A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Exploring Bentonville and Beyond with Arkie Travels

• Visit Bentonville • Season 7 • Episode 17

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Embark on a spirited journey as we sit down with Sarah Heer from Arkie Travels. We'll talk waterfalls, food, conquering mountain biking fears, and the hidden gems in Bentonville, Arkansas, and beyond. Our conversation takes a turn as we unwrap the allure of the 52 Arkansas State Parks Challenge, complete with a scratch-off map and a passport program for added zest. Learn more at:

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Beth Bobbitt:

Welcome to A New American Town, a podcast proudly presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, Beth Bobbitt, broadcasting from Haxton Road Studios near the beautiful downtown Bentonville Square. Join us as we share stories, insights and happenings from our city, connecting you with the locals who make this town worth visiting. We've got a fun one today, folks. Sarah Hare, who is part of Arkie Travels, is here. They're a husband and wife duo dedicated to uncovering hidden gems in our state and providing tips and resources for those planning trips, and Paul couldn't make it today, but I'm so glad you're with us, Sarah. Welcome to the podcast.

Sarah Heer:

I am absolutely thrilled to be here. Thank you so much for having me on

Beth Bobbitt:

Of course, yes, and it is the season, and so I'm excited to talk to you, because our family is planning our summer right now and we've gotten so many tips from you already. I love the waterfall series and watching you scope out vintage treasures, and it's clear that you love the state and your adventurous spirit comes through. I also love the commitment you have to promoting local businesses. So tell us a little bit about the concept and how Arkie Travels came to be.

Sarah Heer:

Yeah, yeah, you know. First of all, thank you for using us as a resource to be able to plan trips and waterfalls and find, you know, fun things on our page. We love that we actually started the page back in 2019. I had booked a tiny home for my husband's birthday and I posted it on my personal page and people started messaging me asking for the link and I was like, well, well, what if we started a page just for our travels? It was kind of how we fell in love and how we bonded together, and so it was an easy thing for us to continue traveling and just show it off in a different way. And so Arkie Travels was born on a back road over near Siloam Springs, actually close to the in that Northwest Arkansas area, and we just started looking up names and found that that one was available, and so we snatched it up on all the platforms and it just kind of took off from there. It was very easy to share our travels and then, in 2020, we did all 52 Arkansas State Parks and that was just an amazing experience.

Sarah Heer:

If you've never done it before, take the challenge to do all 52 Arkansas State Parks. It's one a week and so you can knock them out in a year and actually you can probably do it in less, because there are several that are kind of grouped together that you can go and do. But now Arkansas State Parks has their challenge as well. They've got Club 52. And so you can pick up that passport and then get it stamped at all of your state parks and really get to see what the natural state truly has to offer.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, I love that. Well, I definitely want to include the 52 Park Challenge in the show notes, so let's get back to that. But before we jump into that, I want to start with a bit of a warm up question. This is one that we ask all the guests, so we'd love to hear what is a dream day look like in Bentonville for you. Set the scene, what's the season, what would you do? Where would you go?

Sarah Heer:

Oh, my goodness. So I can speak to this very authentically because we just had our dream week in Bentonville the week before last, and so we got to come up and spend a week. And you know, when I think about Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas in general, mountain biking automatically comes to mind, and I have a fear of mountain biking, of like going over the handlebars or falling.

Sarah Heer:

You know, as you get older, falls hurt a lot worse than they used to, and so I had this true fear of mountain biking. But what I discovered was that I could get on the trails and they weren't like rough or, you know, crazy or anything. There were just naturally beautiful trails that I could take and feel comfortable with. And that was truly one of I think, one of the most dreamy moments.

Sarah Heer:

You know, I guess, what a dream day looks like, and I feel like getting to get out on a bike and experience Bentonville is a whole different experience than driving around in a car or walking the streets. You know, you get to see just incredible things all the murals in the downtown area and just around all over the place, all of the eateries. I'm a big foodie and so I love to eat and I love that there are so many bike up bars and breweries and little fun eateries where they've made it so accessible to be able to just park your bike outside and come in and have, you know, a bite to eat and a drink. And I love how just fun and easy they make it and how the town really supports and loves bikers.

