Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas has become one of our favorite Arkansas State Parks. We have been to Petit Jean (PJ) many times in the 20+ years we have lived in Arkansas.
PJ has many trails. In the past, we have hiked the Cedar Falls trail, Canyon Trail, and the Rock House Cave trail. The Boy Scout trail is a long loop trail that connects with many of the other trails and routes through a significant portion of the state park acreage. Depending on where you begin, whether you opt to take the long or short route where the Boy Scout (BSA for Boy Scouts of America) connects to the Seven Hollows trail, the mileage varies. We started at the Seven Hollows BSA trailhead and hiked counter clockwise. Our total mileage was around 10.5. If you do the every bit of the trail, it's estimated to be around 12 miles.
Another important thing to know about the BSA trail is that it is marked with white diamond blazes. However, the BSA incorporates portions of other trails. Where they overlap, BSA does not have blazes. Bear Cave, Cedar Creek, and Seven Hollows each make up sections of the BSA trail, and when you are on those trails, you have to pay attention to where BSA leaves them. It's fairly well marked, but it can be confusing when you are doing it for the first time. I will note those sections below.
Here is a map with the route we took.
The marker with the Gavagai label was where we started and ended our trip. It was the parking for the Seven Hollows Trail. When you pull into the parking for Seven Hollows, there is signage for the Seven Hollows Trail on the right. The BSA trail leaves the parking area on the left as you pull into the parking. We headed east on the BSA from the parking lot, which crosses the road to the Bear Cave Trail very shortly after you leave the Seven Hollows trailhead parking.
Bear Cave Area
Bear Cave trail is one we have ignored in the past because it's so short. The total distance for this loop is 0.25 miles. "Why bother?" was our attitude, I guess. Well, it's well worth your time. The views and rock features on this blip of a trail are stunning. The photo at the top of this article was taken on that portion of the trail. Here are a couple of others.
On one side of the trail are giant boulders, bluffs, and rock shelters. The opposite side of the trail has dazzling views of the gorge and bluffs below as well as views of Mather Lodge. This was easily one of our favorite sections of the BSA. At one point, the BSA continues straight and the Bear Cave trail turns away from the gorge, back toward the trailhead. Bear Cave trail is blazed with green markers, so keep your eye out for the white BSA blazes when the Bear Cave markers turn.
Mather Lodge
From the Bear Cave area, the BSA continues along the top of the gorge toward Mather Lodge. The trail emerges near the top of the Cedar Falls trail. The blazes disappear, but if you walk through the parking lot toward the cabins on the east side of the parking area, that's where you will see the BSA white blazes pick up again.
Cedar Falls Overlook
The BSA continues from Mather Lodge through the forest to the Cedar Falls overlook area. More stunning views of the Cedar Creek gorge and also a look at the falls below. Here is a video I took from the overlook.You continue down from that overlook area, under an upper observation deck, then you make your way down toward Cedar Creek above the falls area. You eventually come to a foot bridge and red blazes. This is the Cedar Creek trail.
Cedar Creek Trail
The hike down from the overlook to Cedar Creek is very scenic. The creek has many cascading falls and unique rock formations. There are bluff lines above the creek on both sides. When you get down to the creek itself, many of the bluff behind you are moss covered and dripping with water. There were icicles that had formed overnight and were melting on the day we passed through, even though it was in the forties or fifties at the time we were there.
I think this might have been my favorite area on the BSA. The BSA follows the Cedar Creek trail uphill when you get to those red blazes. You will be following the red Cedar Creek trail blazes for almost the entire Cedar Creek Trail. The only part you don't do is the bridge seen in the video above and the short walk between that bridge and roughly where I was standing to record that video.
The trail continues uphill to the right (when you're going counter-clockwise). It continues up the hill to the Cedar Creek trailhead. There is a frontier cabin historical site at the trailhead. Facing the cabin, the trail continues behind it to the right. Look for the red blazes. The Cedar Creek trail follows the creek from up on the bluffs above the creek for a while, then gradually descends back down to the creek.
There used to be a footbridge at the end, but it was gone when we got there. The water was flowing at a decent rate, but we were still able to rock hop across. Even Mrs. Gavagai was able to span the rocks. Trekking poles help a lot with this kind of crossing. She was proud of herself and rightfully so. It was a bit challenging. I think it also helped that the rocks were dry on top. If it had recently rained and the rocks were wet, they might have been slick, making the crossing much more challenging.
After you cross the creek, the trail doubles back down the opposite bank of the creek. Again, watch for the red blazes. The day we were there, a very large tree had fallen, which blocked the path, just past the footings for the bridge. To get around it, we took off our packs, passed them under, and we crawled under the tree. On the other side of that tree, you could see the first blaze, and there was another on a tree just beyond that. My guess is they will have crews out to rebuild the bridge and clear out that treefall in the coming months. Our visit to the area was in December of 2024. If you're reading this well into the future, I'm sure this will all be repaired and cleaned up.
I would like to also mention that there is a spur somewhere in this area that goes out to the Visitor Center which is evidently the true beginning of the BSA trail. We didn't do that part of the trail, which is part of the reason our mileage was a little over ten miles and not twelve.
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| The spur we skipped |
I'm not certain where exactly this connects. We'll go back sometime to hike that stretch and I'll fill in what I find here.
If you visit this trail and the creek level is too high for your comfort and/or you have doubts about being able to rock hop, you can double back to that other footbridge. That bridge is sound and in good condition. You will miss a bit of the trail on the north bank of the creek, but better safe than sorry.
