WAPANOCCA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, AND STILL MORE FLOODING.
Day 179 – This is an amazing State Park – HUUUGE, as Bernie would say. We drove through it today. 7,000 acres. Big enough so that everything is spread out. Like its own city. Someone has really thought this out.
When we got up, it was 30 degrees out and sunny. We drove an hour to get to Wapanocca NWR and found there was even more flooding up here farther north. One small river had overflowed it banks, covered the surrounding fields on both sides with water and it looked like a large lake with trees in it as far as you could see.
The Refuge Visitor’s Center was closed but they had a kiosk outside with informational flyers. We entered the Refuge to take the Auto Tour & immediately saw that water was covering a picnic area and boat launch area. We did do the drive but had to turn around where water still covered the roads. This scenario changed the normal wildlife we would’ve seen since the water was so high. Much less of everything, no deer or field critters. Unfortunately, a few animals didn’t make it – we saw them, too. The Refuge was really nice, though, and had great potential for bird & turtle watching, and we’ll come back another time. Great roads through bayou with Bald Cypress thoughout. Under other circumstances, you could kayak or canoe through this. We kept looking for alligators but it’s too far north.
We hadn’t brought a lunch along so we went to a restaurant in the closest town. Ugh. Should’ve brought a lunch. Drove back to the RV. The high today was 52 degrees with some wind which made it feel quite cold. Relaxed in the evening with our books and the cats. Tomorrow we will stay near the northeastern border of AR, near Missouri.