On the Road Again

School's out for Thanksgiving so must be time to visit more State Parks and grab a few more geocaches.  October was pretty busy so we didn't manage to collect any State Park Caches but now we should have a bit of time.

This trip it was time to hit a cluster of parks in North West Arkansas, and to visit the new niece/cousin.

First up was Lake Fort Smith State Park.  This is a new old park.  Back in 2002 they closed the old park to allow for the expansion of Lake Fort Smith.  They packed up and moved 2 miles north.  We hiked a bit of the Ozark Highland's Trail to get to the cache.

Next up was Devil's Den State Park, 9 miles as the crow flies, 32 as the car drives.  We've camped at this park before, it's a nice place to go "off the grid" since it's now in a hole that cell signals don't get to.  It's also unique in that it has both sandstone and limestone caves.  They are all closed right now to protect their resident bats from the White Nose Syndrome but there's still plenty of trails to hike.

The last stop was Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park, one of many Civil War parks in the State.  We learned a bit of history.  The park was flying 2 flags, the current US flag as well as another flag that took google to determine what was.  It was the official flag of the Confederate States.  Most people assume the Confederate Battle Flag was their flag, it wasn't.  It has 3 stripes (2 red, 1 white), a field of blue, and a circle of stars.  Lots more information here.

So, for those keeping score we've collected 11 of the 52.  Maybe we'll manage to grab another 3 next weekend to keep our streak alive.