Reddit reviews Ozark Highlands Trail Guide

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

>What's off season for the Ozarks? Where were you. It's on my 5 year plan to get down there from North Iowa.

Well, it's hot as hell in most of the summer, and in the winter it varies weekend by weekend, but it's mild enough for someone with gear, only really sucks when it's wet, but the trails are empty nontheless.

Even though you lose the greenery, I tend to like winter hiking I've hiked the sylamore creek trail across the winter solstice last year and it was completely empty, didn't see another person in three days. (hiked 26 miles in two, stayed a third at one of the trailheads).

About three years ago I did about ~50 miles on the Ozark Highlands Trail (Hurricane Creek to Woolum) in the winter and other than seeing a car during one of the road crossings, I didn't see anyone in almost a week. Had I hiked more of the trail I probably wouldn't have seen anyone.

There's some fairly remote trails in the Mark Twain National Forest in SE Missouri as well.

If you're interested in hiking in the Arkansas part of the Ozarks, pick up one of Tim Ernst's books I linked the OHT one, but there's 3-4 about different sets of trails statewide.

Ozark Highland Trail and Ouachita Trail are two of the more popular long distance trails that have lots of segment opportunities. Look for books by Tim Ernst. Ozark Highlands Guide.

Eagle Rock look is probably the most popular. Make sure you are aware of the stream crossings. The White Rock - Shores Lake loop is a good one the is lesser known. Nice overnight. White Rock campground makes a good base camp or alternatively start at Shores Lake.

Ouachita Maps is a good online resource.