21 Jan 2012 501 in pics: Beauty in nature

Posted at 9:33 AMh in Travel by

Mike Kemp photos

Many in the 501 have experienced a unique event – the winter visit of the trumpeter swans on Magness Lake near Heber Springs.

Visitors from throughout the state as well as other parts of the country have traveled to Cleburne County to check out the swans on the lake, a 30-acre oxbow off the Little Red River. 

To view the swans, drive east on Arkansas Hwy. 110 from its intersection with Hwys. 5 and 25, just east of Heber Springs.

Travel 3.9 miles from the intersection to Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, marked with a white sign.

Turn left on Hays Road (the road sign is very small) and drive a half-mile to Magness Lake.

Visitors can view the swans from a public road, with parking space available in an S curve of the road. 

The trumpeter swans stay around Magness Lake until early March, then they head back to Minnesota.