Entering Devil’s Den State Park
Tucked away at the southern part of the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas is Devil’s Den State park.
Less than an hour south of the popular city of Bentonville, the short drive to the Devil’s lair will transport you to a world of greenery, forests, and sandstone.
This park has over 60 miles of trails to be used for hiking, biking, and horseback riding, as well as places to swim, picnic, and camp. You could easily get away with spending multiple days here, and still not see the entire park.
The Caves
The highlight of Devil’s Den State Park for me were the fun caves. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a little over the top obsessed with bats, and Devil’s Den is home to quite a few of them. Ozark big eared bats, Tri-colored bats, big brown bats, and Indiana Bats. YAY BATS!
The downfall of these caves is that you can’t access them. Due to White Nose Syndrome, the safest thing they could do for the bat population is closing the caves to the public and building gates over the crevices where they hibernate.
That said, one of the trails we hiked leads to a crevice style cave that you CAN access and walk into… and it has a fun history that no one can agree on.
In addition to that, even though you can’t go into the rest of the caves, there’s still so much to do!
This particular park is one of the best preserved CCC developments, and it has the LARGEST sandstone crevice cave in the country!
I would say that this park is well worth going out of the way to visit. I’d love to go back and camp for a few nights. We strung this stop together with a big trip through the rest of Arkansas, and it was our last day before heading back home.
Let’s give the deets on the hikes that we took and then talk about the other things you can do in the park!
Devil’s Den Trail
Trail Name: Devil’s Den Trail
Trailhead Address: Devil’s Den State Park
Trail Length: 1.1 mi loop
Admission fee: No! Day use in this park is free.
Difficulty: Considered a Moderate trail. Short, but has a lot of different terrain. Easy as long as you’re sure footed. Sandstone areas can get slick when wet.
Elevation Gain: 160ft
Dogs: Doggo friendly on a leash
Restrooms: Not on the trails, but there are restrooms in the park.
Parking: Small parking area near the trail, but parking lots spread around a bit if you don’t mind adding a short walk.
Visited: October 2022
Devil’s Den trail appears to be the more popular trail in the State Park.
It is short, only around a mile long… but will take a bit to hike if you want to stop and see all there is to see.
This is the route to pass by all the little caves and crevices. The different spots that are popular and named along this hike are the Devil’s Den Cave, Twin Falls, Cold Springs, and Devil’s Ice Box.
Note that the caves ARE closed off to humans to protect the bats, but you can still see the areas.
This was my favorite hike in the park. Towering walls, cliffs, forests, water, and more. It’s absolutely gorgeous. We stopped quite a bit for photos and to just take everything in, and ended up finishing the loop trail in about 45 minutes.
Moonshiners Cave Trail
Trail Name: Moonshiners Cave Trail
Trailhead Address: Devil’s Den State Park
Directions: This hike is not inside the actual ‘park entrance’. If you are coming from the highway and turn west towards the park at the winslow exit, you’ll drive about 4.5 miles. At that point there’s a Devil’s Den sign, and directly across from that is a small area to park. You’ll walk about 100yards more to find the trailhead. There is NO SIGN for it. Just an opening into the forest. Use something like All Trails for a map to get you there if you think you need it.
Trail Length: .8mi one way out and back
Admission fee: None
Difficulty: Considered a Moderate trail. The way down is a gradual slope downward, so the way up is… you guessed it. I’d call it ‘easy’, as long as you are good gradually walking up
Elevation Gain: 206ft
Dogs: Doggo friendly (on a leash, as always)
Restrooms: no
Parking: Small parking area 100yards from the trail.
Visited: October 2022
About Moonshiners Cave hike
We stopped at this trail on our way back out of the park and boy am I glad we did! It’s short, but a very slight slope downward the whole way. There are a lot of loose rocks a good chunk of the way down so wear sneakers.
The only thing we really ran into here was that we PASSED the cave before seeing it and had to backtrack. If you don’t turn at just the right spot, the trail walks right over the top of it.
The best way I can describe making sure you don’t pass it is that the trail goes downhill for awhile… then hits a flatter area. If you’re walking that, you’ll see that you’re at the edge of a small bluff. THAT is the cave. Backtrack a few steps and you’ll see a path to the right which leads to it.
Besides that last ‘right’, any time you see a little offshoot trail… stay left to keep on the main trail.
If it has been raining, the trail will be a bit more slick, but there will be a little waterfall that goes over the top of it! We were there during a dry spell, so no water falls.
The cave itself has a brick wall up around part of it.
It’s hard to find the history on the use of the cave. It was supposedly used by a pioneer family for awhile (who are the ones who bricked it in) to store their canned goods… and then later used by bootleggers to make moonshine.
Thus, the name of the cave.
Other Hikes in Devil’s Den State Park
We only had 1 day to spend in this park, and since we had our dog with us and it was near the end of our trip, we kept it pretty easy. We did those 2 full hikes previously mentioned, and then after that just did a lot of wandering. There are so many places to wander around here!
The CCC Interpretive Trail (civilian conservation corps) was only .2 miles so we did that, then wandered around the road where the cabins are right by there. Everything in this area is sort of connected, so you can meander your way through at any speed you’re comfortable at.
Another path we hit was the Butterfield Lake trail. Only a small portion of it though, since by then the pup was completely tuckered out. Crossing the damn, and taking a left gave us a good look at a pretty portion of it.
There is a hike in Devil’s Den State Park called the Yellow Rock Trail, that leads to the CCC Scenic Overlook.
I decided to cheat here and NOT walk that trail. Instead we hopped back in the van and drove out of the park on 170 a mile or two…. and parked at the overlook.
There is a parking area here, and a lot of people start the trail from this side. You can either hang out at the top, or take the loop trail further in.
Making a stop here gives you a gorgeous view from the overlook. There’s a little shelter if you want to have a seat and have a snack with a view.
We did this trip at the beginning of October and the leaves hadn’t turned yet. I can only imagine how amazing the view would have been in the height of fall!
Other things to do in and around the park
Devil’s Den State Park isn’t just about the hiking.
They have trails that are popular for mountain biking, as well as horseback riding!
If you’re the type of person who prefers to hang out and relax, there are even options for you. Cabins and campsites that are very hammock friendly. A pool you can take a few laps in or lounge beside. Plus I saw a lot of people fishing as well!
Tons of picnic tables are littered around the park so you can break out the cooler for lunch (I made us some sandwiches and then fought a couple of bees for them). The tshirt designs in the little store are also worth checking out (though expensive. I think I bought my first $30 tshirt here. That’s a lot for someone cheap like me hahah.)
Overall, the northwest corner of Arkansas is worth a road trip, and you should add this park onto the list.
In the same trip, we spent a couple nights in Hot Springs to see the National Park, and also spent a few days in Eureka Springs, both VERY dog friendly places as well.
If you’re into that outdoorsy style life, an hour north of Devil’s Den State Park is Bentonville. That city is cram packed with the mountain biking lifestyle, with trails everywhere. Not to mention tons of museums, art exhibits, and more.
