Ozark Highland Trail Section Hike

The Shores Lake Loop is 13.5 miles long and starts at Shores Lake Campgrounds, goes up to the Ozark Highland Trail at mile marker 18, follows the OHT over to mile marker 22, and then heads back down to Shores Lake. At around mile marker 19, there is a spur trail that takes you to the top of White Rock Mountain. There you will find established campgrounds and some of the most awesome views of the southern Ozarks around.
There is one or two trip reports on this board re: the Shores Lake Loop.
Hope this helps,
UL

I could hunt and find you a section of the OHT to fit your criteria, but it's hard to beat the Sylamore for difficulty (easy-moderate), scenery, length (~ 14 miles) and amenities (goes through two established campsites).

This trail is just NE of Mountain View near Blanchard Springs. The trail starts on its eastern end at the North Sylamore Creek at Allison, goes through Blanchard Springs Campground, and you could stay the night at the backcountry campsite at the halfway point. It's right on the creek, secluded, but has plenty of area to explore. You could also stay at Blanchard Springs if you wanted, although that'd leave 2/3 of the trail to finish. Anyways, the trail continues through Gunner Pool and ends at Barkshed Campground.

The length is longer than you wanted but it's not as strenuous. It feels secluded but is not remote by any means as it goes through two high-traffic campgrounds. And it provides ample opportunity for side trips with the caverns near by, the Sylamore always being right there, and several home sites and other points of interest to explore.

I like the Shores lake idea, but of course there is always the Butterfield Trail in Devil's Den State Park (15 miles). Some one as saying that Lake Ft. Smith is open, and I so no know how far the OHT is from Lake Ft.Smith to Dockery's Gap. The good thing about Arkansas is that there are plenty of trails and campsites to suite your needs.

Thanks for your replies fellas. We are staying for a couple of nights over the weekend in the Lake Fort Smith area so places close to there would be prefered. We did look a the Lake Fort Smith park loop but there looks to be only one backcountry place to camp and I'm envisioning limited views there. We probalby will be doing a bunch of day hiking in that area over the weekend too so I'd prefer somewhere else. I have a copy of Tim Ernst Arkansas Hiking Trails book and had looked at the Shores Lake loop in there. I was a bit concerned with that trails distance in conjuntion with what looks to be quite of bit of elevation. We could do a good amount of elevation if we are on the shorter side say 3-5 miles but we'd be pushing it for 6-7 miles and a lot of elevation.

The kids in our group have all done a lot of day hiking but we are throwing some packs on them this time so I'd rather error on the short side. Any suggestions on straight through hikes that would be in the 6-10 mile range with a good midway point on the western half of the OHT? This might be our best option with limited loop trail options in this area.

Reading about the hiking options is Arkansas is sure getting me pumped about this trip sounds like you all have some great trails. My brother, father and I did 60 miles on the Ozark Trail up in Missouri this last fall and it sounds like this trail rivals the beauty we saw there and perhaps even surpases it!

Well our spring break visit hiking some of your trails in NE AR has our entire family wanting a return trip as soon as possible. We spent a couple of days up around Lake Fort Smith did a little hiking there and over at Devil's Den. Spent one afternoon hiking around the White Rock mountain loop definately some of the best views I've seen short of the larger mountain ranges. Even got the kids a close encounter with an armidillo which is a treat for us northerners.

We did do a three day/two night backpacking loop on the Redding/Spy Rock trail Tues, Wed and Thurs of last week. We were a pretty big group with kids (4,6,6, and , and 5 adults. The hike was great although there was some burning in an adjacent valley that caused us some extra stress with the kids along so we ended up camping up on the ridge to stay a good distance from the fire which we later learned was a controlled burn.

Finally we rounded our trip out over in the Lost Valley with a hike down and back to the Hemmed in Hallow waterfall. Other than a couple of wet mornings which the kids took in stride the week was a great sucess. I was a bit shocked by the extensive tree damage from the ice storm especially in the Buffalo River area. Guess it's part of God's plan to thin the forest the old fashion way but things will be a bit chopped up for while. Hoping to get back to the Buffalo River area soon to do some more backpacking.

Thanks to the couple of you who offered ideas, maybe we'll try them next time the kids loved it and want to keep hiking so on we go!

Sounds like you had a great time. We go rained on a little this week too, but it wasn't to bad. My kids like to do day hikes, but the longer hikes are reserved for my 5 year old son and I.

Congratulations on the great time