Visiting Arkansas in September brought a beautiful day, along with a trail that was a bit different than my normal ones. Robinson Point Trail in Mountain Home, Arkansas, is a 2.5 mile loop trail that boasts lake views that are just stunning. The trail starts off down a nice path with trees as far as you can see. It winds around for a bit, with blue arrows on the trees, marking the way.

I’m not sure how many people actually use this trail, but when my fiance and I were on it, it seemed we had been the only ones on it in quite a while. The trail at first was a nice path, but it turned into lots of rocks and branches all over. It became more of a challenge to not turn an ankle, so looking down was the way to go for me. I tend to trip and have had many falls over the years, so I do try to take a bit more care when hiking through rougher terrain.

We continued heading down the trail, going deeper into the woods. You could see the lake off in the distance, so we were pretty amped to get to it and enjoy the views. It became damp and a bit darker, due to all of the trees blocking the sunny skies. We kept hearing noises out there, and at first were unable to locate what it was. Yep….it was a bit spooky for a bit.

As we rounded a corner, we heard the noises again. Just a faint crunching of the twigs. We stopped and listened for a minute. Then a movement caught my eye and I saw a deer about 20 yards away. We stood and admired it, and it stood and stared back at us not moving. No one was moving. Then something did move. That’s when we noticed there was not one deer, but eight of them all standing there staring at us. We looked at one another, and quietly hurried off on down the path, to get to the lake, still mesmerized at finding this beautiful group of deer within the woods.

The trail was definitely a challenge to stay on our feet. Slipping and sliding, tripping and kicking rocks went on for most of the trail. We made it to a lovely cove where the view was the gorgeous blue lake, as far as you could see. The water had pushed loads of branches and trash up onto the shore. A sad sight to see the many plastic bags and beer cans scattered all over.

We continued on and the trail took us into a thicker, moister part of the hike. Lots more bugs began playing their games with us, trying to bite us or flying around our ears. The trail became more and more challenging, and dense with trees and bushes. We decided to call it quits at this point, and turned back around to head back to the car.

Overall this hike really was beautiful and very different from any other I have been on. Most hikes I do are more heavily tracked, so it was a unique feeling to feel like we were on a trail that hadn’t been used very much. The lake was absolutely stunning, the many trees along the hike were really beautiful. It was well marked with the blue arrows, and thankfully those were there because we could easily have been left to guess our way back.

I visit Arkansas a few times a year, and intend to head back to this area next time around. I look forward to seeing other trails to explore out there.

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