Our first time to Petit Jean
We took our first real trip with the camper back in 2021 when we took it to Petit Jean State Park. That trip was filled with mistakes in planning, how far was reasonable to travel in a day, how to set up, how to use the camper, and I’m sure some that I don’t even remember, but those are the subjects for another day. What’s important about that trip was how much we enjoyed the stuff we got right, including our choice of visiting Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas.
It began as a Civilian Conservation Corps project in the 1930, and it Arkansas’ first state park. They hoped it would become a national park, but the US government deemed it too small. It features Cedar Falls, and a large system of hiking trails all around it, but we opted for the easy to reach boardwalk that provides a nice overlook. Whenever visited the overlook, it was popular enough that we didn’t have the place to ourselves, but there wasn’t any wait to enjoy any view you might want.
Near the visitor center, there’s a small lake that drains over a few small waterfalls that can be enjoyed with a very short walk from a parking lot. Near the visitor’s center is an open field with several monuments to the CCC and remnants of their past. There’s a nice paved hiking trail/ bike path nearby, too. Firewood can be bought from the visitor’s center.
The campsites are spacious, but some, such as ours, had trees very close to the pads, close enough to interfere with putting out our awning. We spent five days there. The weekend was full, then we had our loop nearly to ourselves when the weekend crowd left. At night the loop was very dark, which we always think is a good thing. It was a good place for seeing the night sky as long as our fellow campers aren’t putting out too much light pollution.
We enjoyed our stay and would definitely camp there again. It has an interesting backstory involving a romantic backstory of 17th century French explorers. Here’s a link if you’re interested.