Our last full day. Wife wanted to go to Ozark Cafe because they had $10 all-you-can eat buffet but it was around 10:30 & she didn't think it would start until 12 and that if we went somewhere else we'd miss it but if we stayed we'd be hungry in the meanwhile. (I think our plans were Alum Cove and/or Falling Water Waterfalls and maybe the "Fuzzy Butt" and "Six Fingers" spots nearby, I don't recall exactly.) I checked & they had already started buffet, which was great as we could now eat & get the special and then be free to go.

We went down ARK 7 North (like you're returning home and which would be on the way to those spots mentioned) somewhere along the way we decided to head to the Blue Hole^a (p86), one of my absolute favorites, and yet we also got some barn shots (Hwy 374 I believe)^b and found this spot^c "on the fly" which we checked out (in exploring she found what looked like a deep hole but it was a flop), "Sam's Throne" which we'd decided to skip was sort of in this general area but it was going to the south on 123 & we were heading north. We then made a few "quick check" stops at another spot or two before stopping at Carver^d, a spot near Blue Hole that we've been to before (found "on the fly" in 2012) but it's mainly good for some "quick shots" it's usually not deep enjoy for me to enjoy (and it wasn't this year either). I was anxious to get to the Blue Hole, we finally did and it was great as always--the path wasn't as torn up as I remembered it (although it was a BIT of a clannge) but YET AGAIN I encountered a couple of canoing people wanting to fish PRECISELY where it is I like to swim but they "yielded" to me and even ended up swimming in that area themselves (plus as it turns out I was not in the usual "spot" I go to when there and the one I normally go to was also great and wide-open, as I found out later, and there were no apparent hostilities).

After the Blue Hole we ate at Subway and encountered some friendly people, they were telling me about a couple of spots which I had in the book anyway (they were surprised at the existence of the book it seems) they did tell me of this one spot called "Craw Hole"^e I believe, which is sort of on the way to Pruitt (I noted its location and later got its coordinates & added it to my custom map, but we never went to it). I was pondering grunting my way to "Erbie Campground" and a scenic spot or two there my wife wanted to go to but which had torn up gravel roads going to them, we did end up going to Ozark Campground^f (which we've gone to before and in fact is one of the spots I found in my 2012 research that led to Jasper being our annual vacation to start with). My wife became hot while there but the kids really liked jumping from the rock. From there we went to Ponca^g before going to cabin and eating a frozen pizza in the oven and getting ready for tomorrow's departure.

(A) Blue Hole 35.99478,-93.04205
(B) Barn shot: 35.93986, -93.10139
(C) Spot "on the fly" to Blue Hole: 35.95209, -93.05723
(D) Carver: 35.98419,-93.04162
(E) "Craw" Hole: 36.063476, -93.127216
(F) Ozark Campground: 36.065, -93.15917
(G) Ponca Access: 36.01870,-93.35710