11 of 40: hideout hollow trail

For my 40th birthday all I wanted to do was hike, and my family was fabulous to give me just that. We had numerous days where the only activity was hiking and we complemented that workout with plenty of good food and comfortable sleeping arrangements!

I fell in love with the Buffalo National River area in the fall of 2015 when we first hiked there, and have been wanting to return ever since. On that trip we hiked Lost Valley, Whitaker's Point and Ponca to Steel Creek. Ella and Roone did so well on those hikes it began to give me a vision for what additional adventures could be ours for the taking.

This trip we stayed just north of the area in Harrison at a charming historic hotel, 1929 Hotel Seville, which we recommend (great price, small size, comfortable beds, complimentary hot breakfast).

North central Arkansas is just a few hours drive away from the Kansas City area so we knew we'd be able to hike a couple of short, non-strenuous trails on the first initial travel day. We drove directly to the trail head of Hideout Hollow near the city of Compton, an easy 1 mile in and 1 mile out hike.

The falls were very pretty, although obscured a bit by the trees. The "hideout" can be explored but we chose not to as it wasn't the easiest of access to get behind the falls. The small falls that lead to the larger falls were nice to rest at and the kids liked hunting for tadpoles.

The falls on this trail are minimal compared to other trails in the Buffalo River area, but I'm glad we walked this trail on this travel day to ease us back into the hiking groove. After this trail we decided to fit in an even shorter trail called Triple Falls (next post) before heading to dinner.