Eberhart Point Picnic Area in Little River Canyon National Preserve

The Eberhart Point Picnic Area is located in a large field on the opposite side of the road from the Eberhart Point Overlook parking lot. This is roughly the halfway point on the Canyon Rim Drive in Little River Canyon National Preserve. The picnic area consists of eight tables but only one grill, which is somewhat unusual. I suppose picnickers just have to fight over it.

While it is possible to host a small group picnic or birthday party at the Eberhart Point Picnic Area, all tables are taken on a first come, first served basis, so you must arrive early in the morning to stake your claim. Furthermore, it is located in the middle of nowhere. For group events, the Canyon Mouth Park picnic area at the southern end of Little River Canyon National Preserve is a better option. This is a much larger facility with a covered pavilion that can be reserved in advance, a playground, multiple places to swim in the Little River, and modern restrooms. There is a restroom at Eberhart Point, but it is a fancy outhouse—what Jed Clampett would call a portable toilet in a permanent building.

Eberhart Point Picnic Area in Little River Canyon National Preserve

I do not want to unnecessarily alarm people, but after having a sandwich at the picnic area in mid-May, I hiked the Eberhart Trail (starts at the parking lot). Once at the bottom of a very short connector to the main trail, I found two ticks on me. One was on my upper arm and the other was crawling inside my hat—for some very lucky reason I decided to take it off for an inspection. I did not touch any vegetation on the way down, and ticks do not drop from trees onto your upper body. Furthermore, after attaching to my lower leg, it would take a long time for a tick to crawl all the way up to my head, way longer than the short walk down the connector trail. This leads me to believe that I got them while sitting at the picnic table. But even if true, I wasn’t there long enough for a tick to crawl from my feet to my upper body. They would have had to have been on the bench itself, which is also unlikely since they prefer vegetation. After the hike I went back and inspected the benches and did not find any ticks. It’s a mystery, but if I were a betting man, I’d bet that I picked them up at the picnic area.

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