Visit Pea Ridge National Military Park

The Civil War Battle of Pea Ridge took place in early March of 1862 and involved nearly 26,000 Union, Confederate, and even Cherokee soldiers. Pea Ridge National Military Park preserves this important Civil War battlefield, located just 20 minutes west of our Beaver Lake cabins and suites.

Civil War history buffs will find a lot to explore in Arkansas. There’s the Lakeport Plantation in Lake Village, Chidester’s Poison Springs Battleground, Headquarters House in Fayetteville, and many others. Of all the major Civil War sites in the state, Pea Ridge is the closest to Beaver Lake, and notable as one of the most intact Civil War battlefields around.

The Battle of Pea Ridge saw the two armies wrestling for control of Missouri, a crucial border state. The Confederates, led by Major General Earl Van Dorn, brought 16,000 soldiers to the fight, including almost 800 Cherokee. They faced off against 10,250 Union soldiers, led by Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis , who were in control of the state at the time.

The conflict, a bloody battle by all accounts, took place over two days and on two separate battlefields. Though they were outnumbered, the Union was victorious, holding their position and driving the Confederates from the battlefield.

Pea Ridge National Military Park

Pea Ridge Military Park is located at 15930 East, US-62, in Garfield, AR, just north of Rogers. The park preserves the battlefield in honor of the nearly 3,500 soldiers who died here on March 7th and 8th, 1862.

Visitors to the park will find 4,300-acres to explore and several ways to enjoy them. Highlights include two Civil War battlefields, historic Elkhorn Tavern, a visitor’s center, hiking trails, and more.

Be sure to stop by the Pea Ridge Visitor Center and Museum to take in the interactive exhibits. Then you’ll want to embark on the 7-mile, self-guided road tour with 28 points of interest. You can also explore the park with a Guided Cell Phone Tour. 7 miles of hiking and biking trails leading to various points of interest.

A 2.5 mile section of The Trail Of Tears also runs through the park. For those unaware, the Trail of Tears is the path thousands of Native Americans walked and died along during a forced relocation in the 1820s.

Pea Ridge Military Park is open 365 days a year, 6am to dusk. Learn more at the park website.

Spend a few hours at the park learning about our great nation’s storied heritage, then it’s an easy and scenic drive back to the comfort of your Sugar Ridge Resort suite or cabin on Beaver Lake. The perfect day!

Discover Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point

Opera in the Ozarks 2023 season is just days away with 3 operas, 22 performances, a chamber music concert, and two Broadway Cabarets! June 23rd through July 21st, 2023 In Eureka Springs, AR.

Music and stage fans will not want to miss a chance to attend an Opera in the Ozarks performance. The famed theater started off in 1950 as a summer music camp but has since evolved into an important venue for students pursuing opera careers.

The company runs an intensive, 8-week summer program every year for a select group of students. These talented attendees receive professional career training and a chance to perform in a professional scale opera before a live audience. Maybe you!

Many alumni of the training program have gone on to prominent performing careers. These include Mark Delavan, Stephen Dickson, Tom Fox, Carroll Freeman, Beverly Hoch, Hei-Kyung Hong, and Gwendolyn Jones, to name just a few.

Of course, the theater’s existence is also a huge perk for local and visiting opera fans. Who expects to be able to attend world class opera performances in Northwest Arkansas? You, now!

The Opera in the Ozarks campus is located seven miles northwest of Eureka Springs at Inspiration Point on top of Rock Candy Mountain. This iconic location overlooks the White River Valley from a 600 foot vantage point and includes a majestic castle, patterned after those of the Rhine River valley. A truly magical setting and a must-visit for all those passing through the area.

Best of all, Sugar Ridge Resort is just 10 scenic minutes away from Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point. This means you can easily attend a show and still have plenty of time to enjoy the views and recreation at Beaver Lake. Sounds like the makings of a perfect day, to me!

Opera in the Ozarks 2023 Season

The 2023 Season runs from June 23rd through July 21st. This season’s first Broadway Cabaret is at Mount Sequoyah Center in Fayetteville, AR with hors d’oeuvres and dessert. The second is at Eureka Springs’ Crescent Hotel and includes a full dinner with dessert. Both cabaret venues feature cash bars.

