Hiking in NW Arkansas: Centerpoint to Goat Trail (Buffalo National River) + Whitaker Point Trail

In our last vlog we kicked off our adventures in northwest Arkansas by visiting Bentonville, going mountain biking for the first time, eating delicious food, drinking coffee, and celebrating Adam and Kona's birthdays. We've headed a little bit southeast to the Buffalo National River to explore more of the beautiful nature in Arkansas and we're starting with the sunrise hike on the Center Point to Goat Trail. So a few fun facts about this hike it's called the Center Point to Goat Trail on all trails but you end up hiking to the spot called Big Bluff. So when researching this trail you may see a combination of Goat Trail, Big Bluff, Center Point Trail. I've seen it called a million different things. The hike is 5.9 miles with 1,076 feet of gain loss and as you can see it's all downhill. So you get to the bottom and then you hike all back up. And this hike is in the Buffalo National River area of Arkansas which unfortunately does not allow dogs on this hike or a lot of the hikes in the area. So unfortunately Kona had to sit this one out. So we are probably about two and a half miles in and so far honestly there hasn't been much to show or talk about. It's been kind of just walking through the woods but now we're getting to more some more interesting scenery here. Apparently the trail up here gets more more small and narrow and there's some drop-offs here so apparently we read that if you don't might not be the best hike for you but we're excited to see it. Wow, sweet view of the river bend down here. Oh dang. So, wow. This beautiful blue river behind me is the Buffalo National River which is the river the whole area is named after and it was actually America's first ever national river. It's about 135 miles long and it kind of just snakes through this area. It looks crazy clear and this bluff behind me called Big Bluff is the tallest sheer bluff between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains, I believe is what I read, at 550 feet tall. And it's called the Goat Trail because apparently in the 1800s when pioneers or settlers came to the area they brought goats with them. Some either got out or escaped somehow and so there's some roaming around these parts here. You don't see them too often but they're down there somewhere. Are you ready to goat back? Good one. Are you ready to goat back? Stop. We're almost back to the van. The trail is absolutely beautiful. We're here in November so there's tons of leaves on the ground so it's kind of slick and if you come and do this trail know that there's some big chunky rocks on the trail as well so wear some sturdy shoes. It took us almost three hours to do the whole trail and that was with a break at the end. So just a few minutes down the road from the hike we just did is the Boxley Valley Historical District which is basically an area where from the 1870s-ish to the 1930s-ish there was a bunch of family owned and run farms here in the area and there's some restored, not restored, but preserved buildings like the one across the road here. And there's a picture of it from 1914 and if you look at the picture and you look at it what it looks like now there's some pieces missing but it looks pretty dang close. It's a log cabin. You can see the exact logs that are in there. It's pretty crazy to see that it's still here and existing. So as the name implies there's this big valley surrounded by the Ozark mountains it's really really beautiful and one of the big things to do when visiting this area is view elk. So I've seen a photo of people standing against a fence like this looking at elk out in the valley but as you can see there are no elk. We hear that they're typically most active at sunrise and sunset time but we decided to do the hike first and then come here so we knew our chances were pretty slim but I think looking all the way yonder over there I feel like I see what might be elk so we're going to try to get back in the van and see if we can drive a bit closer and actually see some. Might be cows. Dang it, it is cows. Boo. Moo. You're not what we wanted. I read that typically after around 8 a.m they go into the woods. I had hope we could still see them maybe since it's a cloudier day they wanted to... Wait, no. Are those some out there? Oh no, is that a fence? Oh gosh, I'm getting so excited. Okay, well moral of the story is come here very early like at sunrise or come late at sunset and you will have better luck than we did. Also if you're wondering why there are elk here in Arkansas well one it's actually the only herd of elk in the entire state. They originally were eastern elk and then they went extinct so they brought in Rocky Mountain elk and there's about 800 of them total hiding in the forest from us right now. There is one out there. There's one out in the field. We have found one. Oh my gosh. It definitely is. He's there. You can't see him but we can. Just believe us. He's there. Well there were two. We promise. Sorry if you couldn't see it in the camera but believe us they were there. We saw them with our own eyes but it's starting to rain a little bit so we're gonna go get some breakfast. All right for breakfast. Technically now brunch. We came to Jasper, Arkansas to go to a spot called Blue Mountain Bakery and Cafe. Cool little spot on the inside. Apparently they make everything in-house. Got me some coffee. I got me a butter pecan latte and we got ourselves some good looking food. I am very excited for what I got. I got two things. I went in wanting one thing and then I was like well I don't know if it's gonna be enough to satisfy my hunger so I got two things. This first one I'll give you the one that this was the extra. I haven't seen it yet but this is a breakfast biscuit. Kind of taking me back to maybe Tudor's biscuit world. Oh yeah. It's got pepper jack cheese on there, bacon and an egg. Oh yeah. The biscuit is actually really excellent. Nice and fluffy and thick and hearty. The bacon is perfectly cooked and crispy. Cheesy, eggy. Everything you want right here. And