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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Wild Animal Safari

 

We went to Wild Animal Safari on March 4th in 2023.

Brief Summary:

Place: Wild Animal Safari. 
Location: Stafford, Missouri.
Distance: 137 miles.
Duration: 2:10 minutes.

Members: Me, my wife and my daughter.

Experience:

            We woke up around 6:15am, packed our lunch and started around 9:20am. Climate was good on that day, chilled wind was there but it was sunny. This safari was also in Missouri only.

There are so many attractions for tourists around Missouri but not in Bentonville. So we were having each weekend one trip to Missouri. We reached the safari around 11:30am. By the time we got there, the weather was little more cold than Bentonville. We got the tickets and started the walkabout zoo first around 11:35am. At the entrance only there was a lion and a lioness. We had very closer look of those, by the time we got there they were roaring. We heard the lion roar in DC zoo but here it was roaring little louder. Then we saw the mountain lion, Bengal tiger and white tiger. Bengal tiger was taking rest and the white tiger sat far away. After that saw some kind of monkeys, giraffes and a wild cat. We never saw this wild cat before, it has horns like things beside it's ears. After that we saw some reptiles and some kind of lizards, tortoise. Then suddenly we saw the white tiger was walking. Had a pretty good view of it. Suddenly the feeding people were passing by and the tiger thought they will feed him but no. At that moment it was walking very aggressively and stalking. Around 11:55am we finished the walkabout zoo then we went to had our lunch. There were so many picnic benches and can see the lions and tigers from the picnic area, that was so cool. Around 12:30pm we had our lunch and then went to see the white tiger once more. Still it was walking, we thought by watching people it was hungry. Around 1:06pm started the actual safari which is behind the walkabout zoo. 

        In the safari entrance there were so many deers and only one big deer with long horns. Then we saw llamas, Jersey cows. We also saw couple of Rams, many zebras and camels. Never before we saw the Ram in live safari.

Everyone is feeding the animals before us,  so we were going very slow. Funny thing was no animal was eating the food from the people in-front of us. This safari has very big place but they do not have many animals. We saw lot of pigs also here, then saw so many zebras and couple of camels. We felt little bore in middle of the safari because there were not many animals and also the people in the car in-front of us had very long frequent stops. Around 2:38pm we came out from safari. we bought some drinks and dippin-dots and headed to the Candy factory and Worlds largest gift shop around 2:45pm. Around 3:08pm we reached the candy factory, it was Redmon's gas station and they were running the candy factory and the World's largest gift shop. There we saw so many variety of candy and many flavors also there. We collected some flavors and some of those were in different shapes. One side of the candy shop they used to prepare the cakes and pies in different shapes but they did not open on that day.

There was a beautiful and big restroom also, actually we read comments about that restroom but we did not believe at first, but truly it was really a wonderful restroom in a gas station. We bought so many candy there and went to world's largest gift shop around 3:40pm. This gift gift shop was really a big one and they had all kinds gifts over there. Toys, garden, house decoration things, souvenirs and so many other fun things also there. One vintage model old blue car also there. We bought couple of toys and souvenirs and got out around 4:54pm. Started to home around 5:00pm and reached home around 7:15pm. We really had a great time in trip especially with lions view in safari and also with candy factory. We tried each candy every day but we like some varieties only but one candy is very spicy that jalapeno flavor we cannot eat it fully. That was the first time we ate spicy candy. Anyway overall trip is very fun. All is Well.

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