Mount Nebo State Park is a base for adventure

Of the 52 state parks in Arkansas, Mount Nebo is my favorite place.

From its summit I feel like I can see to the edge of forever. From the north overlook Lake Dardanelle stretches out like a Swiss blue topaz amid a setting of woodlands and pastures. At sunset, Russellville and Dardanelle come aglow. Boat dock lights twinkle along the lakeshore.

The thing I love most is Mount Nebo’s alpine vibe. Whenever I’m there, I feel at home. If I didn’t ever have to come down, I’d live there.

Of course, Mount Nebo’s centerpiece is the park that bears its name. I visited on Feb. 2 with a friend whose goal is to visit all 52 state parks in a year. On that day we collected our stamps from Lake Dardanelle State Park and Petit Jean State Park, where we spent a good part of the day hiking.

The grand finale to that fine day was visiting Mount Nebo State Park.

Established in 1933, Mount Nebo State Park encompasses 3,783 acres. Like Petit Jean Mountain and Mount Magazine, Mount Nebo is a geologic anomaly, an isolated castoff from the Ouachita Mountains with Ozark characteristics. It doesn’t have roaring streams and waterfalls, but it does have an abundance of springs that supported a thriving tourism industry before the Great Depression. When hard times befell the region in the 1930s, the State of Arkansas acquired tax-delinquent properties and combined them to form a park.

Getting to the park is its own adventure. The road to the park goes straight up the mountain at an 18% grade through 11 hairpin switchbacks. If that road had whitewater classifications, it would be Class IV going up and Class V going down. If your brakes are worn at the beginning of the trip, the ride to the bottom will finish them off.

At the summit is a recreational delight. Hikers can enjoy six trails that cover a total of about 14 miles along the mountaintop. The longest is the 4-mile Bench Road Trail and the 3.4-mile Rim Trail.

My visit came on the heels of a wet week that brought snow to the highlands. Snow was still in the shady spots, but snowmelt had made the ground soggy and slick. A park employee said that he had hiked every trail that day. He said that the Bench Road Trail was the safest.

As per its name, the Bench Road Trail is an old road that traverses a bench not far below the mountain summit. It is wide and level, but also very rocky, with sections containing a lot of loose rock. It visits a complex of springs and also a beautiful spring-fed pond where wood ducks raise their young.

Mostly it’s just a very nice hike in the shade of towering mature hardwoods.

The highlight was encountering a herd of about eight or nine deer. They were upwind about 60 yards away. They couldn’t get our scent, so they stared edgily; muscles taut, eyes wide, ears erect.

I flicked my hand side to side. I slowly raised it, flicked it side to side in that position, and then slowly lowered it. It looked like a deer tail, and it made all of the deer very curious. The head doe craned her head and neck from side to side. Finally, she started marching toward us in an aggressive, stiff-legged gait.

“There’s nothing like a deer,” I murmured. “‘Don’t you try to fool me! I know you’re dangerous!’ So what does she do? She’s a good Arkansas deer. She goes to trouble instead of away from it!”

“What if she charges us?” my friend asked.

“She won’t,” I replied. “She’ll figure it out pretty quick.”

She did, too, and then she led her merry band bounding over the ridge.

We were also delighted to find a couple of abandoned campsites deep in the woods near the end of that loop. They offer spectacular views from the southeastern side of the mountain.

These are part of the myriad camping opportunities at Mount Nebo State Park. Ten backcountry sites are accessible from the Bench Road Trail. A developed car campground on the mountaintop has 25 sites for RVs in two loops near the visitor center. You can also rent cabins starting at $150 per night.

While most Arkansas state parks have modern visitor centers, Mount Nebo greets visitors with an old cabin with a wooden floor and a splendid view of the Arkansas River Valley. It retains the park’s remote, backcountry vibe.

For information, visit arkansasstateparks. com/ parks/mount-nebo-state-park.