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Hot Springs National Park Highpoint - Music Mountain - 1405 ft

27 Nov 2004, around 5:45 pm.  National Park Highpoint #5.
Back to 2004 Southeast Highpoint Expedition

My first stop of the trip was Music Mountain, the high point of Hot Springs National Park.  The park is right in the middle of the city of Hot Springs, the boyhood home of President Clinton.  The town has a touch of Gatlinburg, with plenty of tourist-trap spots.  It is older and grittier than the Disneyland-like Gatlinburg, however, and had a good share of tattoo parlors and exotic dance establishments.  The Arkansas Alligator Farm was closed, so I continued along Whittington Avenue to the Sunset Trail.  The trailhead is at an S-curve in the road marked with a 'Dangerous Intersection' sign.  I got to the trailhead right after sunset, so I put on the headlamp and headed southwest. This trail took me within 100 feet or so of the summit, and a little bush-whacking led me to a small boulder which I decided was the actual high point.  As I stood on the rock, I noticed the USGS marker and a glass jar.

Opening the jar, I found the summit register, left and signed by Gerry Roach! (On a notepad from a hotel in Amsterdam, no less.)  It seems that this spot is also a Geocache of some kind, based on the register comments, and appropriately enough I was there after dark.  Distance of 1.5 miles round-trip, elevation gain of 475 ft.

This was either my fourth or fifth National Park highpoint, depending on if I have been to the high point of Wind Cave National Park or not.  I think I have, but I am not completely sure. 

This rock is the high point of Music Mountain.  USGS marker and register are in the background.

Summit register.

Me on the summit.  Not much light left!