Riding The Ozarks

I’ve read many magazine articles and talked to other riders about riding the Ozarks so this year, I thought we would check Northwest Arkansas out for ourselves. Normally, we avoid interstates and highways at all costs but with a relatively small window of time, we took the direct route to maximize our time riding the Ozarks. After getting off the highway in Poplar Bluffs, MO, we took a combination of routes to Harrison, AR to begin our adventure. US160 from Doniphan to Alton was a very enjoyable serpentine route through the farm lands and the Mark Twain National Forest in southern Missouri . We arrived in Harrison just as a dreaded heat dome descended on the Central States, sending temperatures into the high 90’s with humidity to match, taxing our cooling strategies.

Scenic 7 Byway

We spent the night in Harrison before heading to Hot Springs via the Scenic 7 Byway. This route is a nationally recognized road that traverses almost the entire state and, according to some, one of the most scenic drives in America. From Harrison to just past Jasper is a fantastic motorcycle road with some tight curves and beautiful scenery as it descends into the Buffalo River valley and back up the other side. As you pass through the valley, there’s a picnic area just past the bridge over the Buffalo River to park and walk down to get a good look at the river and the canyon walls.

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Past the town of Jasper, stop at the Scenic Outlook on Mt. Judea for some great views overlooking the Buffalo River Canyon, what the tourist information calls the Grand Canyon of the Ozarks. There’s a tower to climb which looks out over the canyon. The Buffalo River is 1414 feet below this point, making this the deepest canyon in Arkansas. On a clear day, Missouri is visible 40 miles to the north. With the humidity as high as it was during our ride through the Ozarks, most of the views on were quite hazy.

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Continuing on into the Ozark Mountain National Forest, the road straightens out a bit but there are still some very nice sweepers and great views. But, unfortunately, as we experienced throughout our trip, there are no shoulders or turn outs to take pictures. After leaving the Ozark Mountains, the road levels out and runs through Russellville and the Arkansas River Valley. Just after the Nimrod Dam, the road ascends into the Quachita National Forest with more nice views and sweepers. Scenic 7 Byway rolls through Hot Springs and continues south to El Dorado. We finished our day in Hot Springs to visit Hot Springs National Park and do other fun things.

Hot Springs National Park

One of our goals is to visit all the US National Parks. Since we’re here, we decided to check Hot Springs National Park off our list. Hot Springs isn’t like most National Parks. It’s an urban park in the middle of a city, much like Central Park in New York City. There are no entrance fees and everyone is free to hike and explore the parks whenever they want. The park’s main attraction are the 47 ancient thermal hot springs. These springs attracted many tribes of indigenous people for their supposed healing properties for various afflictions before the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovered them in 1541. Over time, enterprising business people built bathhouses to cater to those who “took the waters,” seeking relief from bunions, rheumatism, and other ailments. In 1832, 40 years before Yellowstone became the first national park, President Andrew Jackson set aside the hot springs as a special reservation. Hot Springs became a National Park in 1921. There are two places in the park where you can touch the thermal water. One is Hot Water Cascade, located at Arlington Lawn, across from the Arlington Hotel. Hot water flows down the hill side near the Grand Promenade, under the path and down a steep cliff into two pools. This is the largest visible spring in the Park. Even though the water comes out of the ground at 147 degrees F, it is cool enough to touch by the time it reaches the pools.

Bathhouse Row

When Hot Springs prospered as a health spa in the mid-19th century, promoters covered, piped, and diverted the springs into Central Avenue bathhouses.The Bathhouse Row you see today consists of eight bathhouse buildings constructed between the years of 1892 and 1923. This area along with the Grand Promenade was designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 1987. You can still get treatments at Buckstaff and Quapaw. The Buckstaff is the only bathhouse that offers a traditional bathing experience and has been in continuous operation since opening its doors in 1912 and is one of the best preserved of all of the bathhouses on Bathhouse Row. Services that cost under a dollar back at the turn of the century run about 90 to 100 dollars today. Quapaw offers private baths, public pools, and modern day spa services.

The Superior Bathhouse is now home to the only brewery in a United States National Park, and the only brewery in the world to utilize thermal spring water to make their beer. The Hotel Hale has been revived as a luxury hotel and the interior has been remodeled to include a mix of modern and mid-century modern styles. Patrons can stay overnight in historic rooms and experience the thermal springs. The Maurice Bathhouse is vacant today and remains available for commercial leasing. Today, the Ozark houses the Hot Springs National Park Cultural Center. The Center features gallery spaces for displaying artwork from the park’s Artist-in-Residence Program and other temporary exhibitions. The Lamar houses offices for the park’s Resources Management employees, the park archives, museum collection storage spaces, a small research library, and the park store.