Sunday matinees, aka Ice Cream Sundays (July 2,9, and 16), include a chance to enjoy some delicious ice cream with your show from Eureka Springs’ The Big Dipper. Delish!

All shows are 7:30pm/Sundays 3pm unless otherwise noted.

L’Elisir D’Amore (The Elixir of Love) – Donizetti
June 23 and 28 – July 1, 5, 9, 12, 15, and 21

The Tender Land – Copland
June 24 and 29 – July 3, 7, 11, 16, 20

Orpheus in the Underworld – Offenbach
June 27, 30 – July 2, 6, 8, 14, and 19

Ice Cream Sundays – July 2, 9, 16

Broadway Cabaret at Mount Sequoyah Center in Fayetteville, 7pm – July 13

Chamber Music – July 17

Broadway Cabaret at Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, 6pm – July 18

Opera in the Ozarks is located at 16311 Hwy. 62 West, Eureka Springs, AR. Visit opera.org for tickets and more information. You can also find the theater on Facebook.

Don’t Miss the 2024 Solar Eclipse

The next Great American Eclipse, a total solar eclipse running diagonally across the US, Texas to Maine, will occur April 8th, 2024. This amazing natural event sweeps right past Beaver Lake, promising one heck of an amazing natural show over the lake. If you’d to be here, now is the time to make those reservations before we’re all booked up!

Partial and total solar eclipses occur far more often than we realize. In fact, one occurs about every 18 months or so – but you have to be in the right place, at the right time to catch one. Those not in the narrow band directly under the eclipse, known as a “path of totality,” will only see a partial eclipse or, if farther away, nothing at all.

This rarity, coupled with the sheer uniqueness of the event, makes experiencing a solar eclipse a real treat. Especially a total eclipse, like the upcoming one on April, 2024.

Here in Northern Arkansas, we can expect partial coverage of the sun to begin around 12:37pm, with full coverage at 1:54pm. Everything will back to normal by about 3:15pm. That’s nearly three hours, start to finish.

Of course, since Beaver Lake is not directly under the path of totality, we’ll only experience a partial eclipse. We’re not that far away though, so should still be treated to an amazing natural show. One made even better by the view from our Beaver Lake, AR cabins and suites.

2024 Solar Eclipse Over Beaver Lake

As I say above, the 2024 eclipse will occur on April 8th. The eclipse’s path of totality is set to run in a diagonal arc across North America; through Sinaloa, Mexico, up across the US, and out through Newfoundland.

Solar eclipse totalities can last anywhere from only 10 seconds to almost 7 and a half minutes long. The April 2024 eclipse totality will last around 4 minutes long in northern Arkansas. Not bad!

2024 Solar Eclipse path of totality over North America

Arkansas expects somewhere in the neighborhood of 180,000 outside visitors for the eclipse. Of course, most will head for the path of totality. Those interested in less of a circus and more quiet, lakeside views are urged to book now, before we fill up.

Predicting an eclipse is one thing, predicting the weather is another. While I’d love to promise clear skies for this event, I cannot – but at least you’ll be at beautiful Beaver Lake!

If it’s overcast, you can always go hiking, boating, birding, or explore the region. Eureka Springs is right nearby, after all, and much more, too. You can also just kick back somewhere comfortable at the resort and take in those stunning, Beaver Lake views.

Visit www.greatamericaneclipse.com for more information about the upcoming 2024 total solar eclipse over Arkansas.

Pivot Rock Park and Natural Bridge

If you enjoy unique rock formations, you’ll want to make time to visit Eureka Springs’ Pivot Rock Park and Natural Bridge, less than a half hour’s drive from our Beaver Lake.

Arkansas is full of fascinating natural wonders. Caves, natural springs, lakes, mountains, and parks that can amaze, baffle, and even inspire you. Of course, guests of our Beaver Lake cabins and suites will not need to go far for that. You can easily fill your days with good ol’ mother nature right here on the lake. Hiking, fishing, paddling, swimming, and so much more.

That being said, sometimes even the best places can get stale and a simple change of scenery can do wonders. Luckily, the surrounding area is loaded with things to see and do, no matter which way you turn. Eureka Springs is right next door, after all. Home to shopping, dining, museums, live entertainment and, yes, plenty of natural attractions, too. Things like Pivot Rock Park and Natural Bridge!

