A new addition to Faulkner County's varied menu of outdoor recreation choices is the Bell Slough Nature Trail, completed in early summer 2000.
The mostly wooded footpath covers 2 1/4 miles in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's Bell Slough Wildlife Management Area near Mayflower. It is south of Lake Conway. The management area is used primarily for wintering ducks and for hunting them.
The nature trial, though, gives year-round access for nature lovers, anyone wanting some exercise, for educational usages like school field trips and for just casual outings for young, old and in between.
Exercise? Yes, walking is great exercise, but this trail isn't suggested for jogging or running. It has rough spots.
Bell Slough Nature Trail is reached off Arkansas Highway 365 south of Mayflower, A sign directs you to turn east on Grassy Lake Road. You cross under Interstate 40, and the head of the trail is a bit to the left in front of you.
Informational signs help with learning what's ahead on the walk, and you can pick up a brochure and a bird checklist. There is a restroom facility, too.
Not far down the trail is a spot intended for looking at water birds with benches for seating. The coming growing season should cover wire frames with vegetation for camouflage of watchers.
Benches are spotted all the way along the loop of the trail for the weary walkers or for just sitting, relaxing and perhaps enjoying a moment of conversation with a companion.
Most visits to Bell Slough Nature Trail will produce a glimpse of deer in the woods. This isn't guaranteed, of course, but you're also likely to have one or more comments of "What's that bird?" From warblers of the forest to assorted ducks in the colder season and bald eagles, Bell Slough Nature Trail provides nearly unlimited wildlife watching possibilities.
Another trail of recent vintage and with heavy usage is the Tucker Creek Bicycle and Hiking Trail in western Conway. This mile-plus one-way trail wends between some of the city's more popular newer residential developments, yet it can offer surprises for the visitors from deer and turkey to a variety of resident and migrant birds.
A third trail for walking in the wild is at Cadron Settlement Park. Tollantusky Trail is named for a Native American leader of the early 19th Century. It's a short walk with a couple of steep portions and with overlooks of the Arkansas River.
For bird and wildlife watching, nearly any spot around Lake Conway can produce results. The lake itself covers 6,700 acres, the largest lake ever built by a state. The lake will celebrate its 50th birthday this year. Access is at points all around the edges; there are no drives or walks paralleling the lake banks.
Birders in the Conway area are familiar with the Lake Conway Nursery Pond, another Game and Fish Commission facility on the east side of the lake. Young fish are spawned in the pond, and a variety of birds can be found on and around the pond nearly any time. Best viewing times, though, are when the pond has been drained, and birds gather to work the mud bottom for insects and crustaceans.
Just to the north of Conway is Beaverfork Lake, also good for birding.
Roads on each side take visitors close to the water, but access is limited in residential portions of the area. In winter, a bald eagle or two is usually in the Beaverfork vicinity.
Woolly Hollow State Park northeast of Greenbrier contains Lake Bennett, small but a quiet fishing area that has interesting birds much of the year. The park also has a hiking trail.
Anywhere you can get to the Arkansas River, you put yourself in birding and wildlife territory. Public parks on both sides of Toad Suck Lock and Dam west of Conway are good starting points. Palarm Park at the Faulkner-Pulaski county line south of Mayflower is another easy access spot.
A special birding opportunity comes in the spring when white pelicans migrate from wintering grounds near the Gulf of Mexico back to the upper Rocky Mountains.