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The Fordyce Museum

The Fordyce bathhouse houses the National Park Service and a museum of the treatments available back in the day. You can get a guided tour but if you opt to stroll through the museum on your own, there are signs located in many of the rooms telling you what you are looking at and the services provided to the Fordyce guests. Some of the treatments, like electric baths, make one wonder what they were thinking. The sign says there were no known deaths due to electrocution but there had to be some serious injuries. Just sayin’.

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The men’s bathhall had marble benches surrounding a statues of de Soto receiving a drink from an Indian maid where the men waited in a club-like atmosphere for their treatments. Above the statue is a stained glass skylight featuring swimming fish and mermaids. When lit by the sun, it sends beautiful colors throughout the bathhall. In a sign of the times, the women had no such facility.

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An ‘Assembly Room’ is on the third floor with a Knabe grand piano and displays of the fashionable clothing worn by the men and women back in the bathhouses’ heyday. The stained glass in the ceiling is about 90% original. Touring this museum is a fabulous look back in time to when Hot Springs was ‘America’s spa’.

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But Wait! There’s More!

Hot Springs National Park isn’t all about the thermal springs. Over the years, the park has been expanded to include the surrounding mountains where there are 24 miles of hiking trails. There are a couple scenic drives through the mountains – one with a tower that overlooks the city of Hot Springs and the neighboring areas. Holly Hill Springs is one of two places where there are a steady stream of locals filling up containers of fresh mineral water. All of this, in the middle of town, make Hot Springs National Park a unique and beautiful destination.

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The City of Hot Springs

During our stay in Hot Springs, temperatures were in the triple digits, putting the ‘hot’ in Hot Springs. The city has an interesting history. Hot Springs used to be a hotbed for organized crime, with illegal gambling, prostitution and bootlegging the late-1800s through the mid-1900s. In the 1930s, Hot Springs was a popular hangout for Al Capone, Frank Costello, Bugs Moran, Lucky Luciano, and other infamous mobsters. The safe, secluded scenic location of Hot Springs made it the ideal hideout since local law enforcement accepted bribes to look the other way. There’s a Gangster Museum that chronicles this era of Hot Springs and is well worth the price of admission.

Arlington Hotel

The Arlington Hotel is at the center of activities in Hot Springs. It has hosted hundreds of grand balls and social events since 1875. Many famous people including the U.S. presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, George H.W. Bush, and native son Bill Clinton have stayed and bathed in their bathhouse. Others include baseball legend Babe Ruth, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand and Yoko Ono.

One of the more infamous guests in the 1930s was Al Capone. He always rented room 443 which overlooked the Southern Club. The Southern Club gained notoriety during the 1930s as a hangout for visiting gangsters and ranked among the spa city’s most popular gambling houses. Rumor has it that when trouble arose, Capone would escape the nightclub through an underground tunnel that led back to the Arlington Hotel. The Southern Club is now the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum today where you can still spot original fixtures, furniture, wallpaper, paraphernalia, and architecture of the casino.

Hot Springs is also known as the birthplace of Spring Training for baseball. In 1886, Cap Anson brought his Chicago White Stockings (now the Cubs) to Hot Springs, Arkansas. This bustling turn-of-the-century resort town with its Ouachita Mountain scenery, hotels, nightlife, and healing hot mineral waters was the perfect place to get ready for the season. In time, five fields were built. Each spring, as many as 250 players came here to train, including many of the legends of the game. Much of the storied stamina of pitching legends Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth and Lefty Grove was developed by hiking the hills in Happy Hollow near Hot Springs.

Back to Harrison

To continue our ride through the Ozarks, we headed back to Harrison. We left Hot Springs on AR 7 Scenic Byway through the Quachita National Forest again but this time, we turned off onto AR 64, an easy cruise riding past Lake Dardanelle to Clarksville. From there, we turned north onto AR 21 through the Ozark National Forest which offered some nice lazy curves with occasional glimpses of valleys and mountains on the other side. Again, there was no places to stop and get pictures. Unfortunately, the road was cut down to just one lane just south of Boxley due to construction. Sadly, this was at one of the best parts of the route for riding with nice, tight curves. I had to take it slow due to sand and gravel on the road and the threat of construction vehicles pulling out. Rats.