Pivot Rock Park & Natural Bridge

Pivot Rock Park is located a few miles north of Eureka Springs, just off of Highway 62 West, at 1708 Pivot Rock Road. This is, as I mentioned above, just a short and scenic drive from Sugar Ridge Resort.

The park, a small and historic roadside attraction, is full of small caves, deep gullies, and strange, stacked rock formations. In fact, the area is so unique that it was once featured in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Legend has it the area also once served as hideout for Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang. That’s such a common claim around these parts, however, that you can very much take the claim with a grain of salt.

Visitors to the park pay a small fee to enter and explore at their own pace. Pivot Rock and the Natural Bridge formations are reached via a short hike on a paved trail, through a nicely wooded area.

Natural Bridge is the first big attraction along the trail, found jutting up from the rugged hillside. The trail allows you to view this curious and weathered stone arch from all sides. It really does look like just a bridge, albeit from some fantasy illustration.

Pivot Rock is next along the trail and impossible to miss. The naturally formed, 12 foot tall, upside down, pyramid-shaped rock looks to be balancing on its tip. The top is about ten feet wide, yet the base only around a foot thick! Ripley’s billed it as the largest freestanding rock formation with a base ten times smaller than its top. You’d think it would fall right over but it’s really very stable and the perfect subject for fun photos.

Pivot Rock Park is open March to October, 10am to 5pm, everyday but Thursday. Learn more about the park by visiting it on Facebook.

Those looking to spend a little more time in the area should consider a stop by the stunningly beautiful Thorncrown Chapel, just 10 minutes from Pivot Rock at 12968 US-62, Eureka Springs, AR.

Then it’s just a short hop back to your digs at Sugar Ridge Resort. Perfect!

Tour Cosmic Cavern

Spelunkers staying at Sugar Ridge Resort will be excited to learn that one of the country’s top ten show caves, Cosmic Cavern, is less than an 45 minutes away. The “Must See” attraction is located in Berryville, AR, half-way between Eureka Springs and Branson, Missouri.

Arkansas is home to a lot of fascinating caves and many are within easy distance of our Beaver Lake cabins and suites. None are quite as famous as Cosmic Cavern, however. This historic attraction is the largest, and considered one of the prettiest, privately owned show caves in the state.

The cave, while known to ancient Native Americans, was not discovered in the modern era until 1845, when it was mined for its onyx and other minerals. Cave ownership changed hands repeatedly until 1980, when it was purchased by the Langhover family, who still operate it today.

Inside, you’ll find a variety of unusual features, such as a 9-foot soda straw formation, the longest in the Ozarks. In fact, Cosmic Cavern has many unique and beautiful rock formations, or speleothems, to admire. Stalactites and stalagmites, flowstone, helictites, cave bacon, draperies, and more.

The cave is also home to two “bottomless” lakes. One, South Lake, has a long-term population of trout, some of which have lost their sight and pigmentation from being underground for so many generations. The other lake in the cavern was only discovered in 1993. Consequently, it is incredibly pristine and clear.

Cosmic Cavern is also unique for its temperature, which stays a relatively balmy 64°F with 96% humidity throughout the year. Most other caverns are lucky to hover around the mid to upper 50’s.

Touring Cosmic Cavern

Visitors to Cosmic Cavern can enjoy both Guided Walking Cave Tours and Wild Cave Tours.

Guided Walking Cave Tours take around an hour and 15 minutes and cover a distance of approximately 1/3 mile. Your path is well lit and, while there are some stairs, most of the tour is level. This tour will take you past many unique stone formations, as well as the two subterranean lakes. You may even see blind cave trout and blind cave salamanders. Fascinating!

Wild Cave Tours, on the other hand, are offered after normal hours and take you to deeper, undeveloped parts of the cave. You’ll definitely get a little wet and muddy but gloves, hard hats, and lights are supplied. Fun and exciting!

Cosmic Cavern also offers a gift shop, lunch pavilion, museum, and gemstone panning station. Here, youngsters (or the young at heart) can amuse pan for various crystals and keep what they find. Rubies, emeralds, sapphires, quartz, and more.

Cosmic Cavern is located at 6386 Hwy. 21 North, in Berryville, AR 72616. – just 45 minutes drive from our Beaver Lake Cabins and Suites.

Cavern hours are 9am to 5pm daily, March through December. Visit the cavern website for more information. You can also find the cavern on Facebook.