If you do cross the creek, you'll continue back to the west along the northern bank of the creek. When you reach that footbridge, the Cedar Creek trail crosses the creek there, but the BSA trail white blazes will continue along the northern bank of Cedar Creek.
Turtle Rocks and Rock House Cave
The trail gradually climbs from the valley, up to the bluff line above Cedar Creek. There is an area with huge sandstone boulders, just before the trail turns north. It was around 11:30 AM when we reached that location. We decided to have a seat behind the boulders, sheltered from the wind, and eat our lunch. We could still hear the sound of the creek cascades below us. It was a pretty spot.
When we finished lunch, we continued on. The trail turns north, then west again. There are a couple of views along this section of trail that are worth the short spur off trail to see the views of the gorge.
You can see some of the state park cabins from there. Obviously, none of the videos or photos do these sites justice. This was the perfect weather for it too. It was a sunny but cool fall day. The highs were in the low 50s. Fantastic.
As you continue, the trail turns north again, away from the gorge. You eventually emerge near the Turtle Rocks area by Rock House Cave. This is a shorter trail, and you can take it as a spur down to Rock House Cave. There are prehistoric cave paintings there. We have seen it in the past, so we opted to skip it on this particular trip, but if you have never been, definitely go have a look. It's an interesting area. The white blazes for the BSA, continue on the far side of the Turtle Rocks.
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| "Turtle Rocks" because they look like turtle shells |
North and Western BSA
After you leave the Rock House Cave and Turtle Rocks area, the trail meanders through the woods. This part of the trail is not especially scenic, but the trail is relatively easy going and passes through lovely forests. You will cross two roads. After the second road, the trail follows an old forest road downhill for a couple of miles. It's a long way down, and if you're coming from the opposite direction, hiking the trail clockwise, it's a long hike up. Fortunately, the slope is relatively gentle. The trail continues all the way down into the valley to Cedar Creek where it connects to the Canyon Trail. The Canyon Trail hits a dead end at this point, but the BSA continues across the creek, then turns east and climbs back out of the valley toward Hwy 154. After you cross Hwy 154, the trail turns eastward again, toward the junction with the Seven Hollows trail.
One thing to make note of in this section is the stonework along the road on the westernmost portion of the trail. I'm not 100% positive, but I suspect this was built by the CCC crews back in the 1930s. There are drainage structures to prevent erosion and some structure on the south side of Cedar Creek. A lot of work went into the construction of this trail. It's impressive.
Seven Hollows
This is one of the most renowned hiking trails in the state. The whole trail by itself is a lollipop style loop trail where you hike in and backtrack over a short stem trail that leads from the parking lot to the loop. When you reach that loop, you can go left or right and hike clockwise or counter-clockwise.
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| All of Seven Hollows trail |
In the map above, you can see the whole Seven Hollows trail. The BSA connects near the north west corner. When you get to that juncture, you have to decide if you want to turn right and hike the majority of Seven Hollows, or take the shortcut by going left, which will take you about 3/4 of a mile back to the Seven Hollows trailhead.
We opted to take the long route. We were making good time and planned to spend the night at Mather Lodge, so we weren't in a rush. At around the halfway point, there is an area called The Grotto. We had been there recently on two occasions,
so we skipped it this time, but it's a very pretty spot, and worth the 1/4 mile spur.
This whole trail is beautiful. It has creeks and bluffs and many small rock shelters, and a natural bridge as well. I won't go on about it here because so many people have done it, and if you haven't, I don't want to spoil it for you. Go and explore. You won't regret it.
Overview of the BSA
Finishing the Seven Hollows trail was the end of our Boy Scout trail adventure. We started at 9:30 that morning and finished just before 4pm. We took one long break for lunch and a couple of short breaks to take in views or catch our breath on ascents. But this trail isn't super difficult. It has a few different junctions where you can cut it short if you're struggling. It never gets super far from civilization, and it has so many amazing views and features that I think it's a great option if you're looking to do an extended day hike.
We compared it to the Sunset Trail in Hot Springs, which I posted about here. This trail was more scenic and less strenuous. Both are worth hiking in my opinion.
Mather Lodge Lodgings
We spent the night at Mather Lodge in one of the lodge rooms. The room was small, but cozy. Everything in the room was clean. Our biggest complaint about the accommodations was that there were no nightstands or bedside tables. No place to put the TV remote when you're watching from the bed. No place to put your phone or to charge it overnight. Mrs. Gavagai was also disappointed that the bathtub had no stopper so she had to shower instead of taking a soaking bath.
I slept from around 7:45 that night until 6am without stirring, so the bed was comfortable and the room was quiet.
The staff told us that the lodge will be closed beginning in January for upgrades and renovations. This is a good investment for the State Parks because Petit Jean is so pretty and even on this particular weekend when crowds were small, we still encountered people from Texas and Louisiana, Missouri, and other surrounding states. Petit Jean is a gem.
Garmin InReach Issues
I was pleased to see that the Garmin app contained this trail in its entirety on its mapping feature. That was very helpful to us as we worked out how to navigate this trail for the first time. However, something was odd with the tracking. I'm wondering if some of the rock formations created some signal issues. Take a look.
The app indicated that we hiked 74 mile and had a maximum speed of 32.9 mph. Nope. That's not what happened. I've never seen that before. Signal issues is the best I can come up with to explain the data anomalies.
The good news is that if you have a Garmin, you'll be able to see where you are on the trail. The bad news is, your trip data may be 60 miles off, give or take. Haha.
Let me know if you've ever had an issue like that with a Garmin or other GPS/satellite tracking devices.
Thanks for indulging me once again.
For anyone who isn't aware, I'm posting these on BlueSky social media now. You can follow me there.
Cheers,
Gavagai
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