Shortly after turning right onto AR 43, you run through the small town of Ponca in the Boxley Valley by the Buffalo River, boasting a population of 9. This is where elk were re-introduced to the Buffalo River area in the early ’80s. Today, an elk herd of about 600 animals makes its home along the Buffalo National River after an absence of over 100 years. There is an Elk Educational Center chronicling the effort in Ponca that is free to explore. There is also an elk viewing area nearby but we didn’t see any elk. A good place for a break is the Ponca General Store to get a drink and a snack. Peruse their wares while you’re there. Or maybe rent a canoe and paddle the Buffalo River.

Continuing on from Ponca, AR 43 runs over Gaither Mountain through some idyllic farm land and back into Harrison.

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Harrison

The city of Harrison is great home base to explore the many curves, twists and sweepers while riding through the Ozarks. The flavor of the city is reflected in Harrison Square, which includes the historic Lyric Theater, the 1909 Boone County courthouse, the 1914 Boone County Jail. There are also an art gallery, antique stores, and other retail shops. A good breakfast or lunch spot is the Town House Cafe. Hanging baskets of flowers and awnings accentuate old brick storefronts that line the Harrison square, which with a few adjacent buildings, make up its national historic district. Some buildings have nice murals painted on the side. It looks like the once thriving downtown is trying to have a renaissance but has a way to go. We used the completely restored 1929 Hotel Seville for our base of operations.

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The Locals

If you are open, friendly and ask questions you’ll find some interesting people willing to share their stories no matter where you are. Harrison is no exception. We met Bill MacDougall while waiting for the Town House Cafe to open for breakfast. He had some fascinating stories of his time in Nashville playing piano for legends such as Dolly Parton, Charlie Pride, Merle Haggard, and Chet Atkins. Chet’s phone number locked away in his brain. Hopefully it’s not his current number as Chet passed away in 2001. He’ll still play locally but only on a decent piano, he says. We wish we could’ve seen that. You can find him every morning at the cafe, in case you want to look him up.

Riding the Ozarks From Harrison

A lot of the rides in the tourist book out of Harrison are just variations of the same routes. You can cobble together a ride as long or as short as you want, encompassing the best parts of each ride. On our first ride, we left Harrison on AR 43 heading south over Gaither Mountain. There is a rare turn out at the top with some incredible views over the valley. This is a nice relaxing ride with some nice sweeping curves through more scenic farmland.

We then took a left onto AR 74. The first few miles are a delight with excellent tight, twisting turns. We took a detour down into the Steel Creek Campground for a look at the river and canyon. Definitely worth a look. On the way out, we saw an elk calf by the side of the road. By the time we stopped and got the camera out, it had scampered back into the woods. The rest of the ride on AR 74 was full of nice, gentle curves over the mountains to the Scenic 7 Byway. We passed the Low Gap Cafe, which I’m told is a first-rate dining experience. We learned that after moving on from the area. Next time.

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We took a right onto Scenic Byway 7 and then a left onto AR 374 taking some nice easy turns past some more picturesque farms with the Ozarks as a backdrop. After dropping down into the canyon, we took a right on AR 123. This road, known as the Arkansas Dragon, will test your technical skills with tight curves, hairpins and switchbacks. I prefer to be going uphill on roads like this. If you want to go downhill, you can reverse this section of the ride. After heading north on AR 7, we took a left on AR 16 for a cruise over to AR 21 and back north towards Harrison.

It was still early in the day and I didn’t want to ride AR 43 again so I took a left on AR 103. This route isn’t in any tourism guide book but it’s a nice, easy cruise through more peaceful farmland over to AR 62. From here, we took right on AR 21, through gentle curves and more farm country. Just before the Missouri border, we took a right on AR 311, leading to our first disappointment of the trip. The road had been freshly oiled and graveled, ruining some nice sweeping curves. The next county decided to put down fresh pavement, greatly improving the riding conditions. We passed a sign for the town of Farewell and I noticed a cemetery not too far in the distance behind it. That got me chuckling a little bit and while pondering the origin of the town name, I blew past my next turn. No matter. AR 311 is a nice road leading back to AR 62 and Harrison.

The Back Roads Run

Another ride we took was a loop to Eureka Springs and back. This is a roundabout route to Eureka Springs via back roads only locals use. Well, it was supposed to be. I’m having a love/hate relationship with my GPS. By that I mean I love to hate it. I downloaded the route to my GPS but it seemed to be mad at me and took me to Huntsville instead. We found our way to Eureka Springs eventually. After lunch, I wrote down the back roads route back to Harrison rather than trust my temperamental GPS. We took CR 302 out of town and connected with SR 221, an exceptional, sinuous route through the mountains with excellent pavement. Rather than turning North on AR 21, I went South instead. We connected with AR 412 and made our way back to Harrison.

