North Arkansas – A Weekend With A View

One of the best things about having a camper is the chance to hit the road for a weekend, drop into a new state, and enjoy some beautiful views worth a million words, all from the comfort of your own space. Our family decided to pick up a fun US map with stickers for each state. Our goal has been to visit a new state every month, at least the ones within a reasonable radius of the Greater Kansas City Area, and start filling it up. On that weekend in March, 2021, we decided to hit the road early on Friday and get to the northern border of Arkansas.

Once again I found myself jumping onto my trusted list of apps and websites to find the perfect camping site. I bounced back and forth between Campendium and our Harvest Hosts accounts, but I didn’t have to look far to find some great options. Army Corps of Engineers had a lot of decent sites an hour past Branson (a drive we make multiple times each year), but one look at the photo below from their website, and I knew Ozark View RV Park was where we were heading:

Not don’t get me wrong, I love being tucked away in a forest away from people in general… Mrs. Nerd can attest I’m a bit of a curmudgeon, and pride myself on being generally cantankerous. Kidding aside, I am perfectly happy to nestle the camper back in a secluded wood and enjoy the sound of nature and shade of a tree. However, there is something life-giving about being able to see for miles. I’d trade a lifetime of quite solitude for the chance to wake up and step outside to a 10-mile view above the tree-line. God, help me understand how I ended up in Kansas, the flattest state in the Union… but I digress.

So why on Earth would we be inclined to go to Northern Arkansas (excluding getting to tack on another sticker to the map)? In two words: Scenic Views. One thing I’ve learned in the last 6 months is the power of this phrase chucked into the Google search engine… “Scenic locations in ” and tack on any state or county’s name to the end. What comes back has generally proven to be magical. In this case, “Scenic locations in Arkansas” yielded a great list of candidates across the state, but we kept it toward the northern border to reduce several hours of drive time to central or southern locations. Here’s a short list of what really piqued my interest:

• Whitaker Point
• Pedestal Rocks/King’s Bluff
• Alum Cove Natural Bridge
• Arkansas Grand Canyon
• Six Finger Falls
• Falling Water Falls

Between these kinds of images and the perfect view from Ozark View RV Park, I jumped on the chance to reserve Site 5 and we were on our way. We had an absolute blast! We got to see the Ozark Grand Canyon, Pedestal Rocks and Falling Water Falls. Whitaker Point is on the top of the list for our next visit to the area as well.

The main two things I hope you get out of this post are the beauty of North Arkansas and the power of searching for Scenic Locations for the areas you’re interested in visiting.

Keep an eye out for the next blog post, and watch for our instructional tutorials on getting the most out of apps like Campendium.com and Harvest Hosts! Share your comments below about your experiences in North Arkansas or any other Scenic Views you want to share with others, and stay awesome!