Reddit reviews Arkansas Hiking Trails: A Guide to 78 Selected Trails in "The Natural State"
We found 5 Reddit comments about Arkansas Hiking Trails: A Guide to 78 Selected Trails in "The Natural State". Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
ARKANSAS HIKING TRAILS
This is so thoughtful! I think if you search for farmers' markets in Conway and Little Rock you should find a ton of resources. You can actually buy local online at Arkansas Local Food Network. You might want to check out Little Rock Urban Farming too.
As far as locally sourced meats go, the only place I can personally vouch for is Hillcrest Artisan Meats. Their FB page is really informative too. I've also heard great things about Falling Sky Farm. EatWild could be really useful to you as well.
Ok, on to the bit I know something about: Hiking!
Some of the best times of my 7 year relationship were spent waterfall hiking in the winter with my boyfriend. No snakes and, if you're lucky, frozen solid waterfalls. Arkansas Waterfall Guidebook and Arkansas Hiking Trails are my favorite books on the subject. The best trails/waterfalls (IMO) are near Jasper, so if you guys have a free weekend it would be really fun to rent a cabin and hike around. Jasper has lots of cool local shops and restaurants too.
The Ouachita (pronounced Wash-it-aww) and Ozarks are national forests and very, very large. Lots of good places within them though.
My suggestion would be to go to the Buffalo River and hike Hemmed-in-hollow and Goat Trail on the same day or to hike Indian Creek. Hemmed-in-Hollow is a waterfall and Goat trail takes you onto the side of a quite tall bluff. Indian creek is a creek you can hike/wade to see some excellent waterfalls. At the end there's a cave you used to be able to climb through to get to what's called the Eye of the Needle but it's been closed for several years to protect the bats. Just getting to that point is a lot of fun though. Great photographs too. Renting a canoe and floating the Buffalo river is fun. Not a lot of white-water just a few rapids and a fun day on the river. If you're in this area at night stop by to see the Elk. They were reintroduced several years ago and come out to graze in a farm nearby. There will probably be a dozen cars parked on the side of the road watching them.
Drive down to Petit Jean state park. The Boy Scout trail there is ~10 miles long and there's plenty of other short ones you can loop together. Cedar Falls is only a short hike and a great view.
Hot Springs is nice but not top of the list. The trails there are pleasent but the downtown is pretty touristy. Still, it's a National Park and I always like to cross those off my list.
After that go southwest to Eagle Rock Loop. It's been mentioned before for a reason. It's great.
Other ideas are the Richland Creek wilderness area, the Hurrican Creek wilderness area, Forked Mountain, and Sylamore creek. The books below have a pretty extensive list of trails. The three long trails are the Ozark Highlands Trail (165 miles), the Ouachita Trail (222 miles), and the Buffalo River Trail (~40 miles).
https://www.amazon.com/Ouachita-Trail-Guide-Tim-Ernst/dp/1882906438/ref=sr_1_19?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103125&sr=1-19&keywords=Tim+Ernst
https://www.amazon.com/Arkansas-Hiking-Trails-Selected-Natural/dp/1882906128/ref=sr_1_1/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-1&keywords=Tim+Ernst
https://www.amazon.com/Arkansas-waterfalls-guidebook-Tim-Ernst/dp/1882906489/ref=sr_1_3/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-3&keywords=Tim+Ernst
https://www.amazon.com/Ozark-Highlands-Trail-Guide-Ernst/dp/188290639X/ref=sr_1_4/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-4&keywords=Tim+Ernst
https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-River-Hiking-Trails-Ernst/dp/1882906403/ref=sr_1_5/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-5&keywords=Tim+Ernst
If you are interested in the outdoors in Arkansas, then you'll want to look in to the works of Tim Ernst, a wildlife photographer and local authority on all things outdoors. His Arkansas Hiking Trails is a must have for a start, and he has many other books on different facets of being outdoors in the state. You will be living in the beautiful Ozark Mountains, and within about an hour to an hour-and-a-half driving you will have access to almost all outdoor activities that Arkansas has to offer, from trout fishing to rock climbing to canoeing/kayaking, to mountain biking. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Welcome! and enjoy!
There are quite a few hiking trails in the Ouachitas suitable for overnight and multi-day backpacking trips. Tim Ernst's "Arkansas Hiking Trails" and "Ouachita Trail Guide" are good planning resources.
The Eagle Rock Loop is one I'd personally recommend. There is parking available at several trailheads.
Oh yeah, there's lots of good trails.
I'm a big fan of Tim Ernst's books He also has one on the OHT specifically, the Ouachita trail, and the Buffalo River, as well as some nature photography books.
Sylamore Creek is a hidden gem, but connects to the Ozark Highlands trail, which runs 218 miles through much of the width of Arkansas.
The Buffalo River corridor has many hiking trails which are spectacular. Hemmed in Hollow and Lost Valley are two favorites there.
The butterfield loop in Devil's den state park is about 13-14 miles. It can be done in a day, but is a nice easy 2 day, with side trips up to the site of an 1840's pioneer church and some swimming and fishing in Lee Creek. Going to the actual devil's den cave is a short little hike, but the cave itself makes a fun day hike. It's pretty amateur friendly as far as caves go.
On the east side of the state there's lake charles, with 2 short day hikes, and Crowly's ridge state park which is a decent day hike. Also village creek state park which has about a 9 mile loop hike with many side trails, but would be a pretty far drive from missouri.