Mountain View

Mountain View is famous for the preservation of folkways and traditional music of the Ozarks so we thought we would go take a look. We started out by taking a nice, relaxing ride down AR 65. Instead of taking AR 66, I decided to go further and catch AR 9 to Mountain View. That route looked a little more more interesting on the map. I was kicking myself for that decision after we ran into some construction as we approached the turn to AR 9. But the road work was soon forgotten as AR 9 turned into a nice twisty road over a couple mountains and through some cattle farms for 35 miles into Mountain View. The only thing that could possibly put a damper on the ride would be to get stuck behind a semi. Or two. Or three. That could really wreck some good curves – if that were to happen.

Music

Music is the soul of Mountain View. In the past, a local resident hosted a “pickin'” in their house or yard on Saturday nights. Today, the custom continues with musicians joining locals to play music Friday and Saturday nights in the town square from April through late November. Mountain View is also home to the Ozark Folk Center, dedicated to conserving the music, crafts, and culture of the Ozarks. There is a 1,000-seat theater here that hosts live concerts and is the site of Ozark Highlands Radio, a syndicated program recorded here that shares the music and stories of the Ozark region.

Life in the Ozarks

The Craft Village here at Ozark Folk Center has more than 20 working artisans to demonstrate the skills used in day to day life in the Ozarks, like soap making, broom making, blacksmithing, pottery making, knife making, weaving, quilting, wood carving, yarn spinning, herb gardening, and candle making. There is also an old school house, a kiln and a cabin that was lived in as late as 1986. It certainly looked like a hardscrabble life. Local musicians perform live music on the Blacksmith Stage throughout the day, every day. It’s an interesting look into the not too distant past of the lives of these rugged, self-sufficient people that lived in the mountainous backwoods of the Ozarks. Being a state park, there is a fee to get in but it’s well worth the price of admission.

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Leaving Mountain View we took AR 14, known as the Sycamore Scenic Byway. This is a very nice, twisting ride crossing the Buffalo National River and running through the Sycamore National Forest. Unfortunately, the pavement could use some work in spots. AR 62 back to Harrison.

Moving On

We’re moving on from Harrison. heading to Eureka Springs to ride the Ozarks from there. But first, we wanted to make another attempt to see some elk. The prime viewing times are dawn and dusk so we got up extra early to ride down to the viewing area near Ponca in hopes of catching a glimpse of some elk. We descending into the foggy Boxley Valley along AR 43 with high hopes but all we saw were more ‘slow elk’ and empty fields. But we did get to witness a nice sunrise from atop Gaither Mountain on our way back.

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Mystic Caverns

After breakfast, we loaded up the bike to head for Eureka Springs. On the way (it really wasn’t on the way), we stopped at Mystic Caverns, one of many commercially operated show caves in the Ozark Mountain area. There’s actually two caves here, Mystic and the more recently discovered Crystal Dome. Our tour guide offered interesting facts about the formations, how the caves were formed, and their history. The dome in the Crystal Dome Cave formed when a large section of the cave ceiling fell during an earthquake. Many of the stalactites are broken off in both caves and there is smoke residue on the ceilings, damage caused by bootleggers using the caves as speakeasies during the prohibition years. While they don’t compare to caves like Carlsbad, They are still intriguing. Tours last about 90 minutes.

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After leaving the cave, we headed South on Scemic 7 Byway to Jasper, catching AR 74 for s nice, mellow cruise to Huntsville, and then North on AR 23 to Eureka Springs.

Eureka Springs

Eureka Springs has a flair like no other town we’ve visited. The entire downtown area is on the National Register of Historic Places. The city named for the abundance of surrounding mineral pools that flow in locations throughout town.

Eureka Springs’ winding mountainside streets are lined with Victorian homes, boutiques, fine art galleries, craft emporiums, spas, museums, and award-winning restaurants, all hugging the cliff sides. There are plenty of options for accommodations with historic hotels, unique bed and breakfast inns, motels, cottages, and cabins both in and outside of the village.

Basin Spring Park is a central downtown park incorporating benches, a band shell, and a fountain that was once the original spring that attracted indigenous cultures and settlers. It is a great place to rest between shopping excursions or to catch live music from under the band shell. Eureka Springs also has a great public transportation system to get you around.

