BIG LAKE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE.
Day 181 – We were up by 7:15 a.m. this morning. There are no trees to hang our outdoor temperature thermometer on, so we don’t know what the temperature was. Cloudy, though, and it was pretty windy last night. We left around 9 a.m. for Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge, about 18 miles from our campground.
Like the previous several NWR’s this Visitor’s Center was closed, but the Auto Tour Road was also closed due to flooding, so we couldn’t drive through. We picked up a flyer at the kiosk & hoping to salvage some of our wildlife drive, we drove to some roads surrounding the Refuge. One was a boat launch area near the Visitor’s Center. The water was quite high, but the scenery was nice. The cloudy day just helped to set the mood when looking out over the Bald Cypress Trees sitting in the middle of the water. Reminiscent of the Louisiana bayou. But no alligators. We then took the rough gravel road at the Big River Wildlife Management Area, the same one we were on yesterday, but we could drive more of the road. We saw 51 cardinals, and yes, we were counting them. Rob is entering the birds he counts into an app from Cornell University called, “eBird”. Saw a few ducks, too, but the water was so high and the fields were so flooded that the whole birding experience was different than it should have been.
Big Lake NWR, Manila, AR
Big Lake WMA, Manila, AR
Bald Cypress, Big Lake WMA, Manila, AR
We drove back to Blytheville which is the closest big city to the campground and the NWR. Got gas in the Honda and stopped at Subway for sandwiches for our lunch. We continued driving east to where the road ended in the flooded Mississippi River, stopped and ate our lunch. People were coming by to see the River at this flood stage – the fence nearby was almost completely under water and there was a Great Blue Heron standing where the road used to be, fishing for its next meal as the River flowed rapidly by. And it’s supposed to start raining again tonight.
Flooded Mississippi, Blytheville, AR
We drove back to Blytheville to do a little shopping at the local health food store, but it only sold vitamins, not produce, so we went to a regular grocery store to do our shopping, saving some money there. Went back to the grizzly RV park, & while Rob worked on his birding app, I got out the Mapbook for Missouri to see what was in store for us next. We are currently near the border of MO to the north & TN to the east. Tomorrow we head north out of AR. We’ve been in the south awhile now and are starting to talk to each other in a southern drawl. LOL.