On Monday, June 24, 2024, we traveled a short distance from Hickory Creek State Park to Parker Bottoms Campground (Dam Site River). Parker Bottoms is just below the Beaver Lake dam on the White River. We stayed in this location until June 27th.
On Monday night, we decided to travel to a nearby town for dinner. We ended up at Amigos in Eureka Springs. The food was excellent, and the city is really cool! We liked the food and the town so much that we just kept going back.
On Tuesday morning, we floated in our kayaks down the White River from the Bernard Access point to the Houseman Access point. After arriving at the entrance point, we realized we were missing a paddle that must have been mixed up in our son’s stuff more than an hour away. My wife drove to a local outfitters shop and paid top dollar for an otherwise inexpensive kayak paddle. Upon her return, we set off. We started by paddling up the river before the flow from the dam started at noon behind some islands in the river. At noon, the dam blew a loud horn and opened its gates to generate electricity. At first, it was easy to paddle against the current, but shortly it became impossible, and we began our float downstream. We decided to pass our entry point and continue downriver. When we exited at Houseman Access, we summoned an Uber to pick Linda up for the four-minute drive back to our truck. After a twenty minute wait a driver came and was quite upset that we had him drive twenty minutes to deliver us four minutes away. He shouldn’t have accepted our request if he didn’t want to make the $20 for the ride.
After our float, we drove to the dam site lake swimming beach near the dam of Beaver Lake, where we had swum the previous week with our family. After a refreshing and relaxing swim, we drove back to Eureka Springs. This time, we ate at the Local Flavor Cafe; it was amazing.
On Wednesday, June 26th, we kayaked up the river from the boat launch at the end of the Parker Bottoms Campground road, almost to the dam. When the horn sounded at noon, we rode the new current back to our starting point. Evidently, when we dragged our kayaks down to the river, we put a small hole in my wife’s boat. During our float we had to periodically empty her kayak.
After our kayak trip, we rode our bikes from our campground to the dam observation area and then to the Beaver Lake dive area on the north shore for a lovely afternoon swim. After our swim, we returned to Eureka Springs and ate at the Grotto Wood-Fired Grill and Wine Cave. The food was excellent. Each time we went to dinner in Eureka Springs, the food kept getting better.
We simply love Eureka Springs. After dinner, we drove to see the Christ of the Ozarks statue and the Golden Gate suspension bridge; both were fun to see.
Our campsite was lovely, and we sat in the evening and watched the fireflies. However, our neighbor really liked lights. They seemed to retire quite early, but they set lights up that remained on all night. It wasn’t great for stargazing, but it was otherwise entertaining.
We left on the morning of the 27th, but before departing, we noticed the fog on the White River. It was beautiful and a pleasant way to say goodbye to a wonderful place.
| Nights | Total Nights | Miles | Total Miles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 254 | 39 | 23559 |
