Located 39 miles from Mystic Caverns, Magnolia Falls trip as seen by an eleven year old....

On my last blog, I visited three waterfalls. Magnolia Falls was the easiest of the three, and I think the prettiest. So, yesterday I took my two daughters on an adventure back to Magnolia Falls. We took a different route than I did last week, and it was a little shorter, but with more curves. We left Mystic Caverns and traveled South on Arkansas Scenic Byway 7 for 10.6 miles, we turned right onto Highway 74 West and traveled 14.1 miles until Highway 74 dead ended into Highway 43, we turned left and headed South on Highway 43 for 4.5 miles, then we turned left onto Highway 21 South, we drove 9.3 miles, then we turned right onto a dirt road for about .3 miles to the trailhead. The rest of this blog will be written by my eleven year old daughter, Abby.

If you are prone to motion sickness, like me, you might want to go the other route. We were heading toward Ponca on Hwy. 74, and we saw a picture opportunity, a beautiful barn overlooking a bluff.

We went a little further and saw a group of chickens crossing the road (they made it to the other side). After a while, we saw another group on the side of the road and we stopped and took pictures of them. Then they crossed the road! 

We saw a rooster with that group.

He was a pretty bird . I don't know about you, but I haven't seen chickens cross the road and make it to the other side before, so that was a neat experience. We went on for about twenty- five minutes and I spotted a herd of elk out in a open field.

Then across the road there was a single deer in a fence (it might have been a pet deer).

After about twenty minutes, we arrived at the trailhead. We headed down the trail and saw a man made rock wall.

We passed a lot of fallen trees (from the ice storm last January) on our way to the waterfall. Not far from the rock wall was a group of large boulders. In this picture, take note that I am 4ft. 8inches tall.

The tree on the left appears that it has grown into the rock. From here, we hiked on down to Magnolia Falls. On the way, I stopped and took a picture of white fungi growing on a dead tree.

We got to the waterfall and took these pictures....

There we saw icicles formed from frozen trickling water.

I found a branch with leaves encased in ice.

We stayed there for a while, admired the beauty and ate a snack. On the way back from the falls, we saw a strange crooked tree.

We got back to our parking spot and started heading home. We passed the elk where they were before. Then, we found that three trumpeter swans were on the side of the road slowing down traffic as people stopped to take pictures. It was lucky for us that we brought a biscuit for a snack. We tossed the bread toward them as they gobbled it up. As soon as they found that the food was coming from our hands, they began to eat out of our hands!

When the biscuit was gone, we headed to Buffalo Outdoor Center to use the restroom. There they have a cockatoo to keep them company named Lemon Drop.

Lemon Drop loves to be talked to and will sometimes talk back. She will occasionally chirp "hello, hello". And, when you start to leave, she will try to get you to come back by screaming "hello!" She loves to be petted and will perch on your arm. We left the Buffalo Outdoor Center about an hour later. On our way home, we pulled off and took a picture of the view off of Highway 43.

While we were there, we noticed the stench of a dead animal. It turned out to be what was left of a wild pig carcass.

Looks disgusting, doesn't it? 

I really enjoyed this trip, and I hope you will try it, too! I had a great time being outside in the middle of all of God's beautiful creation!