More Local Caves

You say you like caves? Well, you certainly came to the right place! As we say above, Arkansas is home to many caves, some of the best of which are right here in the local area.

For more underground fun near Sugar Ridge Resort, consider visiting War Eagle Cavern on Beaver Lake and Onyx Cave Park in Eureka Springs.

What things do you hope to do during your Beaver Lake getaway? Let us know and we’ll help get you on your way! Sugar Ridge Resort loves sharing beautiful Arkansas with our guests!

Explore Quigley’s Castle

Those looking for a unique experience will enjoy visiting Quigley’s Castle, an unusual and historic family home known as “The Ozarks’ Strangest Dwelling.”

The Beaver Lake area is home to a number of unique and memorable attractions. Thorncrown Chapel, War Eagle Cavern, Christ of the Ozarks, Blue Spring Heritage Center, and so much more. None are quite as idiosyncratic as Quigley’s Castle, however.

The “Castle” is really a farm house, built just south of Eureka Springs in the 1940’s – but that’s where what’s normal about this family home ends.

When visiting, one of the first things you’ll notice about the property is all the plush and colorful foliage. Wildflowers, antique roses, and 400+ varieties of perennials surround the home. Then again, maybe the towering, vine-covered rock pillars, “bottle trees”, and other rock sculptures will catch your eye first. Or perhaps the two-story, plant-filled, stone/shell/fossil/arrowhead-covered house will be what first grabs your attention.

Whichever detail, you can credit Elise Quigley (1910-1984).

A Castle’s Humble Origins

When Albert and Elise Quigley first moved onto the property in 1930, their only dwelling was an old lumber shack. Albert promised he’d build Elise a real home and that she could design it. Excited to move out of the decrepit old shack, she got right to it.

Even the best of intentions can fall by the wayside, however. Five children into the marriage, the Quigley’s were still living in the old lumber shack. Elise had had enough. One morning, after Albert had left for work, she and the children pulled the old shack down. A replacement would have to be built now, and Elise was ready with her design.

Construction on the house began in 1943, with lumber sourced directly from the farm. A nature lover, Elise dreamed of a house that was less a box keeping nature out than one that contained and reflected the natural world back. 28 huge, picture windows in the walls remove the sense of being indoors and allow natural light to fill the space within. Her unusual design separates the interior living space from the exterior walls with four feet wide flower beds. Here she nurtured flowering, tropical plants that have since grown all of the way up to the second story ceiling!

Elise’s lifelong habit of collecting fossils, crystals, arrowheads, and other interesting small stones came into play when she decided to rock the outside of the house with her collection. The task took her three years to complete and then spread out into the garden and yard. Here she constructed fences, chairs, statues, and other whimsical forms using found stone, shell, and crystal.

Elise Quigley’s quirky love of collections can be found indoors, too. She spent forty years filling every possible nook and cranny of the house with her collections and creations. Antiques, mementos, and lots more stone, shell, and crystal. Her famous “Butterfly Wall” is a particularly spectacular example and must be seen in person to be truly appreciated.

Quigley’s Castle

Elise Quigley died in 1984, leaving her magnificently singular home behind for others to enjoy. Quigley’s Castle can be found at 274 Quigley Castle Road in Eureka Springs; just a scenic half hour’s drive from Sugar Ridge Resort and our Beaver Lake cabins.

The Castle is open March through October. Hours are 10am to 4:30pm, April 1st through October 31st. Call for March and November hours: (479) 253-8311 Closed Sundays and Thursdays. Visit the Castle website for more information.

Discover Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Art fans staying at our Beaver Lake cabins will be pleased to know that Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is only a scenic 40 minute drive away, in Bentonville, AR. The museum’s stunning, 50,000 square foot gallery space contains a considerable collection of important American artworks, spanning from Colonial times to the present.

The museum opened in 2011 as the brain-child of Alice Walton, heir to the Walmart fortune. The facility includes galleries, meeting and classroom spaces, a library, sculpture garden, and a glass-enclosed gathering hall that can hold up to 300 people.

Visiting Crystal Bridges

The first amazing work of art you’ll see upon arrival at Crystal Bridges is the museum itself. The elegant glass-and-wood construction, designed by architect Moshe Safdie and engineer Buro Happo, consists of eight linked pavilions, nestled in the forest and wrapping around and over two large, spring-fed pools. The effect is at once striking and calming; the perfect merging of nature and design. Some spend almost as much time admiring the museum and grounds as they do the art it contains!

