Driving to New Cowhide Cove Campground, AR

Left Lake Bistineau late morning to head to Murfressboro, AR. Not in any hurry since the check-in time for the New Cowhide Cove Campground, Lake Greeson Recreation Area (run by the Army Corps of Engineers), was 6 pm which was rather unusual. The GPS had me on rural roads rather than freeways, so I drove through farmlands, small towns and some rather old houses. Passed a sign for the town of Delight, and just had to turn around to take the photo below. That was when I saw the other sign I missed earlier: this is the home town of Glen Campbell!

Another interesting and slightly larger town was Minden, "friendliest city in the south", established in 1836.

I saw a sign and made the detour to the Caney Lakes Recreation Area in the Kitsachie National Forest, since I had considered camping at the Beaver Dam Campground here. Unfortunately, the road into the campground was temporarily closed because the National Forest Service was cutting off some vegetation, and the day use area was closed until Memorial Day. But I had a long conversation with the ranger on duty about the facilities in the recreation area. This is another place I added to my list of places to camp and fish in the future. It felt great to have time to explore and serendipitously discover interesting places on the route.

Arrived at the Cowhide Cove Campground, site no. 46 was lovely, right on the bank of Lake Greeson. These are the views from my site. I had no idea how to register since there was no office/station but a ranger came by shortly, said there was no problem since I had already reserved the site online. My camping neighbor said that the registration office was in the other (newer) section of the campground a few miles away but someone usually comes by in the evening to post a tag on the campsite to confirm registration.

The weather was warm, sunny and very windy. I had time to walk along the shore of the lake, and watched a fisherman on a boat catch a large fish (the lake is known for bass fishing). I tried to set up my tent awning, but it got blown around. Finally gave up, especially after my neighbor said that thunderstorms were expected tonight. I managed to cook some veggie soup for dinner using the electric stove before the rain started. It rained pretty heavily during the night, with strong gusts of wind.