Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Since we only have two days here in Eureka Springs and it is still cloudy with the chance of a thunderstorm, we decided to do some hiking today and some driving.  First, we drove down the Passion Play road to the site of the event center where a cast of 150+ actors and dozens of animals perform in an outdoor drama that brings the Bible to life. It is a huge attraction and shows are held on weekends only right now, so we parked and walked around to see the giant statue of Christ of the Ozark.

From there, we turned onto Magnetic Road and stopped at the Magnetic Spring, one of 16 in the area, and walked around and tasted the water. We even filled a bottle to take with us, all I can say is that it had a bit of flavor, unlike the filtered and bottled water that we drink.  Legend has it that back in the day, the spring water could turn any metal piece magnetic and it was also known to cure a range of illnesses including addictions. 

Back on the road, we headed west on Highway 62 that took us to Lake Leatherwood City Park, a huge park with lots of hiking and biking trails.  Many of the structures in the park were built in the 1920s by the WPA. This guy greeted us at the park’s entrance.

We walked the Beacham Trail along the western edge of the lake to the dam, about 2.5 miles round trip.  Most of the trail was gravel and led us to the dam (it was closed) and since they have had so much rain around here, there was water running along and across the trail in many places. It was a nice hike and Frisco was a trooper except for going uphill on the return trip.

You can walk across the dam, it was closed today.

This guy watched us from a safe distance.

The last item on the agenda today was to drive to Black Bass Lake where we walked the Sycamore Trail to the dam again and found another spring along the way. The path was lined with beautiful wildflowers in many places.