Taking the Road Less Travelled

Charmed. Let me set the scene: I was driving along a winding mountian highway, reveling in the curves and downhills, when I see a brown sign and a dirt road pointing away to my left. If you're any kind of outdoorsy you know that brown signs usually denote some sort of natural area/attraction. I wasn't really in any hurry to get anywhere, just cruising along in the Ouichita Mountains of central Arkansas seeing whatever I could see. I drove half a mile more up the road before I hit my brakes and flipped a u-turn. I decided to see where the road would take me. Taking that road ended up being my favorite part of the weekend I spent in Arkansas in mid-March. I bounced along National Forest Service Road 177 for miles, pushing my little Yaris up and down the mountainous terrain like it was a highway. Granted, I wasn't going very fast or anything, but it was still a one-lane mountain road in the backcountry. I had my music on as loud as possible, windows down, and heater on. My kind of road!

I wasn't even sure what I was on my way to go see; I only knew I was enjoying the drive and that I had a full tank of gas and all day to spend exploring. I love days like that. I came around a corner and saw the roof of a building, and an empty dirt patch that was clearly a parking lot. I pulled up and stopped, checking out the little mountain stream and the picnic pavillion. It wasn't until I got out of the car and walked toward the wood and brick building that I realized that this was actually a spring, with the pavillion built right over it so that the icy water shot out of the foundation of the building. I decided it was a lovely place to eat my brunch, so I grabbed my food and my camera and spent half an hour at Collier Spring (as I later found out it was named) just hanging out. I'm sure that during the summer the cool spring and mountain stream feel amazing, and there was a little swimming hole in the stream that someone had clearly put some effort into building. I would LOVE to go back and camp there this summer...assumming I can find it again!