Yellow Rock Trail

We had done hike to Yellow Rock Trail on 13th September 2024 . It is located in Devils' Den State Park, Arkansas State.

Hike Location

Name: Yellow Rock Trail

Distance: 45 miles from Walton Gym (approx.)

Total hiking distance: 2.6 miles

Elevation Gain: 482 ft.

Hike Team: Abdul, Amita, Hanumantha, Nishant, Shawn, Zhen and me.

Hiking Experience:

We decided to reach Walton Gym around 7:45 am sharp, but didnt realize sharp means another 5 mins fro 7:45. We all met around 7:50 except Abdul who as per him is very close, upon checking found out that he is actually on J Stree and stuck in traffic and takes another 5 mins. Finally Abdul reached and we set out in Amita and Hanumantha's cars. Hanumantha, Shawn and me in one car and rest in another. we started around 8:05 am after distributing the food in both cars. As usual I started boring them with my old adventure activities while on drive. we reached the parking lot around 9:03 am, not difficult to find just little off the road and could see the sign board. Both are exceptional drivers sticking to time, lanes and able to reach smooth and safe except few off lane driving warnings. We had our breakfast Bananas, Croissants, Bread with excellent home made spread by Amita(might give a tough competition to cream cheese spread if in market). By 9:25 am we are done with breakfast , packed water bottles, oranges and some bananas each and started our hike by 9:28 am.

There was an entrance arch which has Yellow Rock Trail Name on it and passed through the entrance and followed the white diamond shaped plate trail. The weather was cloudy making it optimal for our hike. The trail is full of rocks buried in the ground and looked like steps (unordered and different shapes). The slope increased gradually and we could feel the effort. But the natural fresh air, large rock formations and pleasant atmosphere kept us going forward. There was a scary cave like formation barricade with iron rails indicating danger. We crossed it without much venturing there (as the name of the park,D evils Den, also had some impact on us). We hiked along the rock formations and could see some steep dark tunnels. Due to summer season the streams are dry and can see just huge rocks and dried leaves. We kept going forward and after reaching certain elevation we started exploring various overlook points. They are very scenic and gives a good high level overview(not high level design) of the mountain and valley filled with trees.

Around 10:30 am we reached the main crux of our journey the yellow rock overlook. It was a spectacular view from the overlook. It was a large wide rock(certainly yellow in colour). This is where we discovered a young and great photographer amongs us, that is Shawn. While we were relaxing after strenuous hike and having some oranges, bananas our photgrapher was busy arranging the camera position to capture these awesome views. Finally after all the photoshoots we started towards the next point of our hike that is CCC shelter. Throughout our hike we were so excited and anxious towards what animals, creatures might be there in the jungle especially after Amita obsessed with spider with long legs which we came across amidst our footsteps. This led to discussion of various wildlife live video streams, documentaries and topic diverted to life of Alaska bears(salmon fish and hibernation). And our young wildlife explorer Abdul(Rockstar in our group - will come to know later) started exploring the foot tracks of fellow hikers and growth of grass on the trail to see if the route was used or not.

One person who was little upset that we decided to continue the hike to CCC Shelter was Zhen as he thought we could descent back instead of hike on the steep path. We continued our hike which was steep and had lot of turns and passed through a wooden bridge, dried streams. We had a task of figuring out what is CCC and closest we could guess was Child Care Center. We finally reached the shelter by 11:15 am. It was an old great construction in 1934 and CCC is Civilian Conservation Corps, we were very close. We took some rest there. It was other entrance to Yellow Rock Trail. We started the return hike.

Now that we have seen all the overlooks, scenic beauty of nature, trees and discovered wild species(spiders) we started having small group conversations. Abdul, who came to know our photographer joined Pickle ball sessions was trying to get all the info he can to join the class then and there itself(if possible). Then we were engrossed in small team conversations Abdul and Nishant , Hanumantha and Shawn, Amita, Zhen and Me. We had visited(visualized) many countries like Australia, Japan and Vietnam through Zhen's experience. Hanumantha and Shawn explored all states specifically California and India, and Abdul and Nishant engrossed in various sports including swimming, soccer. The return hike is a steep decent on rajor sharp rocks and tree roots coming out of earth as speed brakers. Soon we all came out of team conversations , walked further. We all were walking normal but Abdul in cloudy weather wearing shades, hands in pocket, glaring shoes was walking stylishly as though going on to a stage to perform like a Rockstar. Finally reached our parking spot by 12:00 pm. We took rest, had photoshoot and visited the visitor center which was small and decent. We then drove back to Walton Gym and reached by 1:18 pm. All is well
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