per the usual my breakfast is kind of sad but it looks really good. I got hash browns with cheese on it and sausage. If you're new around here I can't really eat a lot of breakfast foods. Unfortunately it makes me so sad but this is a pretty good alternative breakfast. So the real reason we came here what I was excited to get was cinnamon roll branch toast. Yeah buddy. Normally it comes with three but I guess they ran out of these cinnamon rolls. They only had two left. So when I was ordering I was like I'm still gonna be hungry. I want some kind of protein and I was like well it's a lot of carbs if I get a biscuit thing in this. So I just went ahead and did it. Go big or go home right. And so then later after we ordered they said well we only have two and it normally comes with three. So we'll still give it to you but we'll take it off your ticket which was very nice of them. So yeah kind of saving a little bit of carbs here but still getting best of both worlds. And saving some cheddar. Beautiful perfect cinnamon roll. Some like little crispy parts but nice and soft. Very cinnamony. Very sugary. The butter on there. Then you get a little bit of the egg. So the french toast. Oh man this is my crush list. We have one more hike we want to do today on the Whitaker Point trail to this cool little spot called Hawksbill Crag. But we hear that the road getting to the trailhead is a bit rough. So the directions of Google Maps is trying to take us this way up to Whitaker Point but we've read that going this way is a bit rough and very steep. So we are going to go maybe this way and then down and approach from this 16 road and go up this way. We read that it's a bit smoother and we read that it also said that cars of all types could get there. But being in the van we're just a little more cautious. Want to take it a little easier. So we're going to try to loop around that way. So one stop on our alternate route to our Whitaker Point hike is the Arkansas Grand Canyon. And when something's called a Grand Canyon you can't not stop to check it out. And you guys check out the amazing view of the Grand Canyon here. If you haven't picked up on it yet it's not the nicest of weather days and it's kind of taking a turn for the worst. You can kind of see though. It says on a clear day you can see 40 miles due northwest to Missouri. But not today. The rain's like going in my face. From what we can see though I bet it's a gorgeous view. You can see the rolling hills and the mountains. Some kind of meadows and valleys and like really green grass. And it's clearing up a little bit. But yeah I think on a really clear day this would be an awesome spot. We just got to the dirt road to get up to the trailhead. We were this close to bailing. But it's looking like it's maybe clearing up. We just drove through like a white. Well it was like driving through the clouds. It's like driving through heaven I guess. But you couldn't see 50 feet in front of you. But we just got here clearing up a little bit. I think we're gonna give it a shot. So to be honest the road was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. We can't speak for going the other direction. But if you go the way coming on 16. Really not bad at all. If our van could make it. Any car could make it. So we just got here. We're starting the trail. Pretty busy. The parking lot is way busier than we thought it would be. Especially because it's a Monday. I took today off of work. So it's a Monday. Kind of a weird weather day. But this is probably one of the most popular hikes in the area. So it's kind of to be expected. It's about three miles round trip and like 400 something feet of gain and loss. So not too bad. And the sun's coming out now. We see the point. What is it Hawksbill? Hawksbill Crag. Hawksbill Crag or Whitaker Point. Looks like we're gonna need to wait in line. A couple people over there. But looks like a pretty epic view. This was definitely one of those things where you just walk out get your photo and then take off. It's an awesome view though. But yeah it's it was kind of busy even for a Monday. I can only imagine what it was like on the weekend. Because I had to wait in line for I don't know a couple minutes. But still really cool to experience. Even like a couple weeks ago when like the colors were like really good. Because right now a lot of the a lot of the trees are pretty dead at this point. So like a few weeks ago I bet it was a mad house here. Like seriously waiting in line for minutes to get your photo. But I will say the photo of Adam on the rock with the view around. It was worth dealing with the crowds. It was pretty cool. I'm pretty happy with it yeah. So we booked it over here. So we're going to kind of take our time a little bit on the way back. Because along the way you're going along the the bluff of the canyon I guess. I'm not sure what it is. The valley. So and there's some outcroppings here that we're going to stop and check out on our way back. All right y'all as Texans we have been sleeping on Arkansas. I think we're maybe nine hours or so away from Austin. And we're just kind of kicking ourselves that we never came and explored the state when we lived in Texas full time. To be honest we really struggled to figure out what to do today. Because in this northwest part of the state there are so many trails. So many things to do. It was just really hard to pick. Yeah I feel like we've kind of missed out all our lives. We could have been taking trips up here this whole time. Would have been nice. But what we really want to do is come back in the maybe the late spring early summer when the trees are starting to turn green. The waterfalls start flowing. Maybe dip our toes in some lakes. It's just really beautiful here. But that's a wrap on our time here in northwest Arkansas. But we're going to be coming at you from a different part of the state for one final Arkansas adventure in our next vlog. Looking. Seeing. Watching. Observing. Viewing. Elk. Sad puppy back there who wants food. Oh here she comes. Hello. We blocked her. She was trying to eat all of our food.