Maumelle Park, Little Rock, AR

 

Yesterday we moved on to a lovely Army Corps of Engineers campground, Maumelle Park, just northwest of Little Rock. We got lucky and someone had cancelled, so we got a site right on the river.

Our view. It’s much better in person.

Thanks to our blogging friends, Alan and Marilyn, for telling us about this place. They’ve been here a couple weeks and told us to come on down and join them. We are so glad we did. Not only was it nice to see them again, this is a great area.

Yesterday we picked up our mail in the nearby little town of Roland, and on the way back stopped off at Pinnacle Mountain State Park, just two miles from our campground. The mountain was calling us to climb it, and after all the junk we ate at the get together we needed a good workout.

Pinnacle Mountain from across the river.

Although a short trail, less than a mile and half to the summit, half of it was climbing up a rock bed. There were yellow lines painted on some of the rocks or we wouldn’t have been able to navigate our way up.

The views of the Arkansas River and Maumelle Lake from the top were great, but we were a little concerned about getting back down. Luckily we made it without falling.

An old friend from Pensacola, Terry, who used to work with Jim at Nationwide, is in the process of moving to Arkansas. He started his new job last week, and just put a contract on a house in Conway, not far from where we are. He came by last evening and we had a nice chat with him and Alan and Marilyn.

Today Terry joined us for a bike ride from Maumelle Park to the new Arkansas River Trail, a loop that crosses the river several times and goes to downtown Little Rock. It was a great ride, 90 percent of it on a paved trail right along the river. There were only a few places we had to ride on the road but there wasn’t much traffic.

Here are some pictures from our 30 mile ride.

Terry, at the start of the big dam bridge.

A view from the bridge.

 

The Clinton Presidential Library.

Downtown Little Rock.

An RV park on the river. Just a big parking lot but you can walk across the river on a pedestrian bridge right into downtown.

We are really impressed with the Little Rock area. If we hadn’t planned to be in Pensacola on the 17th we would stay here awhile. Definitely someplace to come back to and spend some time.