Lake Poinsett State Park, Arkansas

Most National Parks and many state parks offer programmes to children and we usually tried to participate on these with our kids. The activities normally include a different booklet for age groups, kids completing those can become "Junior Rangers". Some parks also offer group activities.

Lake Poinsett State Park was truly outstanding in this regard during our whole trip! The ranger, X was very dedicated and knowledgeable about the park, its flora and fauna and he was an excellent activity leader. There were activities throughout the week (which was the spring schoolbreak before Eastern) and we hiked together, watched birds, then went for fishing, watched a demonstration about the snakes, did arts and craft by learning new knots and learned about the different furs and animal skins on another occasion.

We celebrated Eastern there and also participated on the Egg Hunt. It was a fabolous stay and we stayed longer than planned. We even decided to return to the park for the Total Solar Eclipse 2024. Although it was not in the full totality but it was close enough to find a nice spot about an hour drive from the park. So we did a short visit to Crowley's Ridge State Park and Village Creek State Park for a few nights each and then returned to this little gem for the solar eclipse.