Sarah Heer:

People who are out on the streets, you feel like it's a very safe thing that you can do, and so it was truly an amazing experience to get to enjoy Bentonville by bike.

Beth Bobbitt:

Well, I love that. You faced your fears and you did it, and now you're a new fan and truly we are the mountain bike capital of the world, and so it is amazing to have that perspective and be able to just explore your town on two wheels. Talk a little bit more about the travel itinerary for Bentonville. What else is on there? What else can we look for?

Sarah Heer:

Yeah, so lots of food. As I said, I'm a foodie, so we ate at Tusk and Trotter, we ate at The Hub NWA and, let's see, we ate at Table Mesa and The Table at Hickory Inn. I think is what it's called.

Sarah Heer:

And just a wonderful experience, and I had heard that The Table at Hickory Inn that it burned or that it had some fire damage recently and they've just done a fantastic job of bringing this place back and it's really an elevated experience to get to go in there. You're surrounded by movie posters, which is very interesting to me but the food is top notch. We had the most amazing fried deviled eggs in there, and then they had bacon and shrimp on top of them and it was just like a decadent little tasty treat.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, that's definitely the food scene.

Sarah Heer:

Yeah, yeah, definitely the drink scene as well. We did go to Undercroft and to the Preacher's Son and those little speakeasies that y'all got hidden all over town are fun to find. I know there's one above the bakery there on the square, and then Lady Slipper, kind of back off in an alley, is a really cool one to get to go to. So definitely some cool experiences with off the beaten path or off the main square fun things.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yes, and I think that you do a great job showing you know the hidden gems of a place. So it sounds like you hit all the major hotspots. I'm so curious, going back to the 52 Arkansas State Parks Challenge, how that came about. And can you talk a little bit about how people can participate? You've got a link on your website, is that right?

Sarah Heer:

Absolutely. We have a link. We actually have a scratch off map that we designed as part of the 52 State Parks Challenge, and so we created this scratch off map. It's super fun. You can actually buy it in state parks visitor centers, and so you go to Devil's Den, go to Hobbs and you can pick one up. We're doing a little redesign on it, so we're going to have a new edition that's coming out later this year, which is super fun, and get your passport.

Sarah Heer:

The passport is free and it's at all of the state parks. If they have a visitor center, then you get it there. If they don't, you do have to get it at one with the visitor center, but then at the ones that don't have visitor centers, they've got like this coin type thing that you can do a rubbing on, so like take a pencil or something with you and that way you can rub on your passport stamp at those parks, which is really fun and different and interesting, but I know they have prizes, state parks does. So when you complete your challenge they have different levels, like if you do, you know the first half and then the next 10 or something, and you get like a t-shirt and a deck of playing cards and fun things that are, you know, kind of on that little path to adventure.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah very cool. Well, realistically, I'm wondering how long it would take someone to do all 52. Can you talk about your experience?

Sarah Heer:

Yeah, so, like I said, we did one a week Now. We actually did more than more. Than what am I trying to say? We actually went to some of them more than once because we were filming this as we were going along. So we would come in and film, you know, such and such part of this park this day, and then we do this trail another day, and so we were going to the parks more than once and that was just a wild and crazy experience. But when you've got big parks, you know you want to make sure you do your due diligence in covering it. And that was our first big video series. And it was wild because Arkansas State Parks saw it and Arkansas Tourism saw it and it really blew up our accounts as far as making us kind of a known and trusted source for places to go in Arkansas, which is fantastic.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, any surprises, any wildlife sightings.

