Texarkana Trip 2026 - Days 11 & 12 (Bentonville, AR - Jefferson City, MO - Home)

Day 11 - We left our hotel in Bentonville and headed Southeast, to War Eagle Mill & Bridge (in the beautiful Beaver Lake area). This was out of our way since the remainder of our stops were Northeast out of Bentonville. We'd seen pictures of the area and added it to our itinerary - it was too pretty to pass up.

From War Eagle, we had to backtrack into Bentonville and then headed Northeast, along Hwy 62. 

It was time for dessert - at 9:00 in the morning! We stopped at Shortstop Grill (Gas Station & Convenient Store) to try The Shortstop Giant Cone! We were pretty excited about this 🍦!

First off, this thing was HUGE. Second, it was HEAVY! When the worker handed it over to Matt, she warned him "It's heavier than you think" and boy, was she correct. We split the Large (Matt found out after the fact that there's a Giant option and was kicking himself for not ordering that size!) and it was beyond filling! And it was delicious - twist cone (remember the old McDonald's twist cones?) and a wonderful thickness and flavor. It was really good!

I told Matt that I needed to run a few laps around the car after eating all of the ice cream, lol! He got a picture of me doing some jumping jacks.

Back on the road, we continued along Hwy 62, making a few more stops before reaching the Missouri State Line. 

Martin Greer's Candy Shop was closed (Monday), sadly. We were fortunate to take our picture with this creepy bunny though!

From Hwy 62, we ventured a bit north to Beaver to see Beaver Bridge - aka Little Golden Gate Bridge of Arkansas, aka Golden Gate of the Ozarks. When we arrived we drove across the bridge, heading south over the White River, flipped around and went over it heading north. Once back on the north side of the river, we parked and walked through the park a bit. What a beautiful day and fun bridge! It was an enjoyable stop. Beaver Bridge is the last suspension bridge open to traffic in the state of Arkansas. It was built in 1949, measuring 11 feet wide (single lane traffic) and 554 feet long.

From Beaver we made our way north into Missouri and headed towards Branson for our last planned stop of the day (and essentially for the trip) - the Branson Cross.

As we were driving, we saw a billboard for Dogwood Canyon Nature Park - I mentioned the billboard to Matt and we decided to stop. We had both sent reels / pictures to each other (in the past) for Dogwood Canyon. Unfortunately, I had gotten Dogwood Canyon confused with Lost Canyon, which are both in the same Ozarks region. We didn't realize the error until we had gone to purchase tickets for the park. The ladies at the ticket booth were very friendly and told us which park we were looking for (I had asked if Dogwood was the park with the golf cart tour). We did walk around Dogwood a bit, enjoying the beauty of the area. If we are ever back in that area, we will spend time there - it was beautiful!

We discussed our options and decided to head to Top of the Rock Lost Canyon Cave & Nature Trail for the golf cart tour. We had a free afternoon (we didn't need to be home until Tuesday night) and this was definitely on both of our travel bucket lists. And let me say, this was the best decision we made the entire trip!

The trail is between 2-3 miles long and the tour is self guided - meaning you can take 30 minutes to drive through the canyon or 3 hours. While there were others out on the trail with us, it wasn't busy at all. We took our time, taking lots of pictures and we got out at the all of the overlooks and walkways. 

Top of the Rock - thoroughly enjoyable. We highly recommend it! If we are ever back in the area, we will go for a night ride - maybe at Christmas time!

Driving in to Branson, we stopped for a late lunch / early dinner (the ice cream cone held us over for hours!). On the way out of town, we stopped at the Branson Cross. It was built in 2019, so it was the first time that we got to see it (we had been to Branson in 2017). It is 218 feet tall - said to be the tallest in the US. 

From here we had a decision to make. Ultimately, we needed to decide which way we wanted to drive home the next day. That decision would dictate where we would find a hotel. We also discussed seeing the Capital Building in Jefferson City (we had driven by the capital in 2017 but it was raining at that time so we only saw it from the car). Decision made - we would drive to Jefferson City (3 hours) and spend the night there. 

We had enough daylight left once we arrived, so we enjoyed walking around the capital building and grounds before heading to the hotel.

At one point, Matt pulled out Google Maps and found out that there was a Lewis & Clark monument on the Capital Grounds. So glad he saw that! We definitely would've kicked ourselves if we missed that.

Day 11 comes to a close. Another great day of seeing God's creation - with some man made beauties along the way! The weather was gorgeous, food was fun and yummy and the company was excellent!

Favorites from Day 11:

Matt: Top of the Rock (the canyon/waterfalls, beautiful weather, small crowds)

Becki: Top of the Rock (the surprise of doing something from our bucket list without planning it)

__________________________________________________________________________________

Day 12 - Our final day of vacation. This day would be 95% travel day. The 5% was a quick side trip to Mark Twain Birthplace State Historic Site in Florida, MO. We were on the hunt for a letterbox but sadly, the box could not be located (by park staff). We did enjoy the museum and learning some history about Twain that we hadn't known before. 

A few hours later, we were home. Kids were hugged, the car was unloaded, bags were unpacked and laundry started. Coming home is always such a sweet thing!

We had an amazing trip - traipsing through Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Missouri. America is full of so much beauty and diversity. That is why we love driving for our vacations - there is so much to see and do along the way. Now that we are unpacked . . . we can start planning the next road trip!

Top 3 Favorites from Texarkana Trip 2026:

Matt:  3) Fort Worth Water Gardens  2) Sea Turtles / Jetty  1) Top Rock

Becki:  3) Cubs Game  2) Padre Island  1) Top Rock