Petit Jean Park

Arkansas is a beautiful state. On this particular day Jon had off in the middle of a normal work week. I convinced him we should go hiking somewhere. So we when an hour and a half to Petit Jean Park. We had heard it was worth going, beautiful, and the falls were a must see. So that is exactly what we did. We got up there and set off on the Cedar Falls Trail. It was a warm day, but only in the 90s. We had Lady dog along and she LOVED hiking. She was even great at bouldering! If we climbed something she wanted to climb it too. The part she didn't like: Crossing the bridge, and going to the waterfall. What a wimp. We very much enjoyed the waterfall. It was ice cold, but on that warm day it felt amazing! We played in the waterfall a good half hour or more before starting the lovely trail back. On the way back up the trail we took Lady into the river and she really can swim...even if she doesn't like it. It was awesome trying to watch her scramble back onto the bank, she picked the most precarious spot and tried to scramble up using her claws.


Eye of the Needle

Next we explored the bear cave and eye of the needle area. Very cool. So many places to climb and play around in. When we had seen all we could see there we went to the top of Petit Jean mountain. There we saw what they think is the grave of Petit Jean. The legion goes something like this: There was a girl in France betrothed to a man she did not want to marry. So she disguised herself as a cabin boy and joined a crew sailing to America. She was so small the crew nick named her "Petit Jean" which means "Little John". The crew spent a good deal of time with the Indians in Arkansas, then she took deathly ill. In the process of treating her illness it was discovered that she was a girl. When she became coherent enough she, knowing she would not live long, asked to be buried in this beautiful land. Thus the legion of Petit Jean, a tragic story laced with romance.