Ouachita National Recreation Trail
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Ouachita National Recreation Trail is a 223-mile (359 km) long, continuous hiking trail through the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma and Arkansas. The trail is primarily a hiking and backpacking trail, but about 2/3 of the trail are available to mountain bikers.
The trail's western end is at Talimena State Park in southeastern Oklahoma, and the eastern end is at Pinnacle Mountain State Park in the small community of Natural Steps, Arkansas in central Arkansas. The first 192 miles (309 km) lie within the Ouachita National Forest; the remaining 31 miles (50 km), maintained by Pinnacle Mountain State Park, traverse lands owned by timber companies and Central Arkansas Water. (Plans for the Arkansas River Trail include an extension connecting the eastern terminus of the Ouachita Trail to downtown Little Rock 17 miles (27 km) away.) The Friends of the Ouachita Trail is a volunteer group devoted to maintaining the trail. (http://www.friendsot.org)
While well-maintained, the trail is lightly used. In a ranking of U.S. long-distance trails on a number of criteria by Backpacker Magazine, the trail ranked third for solitude and fourth for signage.
The high point on the trail is 2,610 ft (800 m) on Rich Mountain, which straddles the Oklahoma-Arkansas state border 46 miles (74 km) from the western end of the trail. The low point is 270 ft (82 m) at the entrance to Pinnacle Mountain State Park on the eastern end of the trail.
Because of the low elevations and southern latitude, the best times to hike the trail are the early spring and late autumn; winter months are often warm enough, also. In July to September, the weather tends to be too hot to hike comfortably, and water access points tend to dry up.
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[edit] Natural Steps, Arkansas
In the 1920s, a one-lane truss bridge was built on the old Highway 300 to cross the Big Maumelle River. It is on the Historic Bridges of the United States (Maumelle River AR 300 Bridge) for Pulaski County, Arkansas. The bridge still stands in the shadow of Pinnacle Mountain, but was made obsolete by a new bridge in 1981. Today, it is only open to pedestrians for fishing and is part of the 223-mile (359 km) long Ouachita National Recreation Trail.
[edit] Points on the trail
- Talimena State Park
- Talimena Scenic Drive (Oklahoma State Highway 1)
- Upper Kiamichi River Wilderness
- Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area
- Queen Wilhelmina State Park
- U.S. Route 71
- Big Brushy Recreation Area
- U.S. Route 270
- Iron Springs Recreation Area
- Arkansas State Highway 27
- Arkansas State Highway 7
- Flatside Wilderness
- Lake Sylvia Recreation Area
- Arkansas State Highway 9
- Lake Maumelle
- Arkansas State Highway 10
- Arkansas State Highway 300
- Pinnacle Mountain State Park
- Natural Steps, Arkansas
