If you ask a college student where they are going for spring break, many of them will say the beach, especially Panama City Beach, but I think spring break is for hiking. 

While going to the beach is “being outside,” I think spring break is for being in the great outdoors, camping, hiking and roasting s’mores over a campfire.

  Over spring break, and three spring breaks in the past, my family and I rented a cabin and stayed in Jasper, Arkansas. The first time we went on this trip, back in 2021, we went on several hikes including Whitaker Point Trail, or Hawksbill Crag. The 2.7-mile hike is easy enough and reaching the end you are met with a “rock formation that juts out from the bluffs face resembling a hawk’s beak.” 

At the start of the hike, you’re walking straight downhill, which means you’ll be going uphill at the end. In my opinion, this is the worst part of hiking.

Every time we go, we like to go on at least two hikes, but if the weather allows and depending on how long each hike is, we sometimes go on two a day. This year, we spent two full days in Jasper, getting there on Wednesday and leaving Saturday morning. Unfortunately, rain was expected on Friday, so we decided to go on a short hike the day we arrived. 

One of the number one rules of hiking is to be back before it gets dark, unless, of course you’re camping on the trail. We didn’t get to Jasper until about 4 p.m. so we knew we would only be able to go on a short hike. Alum Cove Loop is a short enough hike at 1.2 miles round trip and leads to one of the largest natural bridges, about 130 feet long, in the southeastern United States. You can also explore a few small caves along the way.

While this hike is classified as “moderate” on AllTrails, a website and app that helps people discover, plan and navigate hiking, running and biking trails, it can be pretty steep at times. Throughout our many trips, my family has discovered while most of the time AllTrails is reliable, sometimes they do get things wrong. They might have a trail marked as much easier than it actually is and you usually need to look at the comments before deciding if a hike is right for you. 

The next day, we decided to do a longer hike since we had the entire day. We decided to do the 2.9-mile Sam’s Throne Trail. This hike is a little confusing as it has two loops within the one hike. One loop is on top of the cliffs and the other circles the cliffs to get to Sam’s Throne. 

Most of the hikes and trails in Jasper and Ponca, at least, the ones we’ve hiked, were either clearly marked or the path you need to follow is incredibly clear. The same could not be said for this hike. Usually, once we figure out which hike we want to do, we just follow the trail, but with this specific hike you had to look at the trail on your phone to make sure you weren’t going the wrong way.

But once you actually know where you’re supposed to go, this is easily one of the most beautiful hikes I have been on. While the views are incredible, I was not able to go to the very top of Sam’s Throne because in order to get to the top you have to scramble almost straight up the rocks. But even if you’re not able to reach the very top, this is still a very worthwhile hike. 

Sadly, we were only able to go on two hikes as it rained the final day of our trip, but I would still classify the trip as a success. 

Although hiking might not be for everyone, my family loves it, and I could not picture my spring break any other way.

Categories: Life