Petit Jean, AR

April 26th, 27th and 28th
Found this park by referral from the visitor center host on the border at Dora. It is the oldest state park in the state, constructed by the CCC in the early thirties. It was developed by a local doctor who later became head of the state parks system. It is named for a French girl who followed her fiancé to explore the upper Arkansas river. She traveled disguised as a boy called Petit Jean (little John), and was not discovered until she fell ill. Unable to return with the expedition, she remained with the local Indians until her death. Her reputed grave is on an overlook of the Arkansas River bend below the park. Over a hundred campsites with water and electric. One fourth are lakeside of the road, and are premium spaces for about 22 dollars. Lots of trees but the underbrush is cleared between trees. Mostly pull-through sites, and most were occupied or reserved. Three more sections of sites across the road, two with underbrush cleared. The third section was fairly wooded with underbrush. There was just one fifth-wheel parked in the far corner, we selected the site nearest to the bath house. All sites on this side of the road were $14.50 plus some tax. Bathhouse was clean, with hot showers on a spring release timer.
Took a drive along a road across the lake from the main park area. There were two lookout points where we discovered the park to be atop a small mountain overlooking the Arkansas and Petit Jean rivers, as well as the farm and pasture lands below. Some fields were still partly flooded due to heavy rains in the northeast part of the state. It was an amazing view of the area which we had no idea about.
Several hiking trails in the park, so we took a short walk to a natural cave that had some wall art from ancient occupants. An off-shoot of the trail went to a lookout across from the main lodge, but still looking down at the falls. The next day we did the longer hike, called Canyon Trail, that actually goes down into the canyon and ends at the falls. The description warned that it was for the very fit only, but we figured it would be okay. It was an amazing hike, first down the side of the canyon on a well kept path laid with stones by the CCC. There was a creek running down the rocks next to the stream. The path flattened out and wove among the trees and along the stream from the falls. At the end of the trail, the falls drop into a rocky pool, not recommended for swimming. We just sat there looking at the falls for at least a half hour. It was running fairly full and kind of muddy, again due to the recent heavy rains. There were a few other groups on the path, mostly fit enough for the walk, except for one girl we met as we were going down who was sweating a lot. We made the walk back in amazingly little time and effort.
Scrounged some kindling from the underbrush and had two nights of campfires. I commented on how it took us a month, but this was what we had been dreaming of all those years.

WalMart, Fort Smith, AR

Most RV full timers live on a limited budget. Many are retirees, on pensions and social security. Since the cost of a campsite is an ever present expense, discounts or deals are very important. We prefer to stay in state parks, for the scenery and walking trails, and the cost of a campsite averages about fifteen to twenty dollars a day. There may not be the amenities of a private park, but we are really not interested in swimming pools, beach volleyball, and craft classes.
We had heard through the on-line forums that Walmart stores across the nation allowed Rvers to overnight in their parking lots. There is even a Rand McNally atlas that has a state by state directory of every Walmart in the US and Canada. Lei was pretty uncomfortable with the thought of sleeping in a parking lot, so we didn’t try it until we got to Arkansas. Coincidentally, the corporate headquarters of Walmart is in Bentonville, Arkansas.
We had been driving for most of the day, probably eight hours on the interstate. We used the directions from our atlas to find a Walmart Supercenter in the suburbs of Fort Smith, AR. We parked the rig in a corner, far from the front door of the store, and went in to get an okay from the store manager. We got the okay and bought some groceries, used the restrooms, and headed back to the RV.
The parking lot has no hookups, so we couldn’t open the slide out. The on-board batteries ran the lights and the water pump, and the propane powered the refrigerator, water heater, and stove. This is called dry camping, where you use no land based utilities. We had dinner and turned in for the night.
In the morning we went into the store to use the restrooms and thank the manager for letting us stay. We were on our way by ten in the morning.
The good news? The parking spot is free. The bad news? Because this was a 24-hour WalMart, there were people driving in and out all night. In addition, the train tracks ran right next to the parking lot, so we heard the ka-thump-ka-thump of the train cars passing by all night. That’s just the “price” you pay!!