Arkansas is only six hours from Lincoln and in March my family and I decided to make the trek. We had never been to Arkansas before (one more state checked off the list!). We stayed for four days and three nights and had a wonderful time. We enjoyed hiking and exploring, museums, and shopping. Here are our highlights and what I recommend doing while you are there.
Two big takeaways: most of the activities that we did were free. It was not an expensive trip (yeah!). Secondly, we found NW Arkansas to be very dog friendly. If we had known how much so we would have brought our dog.
We stayed in Bentonville, Arkansas, which is the birthplace of Wal-Mart, and a good jumping off point to visit the surrounding areas.
Outdoor Activities
NW Arkansas is beautiful! We spent an entire day exploring Devil's Den State Park (free admission). It has good hiking (not stroller friendly), lots of water and amateur spelunking. Our second favorite area to hike was Tanyard Creek (free) where we came across a gorgeous water fall, lots of creeks areas to play in and splash and flat hiking trails. We were told by many people that we met that there are great biking trails in the area as well.
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Museums
Bentonville is home to two famous (and free) museums. The first is the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art which is filled with contemporary art. They also have outdoor grounds with sculptures. This isn't your typical museum with just paintings on the wall. My kids loved to see the huge art installations. The second museum that is fun to go to is the Wal-Mart Museum. It is filled with nostalgic pieces from the beginnings of Wal-Mart. It is located on Bentonville's town square which is filled with great local shops. It is a one hour stop and worth the visit. Next to it is a soda and ice cream shoppe that we visited multiple times during our stay.
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Shopping
The Bentonville Town Square is filled with local restaurants and shops. You could easily spend an afternoon going from store to store. They also have a large mural collection around town that we visited while enjoying our ice cream. Everyone's favorite place to eat at was "Crepes Paulette" (delicious) and our favorite story was "The Three Dog Bakery." If you are a fan of antiques I would suggest driving a little south to Prairie Grover where they have antique store and antique store.
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Our first trip to Arkansas was great and we will definitely be going back. The trails weren't crowded, the food was delicious and it is fun to go somewhere new. Two thumbs up from us :)
