Mount Magazine State Park

Arkansas State Park On Mount Magazine, The Highest Point In Arkansas At 2,753 Feet, Surrounded By The Ozark National Forest. One Of The Premier Hang Gliding Launch Sites In The Central United States. · Paris, Arkansas

Mount Magazine is the highest ground in Arkansas at 2,753 feet, which is not high by western standards and is beside the point: it is a flat-topped mesa standing about two thousand feet above the Arkansas River valley on one side and the Petit Jean valley on the other, so the drop is what you notice rather than the altitude. The bluff rim runs for miles with the valley laid out below it, and that combination of height and open edge has made it one of the best hang gliding launches in the central United States, with a purpose-built ramp on the north rim. The state park has a modern lodge and cabins on the edge of the bluff, which is the only accommodation of its kind in Arkansas, and the mountain is surrounded by the Ozark National Forest. It also holds the state's richest butterfly population and a short list of plants that grow nowhere else in Arkansas, which is what happens when you leave an isolated high plateau alone.

577 Lodge Drive, Paris, Arkansas, 72855, United States

The park is open year-round and Arkansas state parks charge no entrance fee. Trails and overlooks are open dawn to dusk. The visitor centre keeps daytime hours with reduced winter hours. The lodge, its restaurant and the cabins run year-round and are booked through Arkansas State Parks; the swimming pool is summer only. The mountain road is steep and winding and ice closes it several times most winters, sometimes for days - check before driving up in cold weather.

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