HOLLA BEND NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE.
Day 175 – It started raining during the night and continued raining on & off for most of the day, We were up at 7:35 & 8:10 a.m., 44 degrees, light rain. A group of black vultures flew in and held court right in front of the RV. The cats were aghast.
Black Vultures, Old Post Road Park, Russelville, AR
We left before 10:00 & headed southwest to Holla Bend NWR. “In 1954, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in an effort to improve navigation and prevent flood damage, straightened the Arkansas River by cutting a new channel across Holla Bend. The resulting island between the old river channel and the new river channel became Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge in 1957.” from a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services brochure. The Refuge encompasses 7,055 acres of land and offers a Visitor’s Center, an Auto Tour, hunting & fishing in season, boating, hiking, birdwatching & wildlife observation, and photography opportunities. The road was paved or well-maintained throughout. We saw some birds, a deer, several armadillo, squirrels, all the usual suspects, but didn’t take a lot of pictures because of the rain and clouds.
We’d forgotten to pack our lunch, so we picked up sandwiches from Subway in the town of Dardenelle, then drove around some to check out the area. Lake Dardenelle State Park is a large Park which is quite popular in-season. We drove to the smaller Unit on the west side of the Lake. It was a nice area and a small but decent campground – a good back-up if our current campground was booked full when we came back another time. (There is also a very large campground at the Unit on the busier eastern side of the Lake, but we didn’t drive up there.) We drove to Riverview Park, another COE campground that’s opposite of ours (we’re on the eastern side of the dam and River; Riverside Park is on the western side). It had a large parking lot for boaters and fishermen and some campsites, not as nice as where we’re staying. Rob saw a group of White Pelicans at the dam and stopped to take pictures.
We drove into the town of Russellville near our campground to locate the local health food store – they were closed (in the south & in this neck of the woods, we’ve found that almost everything closes on Sunday). We scoped out the size of the parking lot; we’ll stop there when they’re open tomorrow on our way out of town. We got gas for the Honda & went back to the RV. Some of the campers had left, the weekend was almost over, but the campground was still about half full. Still raining on & off, the high today was 52 degrees. End of Week 25, Trip #3.
OMG! I never realized how funny an armadillo looked! Somehow, I thought they were just a solid, drab gay color. Never realized that they were striped. Too funny! Thank you Rob for your wonderful photos, and thanks to Vicki for your narratives. Miss you both!!!!!