted off 😠).
DAY 2 - Wes and I went for breakfast at the Skycrest restaurant. It is the highest dining room in the state of Arkansas. I got their standard breakfast and thought it was bland, and the coffee tasted weird. I loved how they cooked my hashbrowns though. Wes said the coffee was weak, but over all his breakfast tasted fine. I then remembered that food tastes less flavorful in higher altitude (fun fact thanks to No Such Thing as a Fish podcast). Breakfast wasn't bad but it also wasn't anything to write home about.
After breakfast, we drove into Havana (a TINY town just at the foot of the mountain) to visit Wes's grandpa's headstone at the cemetery. We brought flowers. The cemetery is well maintained and has a nice view toward the mountains. After that, we gathered up the dogs and headed out to hike!
There are a lot of trails on the mountain, we picked the shortest and easiest one. We chose Signal Hill Trail. It leads up the mountain to the highest point in the state. It was about a mile hike. I was worried about the elevation (I have gotten elevation sickness before 🤮) but we all did just fine. Athena did so well on the hike! 🐕 I was really surprised how quickly she adapted and took to mountain life. Neither of the dogs are outdoorsy and the most nature they've experienced is our daily walks around the neighborhood on my lunch break, so I wasn't sure how they'd do on this trip. I assumed that dogs are wild creatures so they'd enjoy themselves once we got here. Athena certainly did but Zephyr is 100% a city dog. He hated every second of being out in nature. Poor pup!
Wes and the dogs wanted to rest after our hike so I dropped them off at the cabin and headed out again. I really enjoyed hiking and was going to make the most of being in the mountains! 🥾 While I felt the vigor of the mountain air, I knew I am not fit enough to do a solo hike so I just took the long way (the unpaved part behind the cabins) to the lodge gift shop. I passed a few butterfly gardens and the rock climbing entrance. Once inside, I picked out some nice post cards for my pen pals and then hung out on the patio. I was fortunate enough to catch the sunset. 🌄 I would totally do another camping/hiking vacation, but maybe just with me & Athena the next time around.
We had dinner at the Skycrest restaurant. Dinner was infinitely better than breakfast. 😋 Wes thought his broccoli was over seasoned, but I loved that everything was too salty. They didn't have a dinner special that night so they just served their regular menu. My chicken fried steak was delicious and the green beans were the star of the plate. Wes got the fish & chips. Their tarter sauce is the best I've ever had (yes, I stole some fries off his plate). Mount Magazine is located in a dry county (Yell County) so the only way to order alcohol is to obtain membership. Our waiter signed me up and now I'm a member of Skycrest's Private Membership Club. Fancy! 🍹 I got the bramble blackberry wheat beer and Wes got the largest cocktail I have ever seen. The Ranger Ricky (a mojito with gin) was served in a full sized water glass.
DAY 3 - I planned for us to go hike the Benefield West Loop. 🏞 It is the other trail labeled "easy" and it is only a mile long. It leads to a pond and picnic area. I thought it would be a nice scenic route and we could have a snack at the end, but I checked the weather on our way out and saw that it would start raining in about half an hour. 😑🌧 The forecast was 100% rain so I wasn't going to risk it. There was no way we'd finish our hike before the rain came. Instead, I decided to take us into town. We visited Paris! ... well, Paris, Arkansas. LOL
There's not a lot in Paris, AR, but they do have a town square with a replica of the Eiffel Tower. Its a cute little park. They supposedly also have a fabric shop (according to Google) but I doubted it was pet friendly, so I skipped.
There was a café (True Grit Coffee ☕) that Wes wanted to go in, and I didn't mind either waiting on the sidewalk or staying in the car with the dogs, but I think he was too stressed to enjoy a cup. Athena, once again did great while we were in town, while Zephyr was scared of the traffic and noise. [It sounds like I'm complaining and hating on poor Baby Z, but I am really just disappointed in myself as a pet owner.😕 I took Athena everywhere with me when she was a puppy so she loves people and activities. Unfortunately for Zephyr, he was adopted right before the pandemic so he never got to experience the dog friendly world. I got lazy and stopped taking them out even after things started to open up again. I thought I could acclimate him to it now, but it definitely did not work.]
Athena and I walked around the town square, and her eyes lit up when she saw the stairs leading up to the courthouse. We lived in a second floor apartment we first adopted her. She loved running up the stairs. She would try to race Sadie up the stairs and if Wes was standing in the doorway, I'd let her off her leash and she would bolt up to meet him. I completely forgot about that but Athena remembered! She tugged on her leash and lead me up to the courthouse. We ran up & down the stairs, and then she saw a second building with stairs and we ran up & down those as well. I think that was the highlight of her trip!
It stayed cloudy the rest of the day so we couldn't get our second family hike in before we left. We drove out of Arkansas and straight home. I genuinely had a great time (and Wes said it was a good trip, too); I was hoping we could start a new family tradition of visiting State Parks but I don't think this trip was right for the dogs. Turns out, we're city people through and through. I loved our cabin adventure and being in the mountains but for our next vacation, we'll drop the dogs off at doggie boarding camp and Wes & I will visit a metropolitan city with museums and new restaurant concepts to try instead. 😂
