Heading West

On Wednesday, we left Horse Pens 40 for Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, Arkansas, In some ways it felt like the real starting point to our road trip, as HCR was the first destination we hadn't already visited. A ten-hour drive brought us through northern Mississippi, western Tennessee, eastern Arkansas and into the Ozarks. While they don't exactly qualify as real mountains, the Ozarks are some pretty big hills and Horseshoe Canyon Ranch is quite remote. Late at night the approach seemed a bit sketchy. The road was steep, winding and covered in goats.

Horseshoe Canyon Ranch is a pretty interesting climbing destination. It's actually a dude ranch. And from what I can tell, they appear to ranch goats. Everywhere you go, the sweet, melodic sound of goats bawling accompanies you like the soundtrack to your climbing adventure.

Though anyone who's watched as many climbing videos as I have would assume HCR is a bouldering destination, there's actually a ton of climbing here too. We spent our first day sport climbing some really fun routes. The second day was spent bouldering. The problems were pretty high quality, but the quantity was limited. Thundershowers forced us to take a rest day today, but if the weather clears tomorrow we're going trad climbing. And hopefully will remember to pack a camera so we can post some more pics.

Our campsite, looking across the canyon.

K