A curious sight, Elephant Rocks is among the state’s most famous natural landmarks for a reason. These massive rocks form a natural playground of sorts for all ages. The state’s first trail designed for people with visual and physical disabilities winds past landmarks with such fun names as Fat Man’s Squeeze and The Maze.
At the south end are an island and a blind for watching migrating ducks gather at the lee of the island. The trail breaks out of the woods at the Dripping Springs waterfall. The phrase “flyover country” conjures ozark trail backpack flat stretches of grassland, dotted with cattle and cornfields. In truth, the Midwest offers far more character, with the Ozarks rivaling the Appalachians and Smoky Mountains in some stretches.
Poets say the park’s “castles” are the bluffs themselves, crenellated by wind and rain. On this trail, you emerge from the forest, climb up to those bluffs for a panoramic view, and hike along their edge for about a mile, your breath caught by one scenic overlook after another. Then you descend wooden stairs and hike past the ruins-porn of Castlewood’s years as a glamorous Art Deco resort.
The bag felt surprisingly secure, with no contents jostling around. Many of these coolers have handy features that add to their overall convenience. Both the Engle Roll Top and Arctic Zone Titan Zipperless come with bottle openers on the outsides of the bag, ozark trail backpack though we struggled to effectively use the one on the Titan. The Engel and IceMule include air valves, which help eliminate excess warm air within the bag. Additionally, a handful of these float in water, so you can tug them along on your next river day.
Models with the now old-school approach of having a water/airproof zipper include the Engel HD30, RTIC SoftPak, RovR TravlR 30, and Yeti Hopper Flip. When it comes to performance in soft coolers, you often get what you pay for in terms of durability and insulation value. Some of the most expensive products we tested offer some of the most impressive insulation powers and are made of impressively durable materials. However, this category continues to explode with innovations at competitive prices, and the correlation of price to performance is not a perfect linear relationship. Several models we tested challenge the idea that more money equals a better cooler, offering exceptional values and some impressive niche performances. Of course, large capacity always comes with a trade-off in how far you’re willing to carry it.