It's special really, the way a coating of snow changes the Arkansas scenery.

And it turns out the winter reveals things about the forest you may not notice in the summer.

Kristina Root is a park interpreter at Pinnacle Mountain State Park and a guide for the winter woodlands tour. It's just one of many activities available to visitors

Right next to the Kingfisher Trail is a lotus tree with a very specialized protective system.

Root explains, "As you can see, it has these thorns growing out of the side of it, which is one of it's adaptations to help protect it. But it's one of the things that you wouldn't may be recognize in the summer with all the leaves and other things and activities going on. But here in the winter, it's kind of one of the first things you notice."

A short way down the half-mile trail are some of the park's oldest features, giant cypress trees; some standing here for more than 500 years.

Root says, "We like to say if you try to guess their age, that these trees were saplings on the little Maumelle River when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. So can you guess what year that was? 1492."

Another strange feature of cypress trees are little nodes sticking up out of the water.

They call them cypress knees. They're part of the tree's root system, little snorkels that help the tree absorb the air it needs.

There are plenty of small animals in the park. Snow records the tracks of birds, squirrels and even deer. But others leave their marks higher up.

Woodpeckers leave an almost horizontal row of round holes in the bark of many of the trees left as they peck the bark searching for insects.

The distinctive birds are easy to spot without many leaves on the trees.

Some plants here are already turning green. Soon, Spring will take over the trails.

But until then, there's still plenty of life to see at Pinnacle Mountain State Park.