Our last FULL day there. Decided to try some new things today. Consulted the waterfalls & swimming holes book, decided to try this area near Ben Hur where 2 swimming holes, 1 waterfall and other such things were supposed to all be in the same area. (Waterfall--p 88 of book, "Intersection Falls," 35.75281, -92.93647 (others nearby too); Swim Hole--p 44, #8 "Falling Water Falls", 35.72194, -92.94944--p 46, #19 "Richlands Campground, 35.7975, -92.9322).*

After a quick dip at Bradley Park on the way, we went to "Falling Water Falls" first, the GPS was dead-on, but we ended up going down an awful gravel path somewhere between 123 & 16 (when 123, we later saw, would've connected to 16 without the drama anyway--I didn't have my Atlas to see this & my phone didn't work in the area to use that to see). This gravel path was some 4 miles long & I even had to drive briefly over a creek bed (!) to continue. (Note to self--BRING ATLAS NEXT TIME!!)

After enjoying "Falling Water Falls," there were supposed to be waterfalls at the end of that road, but the locals said such wasn't the case. Thus based on what they had said my wife's waterfalls we came here for were a no-go. Frustrated by the inability to get a "bird's eye" overview of where we were & how to proceed to other possible spots, I had the GPS take us to nearby Carver, a spot we had seen last year near the "Blue Hole." On the way we found this spot called "Pedestal Rock King's Bluff" (35.72371, -93.01443) which was supposed to be a look-out point after a short hike, it ended up being pretty wimpy. Tired, we were going to go to Carver after all but we wound down the day going to Upper & Lower Pruitt (36.06139, -93.13888) before eating out at the Ozark Cafe.

(Later, upon looking at everything on Google Earth, I could see that Carver wasn't that far away, same with Sam's Throne, both good & easy spots from last year AND there was a good eating place nearby in Mt. Judea. We should've proceeded thus from that spot, oh well. Next time I'm taking a laptop with Microsoft Street & Trips installed, with that you can get electronic maps on a large screen with "bird's eye/overview" ability & ability to Mapquest directions, all without the need for any Internet or cellular connections.)

* (Note: the swimming holes book had coordinates in dd-mm-ss format, rather than the preferred d.dddd° format, so I converted them to d.dddd°. On my Android, I use GPS Converter by Creamun, there is also an online tool at http://boulter.com/gps/)