Hobbs State Park – Conservation Area
Hobbs is Arkansas’s largest state park, spanning a 12,054-acre (4,878 ha) tract of Ozark landscape along the southern shore of Beaver Lake. It’s an asset to the ecosystem and water with minimum human impact. Highlights of this day-use park include a diverse, 36-mile (58 km) trail system with barrier-free (i.e., ADA-accessible) hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding trails, 5 primitive campsites, and a public outdoor shooting range. The park is open all year from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, but the Sugar Creek Astronomy Society (http://www.sugarcreek.space/) occasionally uses the park after hours for its public outreach events. A stargazer told EarthSky that the Conservation Area provides “dark sky within a short driving distance from most points in Northwest Arkansas.”