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There’s More Than Springs and Shopping

Other nearby places to visit include the Eureka Springs and North Arkansas Railway, the inspiring Thorncrown Chapel, and the theatrical production known as the Passion Play. To the east of town is the Onyx Cave, and to the west is the Blue Spring, one of the most abundant springs in the Ozark Mountains. There are three nearby rivers for fishing and water sport lovers as well as a mountain bike trail system.

We have a couple suggestions for dining. The first is Sparky’s Roadside Cafe. It doesn’t look like much from the outside (or the inside, for that matter) but the food is excellent. The menu offers several specialty and spicy burger options, including the Diablo and Stupid Hott burgers. The Stupid Hott burger requires you to sign a waiver. No, we did not. The dinner menu has some distinctive takes on their chicken, fish and steak dishes.

Our second recommendation is the Grotto Wood-Fired Grill and Wine Cave. This was our best dining experience in a long time. Grotto’s has a fabulous atmosphere with first-rate service and unique, tasty menu. Highly recommended. Make sure you make reservations, otherwise you’re not getting in until late in the evening. Afterward, we caught a band in Basin Springs Park. The Cate Brothers got a lot of feet moving to the music of the ’60s and ’70s. What a great way to top off a meal!

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Pig Trail

Our first ride out of Eureka Springs was the Pig Trail, voted the #2 of the Top 10 motorcycle roads in the US by a USA Today’s Readers Choice poll. The tourist information has the Pig Trail starting on AR 23 from Eureka Springs to Ozark. After the first 20 miles or so, I was beginning to question the qualifications of the voters and the criteria used to rate the routes.

The road really doesn’t get interesting until south of Huntsville. The road from there passes lovely farm landscapes along gentle curves until you reach Brashears and the AR 16 junction. This is where the fun begins. I found out later this 19 mile stretch from Brashears to Ozark through the Ozark National Forest is the famous route. The road is full of tight, twisting turns with steep inclines through a cool canopy of trees that hug the road. This is what we came here for! We ran into road construction just south of AR 215 and beyond that, the road had been freshly oiled and graveled. Not quite sure why the Arkansas DOT thought doing that to a popular motorcycle route was a good idea.

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To avoid that mess going back, We took AR 64 to AR 103 in Clarksville and headed back north. In retrospect, I should have taken AR 164 from AR 64 to AR 103 and cut out the ride through Clarksville. We wouldn’t have missed much. AR 103 passes through some lovely pastoral farmland with mountainous backdrops. It then enters some more forested, twisting roads of the Ozark Mountains, similar to our ride along the Pig Trail.

We stopped for a break at the Oark General Store, the oldest continually operating store in the state, for a break. Unfortunately, it was closed for a two week vacation by the owners. We went back to AR 215 for a beautiful ride along the Mulberry River. This road actually had several turn outs where you can stop for a photo. We’ve seen so many incredible views riding the Ozarks but the majority of the roads have no shoulders and very few turn outs to stop and get pictures. Returning to Eureka Springs via AR 23, I got to thinking that today’s ride alone made the whole trip worthwhile.

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Scenic 71 Loop

This ride pales in comparison to the Pig Trail. It was actually quite disappointing with a number of areas of congested traffic. There were a couple of bright spots, though. AR 45 was a peaceful cruise through some more rural farmland and AR 59 was a gentle spin through this small section of the forested Ozark Mountains. Heading back north on AR 71 over the Boston Mountains, there is a turn out with a nice view overlooking a reservoir. Other than that, this route was uninspiring.

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Heading Home

Reality is calling us back home so we headed south out of Eureka Springs, taking AR 311 and turning right on CR 814 and then to CR 811. This is the turn I missed while contemplating the origin of Farewell. It turned out to be a memorable Arkansas send off with gorgeous rolling farm scenery. We made our way to Peel’s Ferry to cross Bull Shoals Lake. What a great way to end our time in Arkansas. From there, it was back to MO 160, through the Mark Twain National Forest again and home. I think next time we’ll visit in the fall when the temperatures are a bit more moderate and the forests have more color. I’ll bet it’s spectacular.

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Post Script

This is not the way a tour is supposed to end. My bike shut down in a construction zone with no shoulder near Springfield, Ohio. It would crank but wouldn’t start, as if it wasn’t getting any gas. My initial thought was a ruptured gas line inside the tank, which is a common problem in situations like this. Fun times. I was able to get my bike to Motohio European Motorbikes in Columbus where they diagnosed the problem as a blown fuel pump relay fuse. I could have saved myself a bunch of money had I known that was the issue. C’est la vie. Kudos to Mike at Motohio for getting me right in and out so we could continue our journey. We made it home in one piece and are planning our next adventure.