Not that the work inside is anything to sniff at.

Crystal Bridges’ collection includes major works by such important American artists as John Singer Sargent, George Catlin, George Bellows, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Janet Sobel, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, and so many others. As I say at the top, the museum’s permanent collection contains works from 500 years of American art.

The facility also includes classroom spaces, a library, sculpture garden, and a glass-enclosed gathering hall for up to 300 people. You’ll also discover a store, restaurant, coffee bar, outdoor event spaces, and nature trails. A number of the trails on the grounds lead to downtown Bentonville.

Children marveling at the beauty of Crystal Bridges

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Crystal Bridges is located at 600 Museum Way, in Bentonville AR, just 40 minutes from Sugar Ridge Resort. Visit crystalbridges.org for hours and more information. You can also find the museum on Facebook.

It would be very easy to make a fun day-trip out of your visit! Other, popular area attractions include the 21c Museum, the Peel Museum & Botanical Garden, The Walmart Museum, shops, restaurants, and many other points of interest.

What things do you like to see or do? Let us know and we’ll help point you in the right direction. Sugar Ridge Resort loves sharing the area with our guests!

Ozark Mountain Music Festival 2023

2022 is nearly a memory and that means it’s almost Ozark Mountain Music Festival time! OzMoMuFest 2023 is scheduled for January 19-22. Four days and more than 20 bands serving up heaping helpings of live music. Bluegrass, folk, urban American roots, and more. Don’t miss it!

Heat up the New Year with the premier winter music event of the Ozarks: OzMoMu! The Ozark Mountain Music Festival draws a diverse lineup of musicians and their fans from across the country to Eureka Springs every year. The beloved event is like an outdoor music festival but held indoors at Eureka Springs’ historic Basin Park Hotel.

Performances are scheduled to kickoff Thursday night and continue for four days on multiple stages. A popular Late-Night Jam occurs on Friday and Saturday night at Chelsea’s Corner Cafe & Bar.

One of the best aspects of the festival is that there is no backstage. Consequently, band and audience members share the same space for the event, creating a fun and lively group intimacy between performers and fans. So very unique.

Best of all, Ozark Mountain Music Festival 2023 and Basin Park Hotel are all less than half an hour’s drive from Sugar Ridge Resort! Enjoy hours of mountain music at the festival, then it’s an easy hop back to your Beaver Lake cabin or suite. What fun!

Ozark Mountain Music Festival 2023 Lineup

This year’s headliner is Lindsay Lou, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has released several critically acclaimed albums. The festival will also see performances by other top artists in the folk, bluegrass, and Americana genres, including:

Marbi
Willy Tea Taylor
The Mighty Pines
The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers
Catfish Seminar
Shakedown Strings
Tyler Gregory
Front Porch
Patti Steel
Eureka Strings
Gary Lawrence
Casey and the Atta Boys
Don & Roy
Ashtyn Barbaree
Haymakers
JP Stringfield
“Icky” Ichniowski
Dusty Rust
Danny Spain Gang
Gravel Yard
Dale Kellison
Doug Myerscough
Grace Stormont
Steve Jones
Good Morning Bedlam

Visit the festival website to learn more and buy tickets. You can also follow this event on Facebook.

Eureka Springs Great Passion Play

The Great Passion Play, Eureka Springs AR

It’s the holiday season once again and Eureka Springs is bustling with festive activity. Those looking for an appropriately themed Christmas attraction would have to range pretty far to outdo The Great Passion Play. The Christian theme park is open all year long but goes all out for Christmas with a variety of popular attractions.

You likely already know about the seven story tall Christ of the Ozarks, located on top of Magnetic Mountain. Both it and The Great Passion Play christian theme park owe their existence to Gerald L. K. Smith, a conservative politician who retired to Eureka Springs in the 1960’s.

Christ of the Ozarks was Smith’s first big project in the area and it remains one of the most popular. His next idea was even more radical: a live-action, Christian theme park. The attraction opened in 1968 and continues to draw thousands of visitors to Eureka Springs every year.

Visiting The Great Passion Play

The Great Passion Play theme park is home to a variety of Christian-themed attractions.

