My Favorite Place-Devil's Den State Park

There isn't a lot to do in the corner of Kansas where I grew up, so my family used go on short road trips into neighboring states on the weekends. One place we went frequently and my personal favorite was Devil's Den State Park in Arkansas. The park has a lot of different trails to hike. As much as I'm normally an indoorsy type of person, I actually really love hiking in wooded areas. I like the way the light filters through the leaves and creates shifting patterns when the wind blows and the possibility of spotting different animals among the trees. There's something about walking over an uneven dirt hiking trail that's just more satisfying than walking down the sidewalk, especially if there are rocks you have to climb over to stay on that trail.

                                              
                                       (Trail at Devil's Den State Park Wikimedia Commons)

However, the best part of these trips wasn't the trail itself. It was the cave at the end of the trail. The cave is closed to the public now to protect the bat population that roosts there in the winter, but back when I went with my family people were allowed to walk through. The cave isn't the easiest to get navigate. The floor is uneven and at times you have to climb up or down to keep going, it's extremely narrow most of the way, and I remember my parents having to duck frequently, although I was short enough to just walk through. The ground was always wet and you have to carry a flashlight because it's pitch dark inside. My sister never wanted to go to far into it because she was (irrationally, in my opinion) afraid of it collapsing, but I always loved caves and liked this one even more for its familiarity.

                                         
                                (Cave entrance Devil's Den State Park Wikimedia Commons)