Idle Nook Horse Camp, Boles AR

LET ME TELL YOU!!!!!! This camp is FANTASTIC!!!!! If you have never been here, you need to. Hands down 10 out of 10 HIGHLY recommend it.

Coming from Oklahoma, Google maps gave us a couple different routes to choose from. We drove up there via I-40 to ft. Smith. It took us probably 30-40 minutes getting through Ft. Smith from traffic, rough roads, and then after getting through town there was some construction on the mountain roads. Google maps told us about 3.5 hours and I think we made it in about 4 hours with all of that and stopping for fuel.

Once we got to camp and settled in, it was about 3:30 before we got to hit the trail. We rode the hardest trail there day one... lol oops... Course me not being there before I had no clue it was going to be the hardest one, I was just looking at the mileage route. 5.5 miles completed in 2.5 hours was not too shabby. The views were magnificent!! But what goes up must come down so back down we went and it for sure was a trail to develop those butt muscles!

Thursday we rode to the cemetery that was built in the 1800s. It was a easy ride and what the horses needed for recuperating from the day before. That loop, leaving out the red side to the west when you get on blue, gave us a 8.5 mile ride. You have to cross this creek to get up to the cemetery and it has a good little 1' drop down into the creek but to get to the drop is down hill too lol so if it was full of water idk that I could have gotten my mare to cross it but she did excellent for never being here before.

Friday we rode the purple loop, a 11.55 mile ride, to one of the waterfalls. There are 3 waterfalls (that are marked) one on purple, the Twin Falls on Yellow, and then on the furthest bottom yellow loop is Double Falls. We did not have the time to ride out to Double Falls but that will be on the list for next time. Given that there was little to no water due to the lack of rain, It wasn't on top priority to run over to for this trip. The purple loop however is a moderate trail. It does have some advanced places in it but for the most part it is pretty moderate. There is a super funny tree on the purple loop though LOL... you literally cannot miss it.

Saturday we got invited by a big group from camp to ride out with them. Mia had a swollen leg that morning from being stalled so I wasn't sure how well she was going to be able to keep up, but little less than 2 miles in, after applying some liniment and a dose of bute for good measure, she had no swelling. Luckily however she was not lame on that leg though. My scoots did end up rubbing her but I did not have a strap up in size to apply so I socked her and that solved the issue. The ride with the big group turned out to be a very pretty ride. We rode out to twin falls and up past twin falls down to a atv trail then back to the other yellow trail to orange and back to camp. We rode about 10.5 miles that day. It led us to a really cool lookout point after you get up the mountain side past twin falls.

Sunday was the hardest day... the day we had to say goodbye (for now) Me and Aunt Gail did not want to leave but our husbands I'm sure were the complete opposite and ready to go home LOL... if she didn't live in texas and I in oklahoma, I would have told them they can go home and we are gonna stay for a couple more days LOL

We did squeeze in a 7.2 mile ride up to purple then to orange where orange cuts across to the other side of purple. We then hit red back to camp which part of red had a little bit of switchback trails in it in that last 1.7 miles till we got back to camp. But again that ride was still a pretty moderate ride.

All in all this camp is so far my favorite out of the ones I have visited by car/ridden at as far as Arkansas is concerned. I've only ridden at Devil's Den and that was 8+ years ago but we still had a great time the 2 years we rode there. I do believe Devil's Den is in construction for a new campground from what I saw on facebook which is a much needed doing and a great thing to hear. Those trails over there are fantastic too but camp was... a bit tight.... I think however if we don't come back to Idle nook come the spring... that I may swing over to Cowboy Up and see what all it is about! I have visited by car but it is time to ride the trails!! Next on my list I think is gonna have to be Caney Mountain!!

Happy Trails and Happy Fall Ya'll!