The most popular attraction, of course, is The Passion Play itself. This hour-and-forty-five minute presentation of the Christ’s last week of mortal life is presented on a multi-level set with special effects, live animals, and a cast of 170 actors. The play is performed several times a week each month, May to October, with special performances around Easter and Christmas. While the play is truly stunning and absorbing it’s not all you’ll find to see and do at the park. Not by a long shot!

The Holy Land Tour is another extremely popular park attraction, allowing you to step back in time to experience the people and places of the Bible first-hand. The Holy Land Tour includes such sights as the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and an opportunity to meet and speak with actors representing biblical characters.

The Sacred Arts Center is home to over 1,000 works of art, some of which date back to the ninth century. The Bible Museum contains more than 6,000 bibles in over 600 different languages. You can also hike or mountain bike the park trails, some of which lead to the base of the Christ of the Ozarks.

Other attractions include a history museum, backstage tours, screenings of God With Us: New Testament film, gift shops, dining, and more.

Christmas at the Park

The Great Passion Play goes all out for the Christmas season with two, special holiday attractions.

The first is a Christmas Drive-Through Light Display with over 250 Christmas trees and dozens of nativities leading to the Christ of the Ozarks statue, which will also be lit. The drive-through light display is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, from Thanksgiving night through January 1st, 2023.

The second special attraction is the annual Christmas Snow Village with Trains display, the largest display of its kind in the south! The exhibit includes over 300 buildings, 3 0 scale trains, an 0 scale trolley, and a Polar Express train. Such tiny details! The Christmas Snow Village with Trains will also be open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, from Thanksgiving through January 1st, 2023.

Other park attractions open during this season include the Holy Land Tour, museums, and Backstage Tour. Visit the park online for more details.

The Great Passion Play is open 9am to 5pm all year-round, excepting Sundays, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas. Christ of the Ozarks and the park trails are open sunrise to an hour after sunset, 365 days a year.

Best of all, The Great Passion Play is located less than a half-hour’s drive from Sugar Ridge Resort! Spend a couple of hours or more at the park, then it’s an easy and scenic drive back to the comforts of your Beaver Lake cabin or suite.

Happy Holidays!

Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

Fans of big cats and other exotic creatures will want to pay a visit to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. The 450+ acre compound is home to almost 100 rescued animals and one of the country’s largest big cat sanctuaries.

Big cats are always fascinating and have been in the news a lot thanks to a growing awareness of how they tend to be neglected or abused in captivity. Lions and tigers may be beautiful but they make terrible pets. They’re dauntingly strong, aggressive, massive eaters, and cannot survive in bedrooms or backyards.

People still try, unfortunately, and that’s where Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge comes in. Turpentine Creek is a non-profit organization that has been rescuing animals since the 1990’s, and we mean rescue. The refuge works hard to provides safe, healthy habitats for their animals and is accredited by the GFAS. They do not breed or sell animals or animal parts, don’t allow hands-on interaction or cub petting, and don’t exhibit animals at shows.

You can, however, tour the refuge and see the animals in their spacious, permanent habitats.

Visiting Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge

Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge is located just a half hour from Sugar Ridge Resort at 239 Turpentine Creek Lane in Eureka Springs, AR.

Visitors to the Refuge have a number of options during their visit. Of course, the #1 attraction is the big cats, which you can see on the guided tours of the habitat. Guests board the open-air tram for an hour-long guided tour of large cat habitats.

Visitors can also explore the refuge’s Discovery Area where you’ll see some of the smaller animal residents. The Discovery Area is also home to the bear tunnel, where you can view bears and big cats.

Those wishing to see even more can sign up for a 2 hour long, Carnivore Caravan Tour. This private, behind the scenes tour takes you through areas not open to the public in the comfort of an SUV. You’ll see all the habitats, the veterinary hospital, and the commissary where the animals’ meals are prepared.

Turpentine Creek also offers educational seminars about animals living at the Refuge. Topics include natural habitat, species conservation, biodiversity, and more.

Visit www.turpentinecreek.org for more information. You can also visit the refuge on Facebook.

Spend a few hours getting to know the good folks and beautiful animals at Turpentine Creek, then it’s just a short, scenic jaunt back to your comfy digs at Sugar Ridge Resort. Lovely!