How do you get to Eureka Springs?
My trip to Eureka Springs started with a road trip from Parsons, Tennessee. Parsons is a small town along the Tennessee River that sits about halfway between Nashville and Memphis. It would have been 8 hours of driving if we had driven straight through, but of course, we did not. We stopped at almost every State Park along the way and anywhere else that looked interesting. It was a beautiful drive.
Half the fun is getting there!
Dyersburg -Mississippi River
Dyersburg, Tennessee is just beyond Jackson, TN. It is mainly known for its Amtrak station. The City of New Orleans train passes through on its way to Chicago daily. I am planning a trip on Amtrak very soon! More details to come.
Black Rock, Arkansas
Driving along Highway 412 from Dyersburg, TN we drove through Black Rock, AR, a small town where we turned on to Highway 361 to go to the Davidson Historic State Park. Black Rock runs along the West side of the Black River with a population of around 590. During the 1880s it was a boomtown due to the development of railroads and because of timber interests. The town is called the gateway to the Ozark mountains.
Davidsonville Historic State Park - Pocahontas, Arkansas
Davidson Historic State Park is beautiful. There are a lot of walkways throughout the park that are graveled or paved and easy to walk on, even if you’re trying to use a walker or a wheelchair. There are several roads that you can drive through to view the trees and the different areas of the exhibits.
The visitor center has restrooms and a lot of exhibits set up to show how life was lived during the days this was a town. Davidsonville was the home of Arkansas’s very first post office and one of its earliest courthouses. Inside the visitor center, they have a replica of a flatboat used by hunters and trappers in the 1820s. The exhibit has an audio tour that gives a description of how these people lived and what the tools displayed were used for.
Powhatan Historic State Park - Powhatan, Arkansas
Leaving Davidsonville Historic State Park we continue down Hwy. 361, going back through the small town of Black Rock, on our way to Powhatan Historic State Park. It’s about a 15-minute drive between the two parks.
Driving to Powhatan we saw this cute airport with tiny planes. One of the most interesting parts of the park is the 6 historical buildings that still stand in the exact same place they did in 1888. The six buildings include the courthouse, a log home, the school, a church, and a jail. There’s a beautiful area along the river for a picnic or a game of frisbee.
Lake Charles State Park - Powhatan, Arkansas
Leaving Powhatan we drove down Hwy. 25 for about 10 minutes to Lake Charles State Park. This is a beautiful drive that circles the lake on one side. Lake Charles was the largest park we had visited thus far on this trip.
The park was full of families having a picnic or going for a swim. The people were very nice. Several stopped to talk to us and carried on a conversation about where we were going and what our plans were while we were in the town. Not in a nosey way but in a conversational small-town way of, “who are you and who are you kin to?” kinds of conversation.
1 thought on “Driving to Eureka Springs, Arkansas”
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