Thirty-three TrailBlazers headed up Highway 23 to the St. Paul area to do two short waterfall hikes. In the process we took a long, scenic road trip, some on dusty dirt roads, all over North Central Arkansas. First we went to Kings River and trekked along its banks with views of some lush green pastures on the other side of the trail. Along the way there were some small falls in the river and some cascading falls down a hillside. Pleasantly surprised to find that the Kings River Falls had a nice flow of water, we took time to explore the area before heading back. 

As the crow flies, distances are short, but crows don’t drive, so it took us a while to get to the Sweden Falls area. It was a tad tricky to find on a narrow gravel road. As luck (bad) would have it, we got some input from a man driving a chicken poop spreader truck. He told us to give him the right of way since he had no brakes. We caved in because discretion is the better part of valor! 

After finding the dilapidated sign, we climbed over some barbed wire, bushwhacked for a while in the heat, lost our bearings for a few minutes, and eventually found the old road. We finally ate a late lunch and serenaded Kathy with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday – no wonder we didn’t see any wild life. Then we trekked down the rocky, slippery ridge trail to the cool, shaded box canyon to view Sweden Creek Falls and rest in the cool shade. It was a great day for hiking and we had a large turnout.