Who Was Petit Jean?

28 April - 5 May 2022

My next stop was Cherokee Park in Morrillton. It's another COE park and it was small but nice. The roads leading to the park were a bit sketchy though. I have a Garmin 780 RV GPS that I've programmed with my height, width, length and weight and it still told me to turn down a road that went under a 9.5 foot overpass. Yeah, that's not going to work for me, I'm about 12 feet tall. I pulled over and looked at google maps for other ways to get there. I found another road with 13 foot clearance and took that one. It goes through a neighborhood and the roads were really narrow and had some low hanging branches. I was very uncomfortable towing my trailer down them but I guess everyone does it though to get to the park.

Once again I was right on the river. This is a very small campground and although the park was clean and nice, the bathrooms were kind of nasty so I didn't use them.

I was greeted with a beautiful sunrise when I took Gable out the next morning for his walk. When I got back to the trailer I made some coffee and then I found this tick. On my back!

Yikes! It had latched on so I pulled it off and sent it off to a lab to check for Lyme disease. Now I'm not only paranoid about snakes but am constantly checking for ticks. Ugh! So gross. I'll let y'all know when I get the results back. In the meantime I keep checking the bite mark for the tell-tale bullseye.

UPDATE: Since this blog post is a few weeks behind real-time, I got my test results back and it was negative. Yay!

The reason I came to Morrillton was to visit Petit Jean State Park. There were several hikes I wanted to do but since my time here was cut short because of the truck problem I only got to do a couple.

I love the way Arkansas has carved and painted signs for their State Parks.

Also, there are no entrance fees!

Who is Petit Jean you may ask? According to local legend, a French nobleman named Chavet was granted an expedition to explore uncharted regions of the new world. Adrienne DuMont, his fiancé, tried to convince him to allow her to join him on his expedition. Knowing the hardship and danger, Chavet refused. Determined to go, Adrienne cut her hair, went in disguise, and landed a position as a cabin boy on the boat. She was given the name Petit Jean "Little John" by the crew. She kept to herself to keep her identity a secret. The ship crossed the Atlantic, sailed up the Mississippi River to the Arkansas River where they spent the summer at the foot of this mountain. Petit Jean suddenly became gravely ill with a fever and that is when her caregivers discovered she was a woman and Chavet discovered she was his beloved fiancé. She asked for his forgiveness and knowing she was dying, told him she wanted to be buried at the top of this point.

Petit Jean's gravesite

The view from Petit Jean Overlook at Stout's Point

My first stop inside the park was Cedar Falls Overlook. There's a boardwalk that goes down to the viewpoint. This is where I'm going to hike down to today.

Another pretty sign at the trailhead. Another rocky trail to climb back up.

Although there were a couple of small streams you had to cross on stepping stones, at least there was a bridge that crossed the river.

Can you hear the water rushing? It's so peaceful. Most of the hike was along the river which was nice.

I just love being in the woods and the sound of running water. It reminds me of all the camping trips we took in the PNW as a child.

The reward! Cedar Falls was beautiful. I sat here on the rocks and enjoyed the tranquility for awhile before heading back.

It was worth the effort to experience this. Now for that steep climb back out!

There was another very short hike called Bear Cave. There was no actual cave, just a bunch of interesting rock formations with lots of nooks and crannies.

This was a little slot-like canyon

Looking straight up from the slot.

So that's it for Petit Jean State Park. I wish I'd had more time here but that's the way it goes sometimes. You have to roll with the punches and make the best of things.