Cherokee Park, Arkansas

We left the ranch in Missouri on October 20. Our first stop on this trip like most trips heading south, was at a place that would allow us to visit our son Michael and DIL Audrey and the two grandsons, Connor and Cameron. We do not get to see this part of our family as much as we would like and we were really looking forward to this visit. We have not seen them in about 3 months and we may not see them again until May.

We normally spend the time at the same park in Russellville, AR. It is a COE park called Old Post Road Park. We like it because the sites are large and it sits right along the Arkansas River. We have never had a problem getting into that park. I went on line to check for availability and was concerned to see that the park was full on the weekend that we would be there. I called the SP in Russellville and was told that there was a big Bass fishing tournament that weekend and everything in town was full. I did my normal searching and found a place that looked pretty good about 30 miles away. It is a small COE park in Morrilton, AR called Cherokee Park.

We made the mistake of trying to follow google to get to this park. There are some very low RR crossings that we would not fit under. I found a way around and after a few tense moments, we found our way to the park. When we arrived we found a very quiet park right along the river. We found a great spot with an awesome view.

I love the big trees and the view of the lock and dam.

We got set up and then headed right on over to see Con and Cam. Age 6 and 2.5.

Those boys are growing so fast. I have so much fun playing with them that Mom needs to tell us to all settle down. 

Michael is in an outage at the Nuclear Plant, so he is working 12 hour days, 6 days a week. So, we did not get to spend as much time as we would like, but he was still able to be there when possible. 

The first day we were there, I got up and took a walk over to the dam and Hydroelectric plant. This is the view from our site. 

They were letting water out of the dam on that first day, so the water was very turbulent. It all looked very different a few days later. 

Here is a view of the campground from the point of land between the dam and the Hydro plant. 

The Old Post Park has two major downsides, first it is noisy. There is some kind of plant close by that makes a constant noise. You can turn on the fan or the AC and it is fine for sleeping, but sitting outside is not good. There is also a chicken rendering plant near by and if the wind is blowing just right, it stinks. Neither of those problems are an issue at Cherokee. It is quiet and there is little traffic through the campground. There were about 10 campers there on the weekend and almost empty during the week. This is our kind of campground. 

We need to get on the road today, so I will leave this entry there and write more about the activities with the kids and seeing friends while we were in the Russellville area in my next entry.