Ozark National Forest

National Forest, Proclaimed 1908. Roughly 1.2 Million Acres Across The Ozark Plateau Of Northern Arkansas, Administered With The St Francis National Forest. Holds Five Designated Wilderness Areas And The State'S Highest Ground. · Russellville, Arkansas

The Ozark National Forest covers about 1.2 million acres of plateau across northern Arkansas, and unlike the Ouachita to the south it is not a mountain range but a dissected tableland - flat on top, cut to pieces by creeks, so the scenery is down in the hollows rather than up on summits. That is why Arkansas has a waterfall-hunting culture and why this forest is where it happens: hundreds of seasonal falls that run hard for a few weeks after winter rain and are gone by July. It holds the Ozark Highlands Trail, more than two hundred and seventy miles running east to the Buffalo, five wilderness areas including the Upper Buffalo, Blanchard Springs Caverns in the Sylamore district, the Mulberry River's spring whitewater, and Hawksbill Crag, the most photographed rock in Arkansas. Mount Magazine, the highest ground in the state, rises from its southern edge. There is no entrance fee anywhere in it.

Ozark National Forest, northern Arkansas, Russellville, Arkansas, United States

Open at all times, with no gate and no entrance fee. Developed campgrounds and recreation areas mostly run spring to autumn, a few year-round at reduced service. District ranger offices keep weekday business hours. The Mulberry River runs whitewater only in spring and after heavy rain, and most waterfalls are dry by midsummer. Hunting seasons run autumn into winter. Forest roads may be gated seasonally or closed after ice storms and washouts.

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