Pickles Gap Village: Arkansas’ Hidden Treasure?

The family and I made our first trip to Branson, Missouri, over the weekend. But do you know what the highlight of our trip was? A little place called Pickles Gap Village, which is not really "hidden" at all.

It's in plain sight, nestled on a hill off of I-40 in Conway, Arkansas, It features a boutique, sweet shop, cafe, a gun and knife shop, and animals you can pet and feed. It was so awesome, we stopped on the way to and from Branson.

On our first visit, we stopped into the candy shop, where I got a chocolate-covered, chocolate-filled Twinkie (YUM!!), and loaded up on several flavors of fudge (there were so many to choose from!) Then, we went to a little spot behind the buildings, where there were goats and chickens to feed (those animals were so sweet!), and kiddie rides (carousel horses, coin-operated horses).

Our second visit included some shopping and dinner at Big Al's BBQ & Burgers. The pulled pork sandwich was awesome! The lady at the boutique was nice, too. My daughter lost her butterfly mood ring somewhere in there, and we just could not locate it. The lady said if she found it, she'd mail it to us.

There were birds of all types running around out there...chickens, ducks, geese...some of them babies. We even got to pet a few of them.

Here's a description, according to Arkansas.com:

"Ozark foothills shopping village gets its unique name from the legend of a German immigrant, who while crossing the creek, overturned his load of pickles in the creek."

The village is made up of The Pickle Barrel Fudge Factory & Cafe, Big Al's BBQ & Burgers, Collector's Market & Boutique, Wax Worm candles/gifts, Handcrafted Gifts, Knife & Gun Shop, and RK Print Shop.

It was an enjoyable little place, and I'm glad we stopped. I'm hoping we can visit again some day.