Delta Heritage Trail State Park
If biking or hiking is your passion, this park is just your place.
Check out the slide shows, pictures, videos, and information below.
The Delta Heritage Trail State Park is a bit different from most of Arkansas State Parks. It is designed primarily for hikers and bikers. However, it can be enjoyed by anyone who loves bird watching, or is a nature lover, and historic buffs as well. This park was created under the "rails for trails" program to make use of abandon rail lines to create hiking and biking trails for public use. This park has about 21 miles of completed trail, which will eventually extend 84.5 miles when finished. It is one of the finest trails in the country for bikers and an easy trail for hikers. This park has only five tent sites for camping, but if you want to stay at a campground not too far away, you can stay at Cane Creek or Mississippi River State Parks, both of which are within reasonable driving distance. If you want to stay in a motel, look in West Helena for accommodations.
Below are several pictures and videos to help you become familiar with the park. Fore more information, check out the following links:
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture
Entrance Sign just outside West Helena
Old Cotton Gin now used as Visitor Center
Arlene standing by Visitor Center
The map shows the proposed trail. The displays in the Visitor Center show an old river boat, some of the gifts for sale, pictures from the 1927 flood that devastated the area, and a sign for the nearby Louisiana Purchase State Park since this center serves as its headquarters as well.
Pictures of Barton and Lick Creek Trailheads in the Park
Barton Trailhead
Bridge at Lick Creek
Lick Creek Trailhead
WORD OF CAUTIION: If you are in a motorhome or pulling a trailer, you will not have enough room to turn around in the parking lot. The road is narrow and dangerous at this point, and a U-turn is not advisable. We managed to find a business with a gate open a few more miles south from here and were able to turn around, but you may have to go a long way to find a road access to take you back to West Helena and Barton if you plan to travel North from Lick Creek.
A video done by an individual called LocoJoe details a delightful trip along the Delta Heritage Trail on his bike. It lasts for 4:27 minutes, and if you are a biker, you should enjoy watching this interesting presentation.
UALR did this video highlighting the Delta Heritage Trail and showing some of the area around that area for visiting Helena and the oxbow lake that is there. It lasts 3:45 minutes and details some of the information about the area and has pictures to enjoy of the area.
The Visitor Center has a wall dedicated to the Great Flood of 1927. The pictures and letters tell the story.
John Barry of CGEE multimedia narrates some of the horrors faced by the people along the Mississippi River during the Easter Day flood of April 17, 1927. This video lasts a little over 3 minutes and gives an overall view of the magnitude of this flood, which was greater than Katrina and affected at least 1 of all the people in the country. The area around the Delta Heritage area was devastated. Below is the picture from above which you can see in the Visitor Center with a pictorial account of the flood