Ozarks, Ouachitas & the Bootheel
States: Arkansas
Jasper, Ponca and the Boxley Valley on AR 7, 74 and 43
The Buffalo River Loop is a ~100-mile back-roads route, a loop from Harrison, on AR 7, AR 74 and AR 43, driven in 1–2 days, that stays off US 65 (and every other four-lane) through the Ozarks, Ouachitas & the Bootheel.
America's first National River (1972), the one the Corps never got to dam, seen from the two state roads that cross it: Scenic 7 south from Harrison into the 'Arkansas Grand Canyon,' Jasper's one-square town, AR 74 west over the Little Buffalo to Ponca's elk fields, Hawksbill Crag and the Boxley Valley's nineteenth-century farms, then AR 43 back north by Compton. Big Bluff is the tallest cliff between the Rockies and the Appalachians, the elk are the state's only herd, the gravel roads are optional and the paved ones are enough.
📍 Buffalo National River wayside exhibits at Pruitt, Steel Creek and Boxley; the Arkansas Grand Canyon overlook on AR 7 is the money shot.
AR 7 south past the show caves and the Pruitt bridge over the National River to the overlook above the Big Creek valley and Jasper's square.
Two show caves under one ticket on AR 7 south of Harrison, the second one found by accident in 1968 and left wild.
AR 7's bridge over the National River: the Pruitt ranger station, a swimming gravel bar, and the first look at the bluffs.
The Cliff House Inn's deck above the Big Creek valley, a thousand-foot drop by Ozark standards; the Company's Comin' pie is the toll.
Newton County's seat of 500: the 1940s courthouse square, the Ozark Cafe since 1909, and canoe outfitters for the whole river.
AR 74 west over the Little Buffalo and the ridges to Ponca, the upper river's put-in, then AR 43 up the Boxley Valley past the elk fields, the old mill and the road to the Crag.
The put-in for the upper Buffalo's famous float (Ponca to Kyle's Landing, spring only) and Steel Creek's campground under Roark Bluff; the Ponca low-water bridge is where the elk cross.
Arkansas's elk, brought from Colorado in 1981, graze the Boxley fields at dawn and dusk; the valley's 1850s–1920s farms are a historic district the Park Service keeps in hay.
An 1870 gristmill and the white 1920s church on AR 43; the old post office and the Villines homesteads are the rest of the museum.
The most photographed rock in Arkansas: a sandstone beak over the Whitaker Creek gorge, 1.5 miles from the trailhead on Cave Mountain Road, six gravel miles from Boxley.
Lost Valley on the way back north, then AR 43 over the plateau to Compton, the trailhead town for the biggest waterfall in mid-America, and down to Harrison.
A 2.3-mile trail to Eden Falls and a cave with a waterfall inside; the best short hike in the Ozarks.
Trailhead town for Hemmed-In Hollow, the tallest waterfall between the Rockies and the Appalachians at 209 feet, five hard miles down and back.
The 1909 courthouse square and the 1929 Lyric Theater; the Buffalo River headquarters is the planning stop, and Scenic 7 continues south from here to Hot Springs.
The Buffalo River Loop is about 100 miles and takes 1–2 days at a back-roads pace.
It is a loop: Loop from Harrison.
It follows AR 7, AR 74 and AR 43.
It avoids US 65 (and every other four-lane), using AR 7, AR 74 and AR 43 instead.
11 stops are mapped, including Mystic Caverns, Buffalo River at Pruitt, Arkansas Grand Canyon, Jasper and Ponca & Steel Creek.
Buffalo River Weekend (2 days).
The atlas’s seasonal note for this route: “Elk are easiest at dawn and the last hour of light in Boxley, with the October rut best; stay in the car at the pull-offs.”
Buffalo River Weekend (2 days)
Connects with: Arkansas 7: The Scenic Seven · The Pig Trail & Eureka · Talimena & the Ouachitas
More in the Ozarks, Ouachitas & the Bootheel: Arkansas 7: The Scenic Seven · Crowley's Ridge Parkway · The Arkansas Delta · Talimena & the Ouachitas · The Pig Trail & Eureka · The Bootheel: US 61 North