Regions

Ozarks, Ouachitas & the Bootheel road trips

The trans-Mississippi South: quartz mountains, America's first national river, Cash and Hemingway on the strange long hill of Crowley's Ridge, duck calls on the Grand Prairie, and earthquake country where the river once ran backward. Arkansas was the atlas's biggest missing state. Not anymore.

The Ozarks, Ouachitas & the Bootheel has 7 back-roads routes, about 1,000 miles and 46 curated stops, and 4 ready-made itineraries use them.

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Routes in the Ozarks, Ouachitas & the Bootheel

• Arkansas 7: The Scenic Seven
  bathhouses to the Buffalo
  Hot Springs → Harrison · ~160 mi · 2 days · skips I-49 (by 80 miles)
• Crowley's Ridge Parkway
  Hemingway, Cash and the strange long hill
  Piggott → Helena · ~200 mi · 2 days · skips I-55
• The Arkansas Delta
  the other side of the river
  Helena → Lake Village · ~150 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-40 / I-55
• Talimena & the Ouachitas
  the South's only east–west mountains
  Hot Springs → Talihina, OK · ~130 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-30
• The Pig Trail & Eureka
  the Ozarks' favorite bad idea
  Ozark → Eureka Springs · ~85 mi · 1 day · skips I-49
• The Bootheel: US 61 North
  earthquake country and throwed rolls
  Memphis → Cape Girardeau · ~175 mi · 1–2 days · skips I-55
• The Buffalo River Loop
  Jasper, Ponca and the Boxley Valley on AR 7, 74 and 43
  Loop from Harrison · ~100 mi · 1–2 days · skips US 65 (and every other four-lane)

Ready-made itineraries in the Ozarks, Ouachitas & the Bootheel

• The Scenic Seven & the Pig Trail
  3 days · ~340 mi · from Hot Springs, AR
  Arkansas's two great mountain drives back to back: bathhouse steam and gangster lore, then the Buffalo River highlands and the Pig Trail's tight…
• Crowley's Ridge & the Arkansas Delta
  3 days · ~420 mi · from Piggott, AR
  Down the strange loess spine of Crowley's Ridge — Hemingway's writing barn, Johnny Cash's boyhood home — then into the flat Delta's hard history…
• The Ozark & Ouachita Highlands
  6 days · ~780 mi · from Hot Springs, AR
  Arkansas's high country in one loop: the Ouachitas' crest drive, the Scenic Seven over the Buffalo River, the Pig Trail to Eureka Springs, and a run…
• Buffalo River Weekend
  2 days · ~120 mi · from Harrison
  The Ozarks' river in two days: the canyon overlook and Jasper, then elk at dawn in Boxley, the Crag, Lost Valley and the loop home.

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