Sarah Heer:

Definitely wildlife sightings. We saw all kinds of you know snakes and turtles and creatures of all varieties. I think the probably the best surprise park for me was Cane Creek. It's one of my favorite and it's very, very not as well known. It is down south like Star City Pine Bluff-ish area, and it has this wonderful kayak trail that goes through these kind of dead trees that are in the water, and so you take this kayak trail through these trees. It has this amazing like lily pad area that you can kayak into that you just don't see places like that in Arkansas, and so it's very, very special, very, very cool place. And, you know, I think they're putting in a biking trail as well, if it's not there already, so maybe I might want to check in on that. I'm going to do some research and see how that's coming along.

Beth Bobbitt:

Oh, that's so exciting. So for those in Bentonville or Northwest Arkansas looking for a summer road trip.

Sarah Heer:

Absolutely so. Coming from Northwest Arkansas, y'all are so lucky because you are so close to like waterfall heaven in the Boxley, Ponca, Jasper area. You're so close to the Buffalo River, like y'all are only an hour away, and that is just that's dreamy to me, like that is so nice to have it that close.

Sarah Heer:

Jasper is one of our favorite places in the state. It's where I tell people to go when they're looking for a romantic escape. It's a little quieter but their downtown area, their kind of courthouse square, is very up and coming. They have wonderful restaurants. The Jasper Pizza Company, Ozark Burger Company is there that's not the name of it. And then there's the Low Gap Cafe just opened in that area as well. They moved from the low back low gap area closer to Ponca over into the downtown area of Jasper, off the downtown square, and it's just, it's so wonderful to go and see all of these kinds of places.

Sarah Heer:

They also do an eco tour and I don't know the schedule for that, but they do like a dogwood tour. So that's earlier in the spring, and then they've got like some fall ones. They have a Jeep thing that they do. That's super cool. And then of course we know Johnny Morris purchased the property there that was dog patch and is turning that into one of his nature conservancies. So I'm sure that's years out, but I cannot wait to see that coming and I'm sure that's going to be something that's just going to elevate tourism in Arkansas to a whole new level.

Beth Bobbitt:

Right. Well, we've got a lot to do before that with the 52 Park Challenge and all the waterfall hunting. Yes, so I'm so excited about summer. Now what's next for you? Do you have any new fun series you can tease out a little bit?

Sarah Heer:

So we just got back from the Aqua Park at Crown Lake Resort in Horseshoe Bend. If you've never heard about this, it is the only one in a 300 mile radius, we were told, and it is just a park of inflatables that you can jump and roll and fall off into the water and slip and slide, and they provide the life jackets for you and they do a limited amount of people for each time block. That was a cool experience. I would definitely recommend that to everyone to go and check that out. Something very cool and a very hidden gem in Arkansas.

Sarah Heer:

And then this weekend we're going to the Magnolia Steak Cook-Off. I don't know if you know about that, but Magnolia, Arkansas, is home to the World Championship Steak Cook-Off, and so we're going to go try some. They usually have over 60 chefs, barbecuers that come in from all over the world to participate in this, and it's a pretty big deal. They do appetizers, they do the steaks, of course, and then everybody gets to go in and they, when the gates open, you like, choose which chef you want to go see based on who you've talked to throughout the day, and so it's a. It's a run to get to the one that you want to eat, and so it's always a lot of fun, it's a blast, and we're actually judges this year, so that'll be so much fun.

Beth Bobbitt:

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it, I know.

Sarah Heer:

Sign me up.

Beth Bobbitt:

Well, amazing. Tell us where we can find Arkie Travels online and about everything that you have going on content wise.

Sarah Heer:

Yeah, so you can check out Arkie Travels on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube, or visit our website at ArkieTravels. com.

Beth Bobbitt:

Perfect. Well, thanks so much for coming in, Sarah, and sharing your travel experience and expertise. I know my family has some new bucket list items Thanks to you all, so we hope you have a chance to check out Arkie Travels on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube before your next trip. Don't forget, Visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our new American town. Give us a follow on social, sign up for a newsletter and check out the website at visitbentonville. com. Thanks so much for listening.