PRODUCTS
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
CLICK HERE for Other Items of Historical Note Concerning the OT
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.
For great topo maps CLICK HERE.