About the Trail The Ouachita National Recreation Trail stretches 223 miles through the beautiful Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma. The “Ouachita Trail”, as it is more commonly known, runs from Talimena State Park in Oklahoma, through Queen Wilhelmina State Park and ends at Pinnacle Mountain State Park, near Little Rock, Arkansas. This premier trail asset is used by hikers, backpackers, hunters, and mountain bikers. It is a non-motorized single track trail open only to foot traffic and partially open to mountain bicycles. The Ouachita Trail is located primarily within the Ouachita National Forest and is administered by the US Forest Service. It traverses the Flatside Wilderness, the Upper Kiamichi Wilderness and several wildlife management areas. Shelters for overnight camping are located along the trail. Miles 0 to 30.5 and 54 to 160 are open to mountain bikes. The riding is from easy to extremely difficult. Bikearkansas.com has information and suggestions for appropriate rides. See our Trail Conditions page for recent updates. CLICK HERE for Art Cowley and the History of the Ouachita Trail CLICK HERE for History of the Ouachita Trail 1970-1997

North Fork Ouachita River

Ouachita Trail Guide by Tim Ernst For detailed information and maps on the Ouachita Trail refer to FoOT’s official guide: “Ouachita Trail Guide” by Tim Ernst. The book is available at some Arkansas State Parks, Ouachita National Forest Ranger Stations serving the Ouachita Trail, or from the publisher’s online store at TimErnst.com. FoOT members get a discount when ordering from the publisher!

Friends of the Ouachita Trail (FoOT), non-profit organization of trail users dedicated to the maintenance and improvement of the Ouachita National Recreation Trail.

Maps of the OT

The USFS has produced two maps of the Ouachita Trail and has given us permission to use them here. These maps do not include the eastern-most 30 miles of trail not on USFS land. Click the map at right  to see a larger version of the overview map. CLICK HERE for the preferred, more detailed map for users of the OT. It is broken into segments. Note that the segments on this map do not correspond to the trail segments in Tim Ernst’s Guidebook. The “sections” listed on our trail conditions page corresponds to the Guidebook, not to this map.

CLICK HERE for a link to more OT maps.