Talimena Scenic Byway & Heavener Runes

(301 mi; about 7 hours and 12 mins)

This ride was inspired by a book on Ozark Scenic Drives my son and daughter-in-law got me. Since this is actually in the Ouachita Mountains, I'm not sure how it made it into a book on Ozark drives, but it made for a very nice all-day ride. I luckily made a wrong turn (a fairly frequent way I alter my planned routes) and ended up driving along the northern base of the mountains the Byway traverses. The part of that drive I was on before turning around was worth the few miles of going the wrong way. I had a number of good looks at the mountains from the bottom. Once I got on the right road, there were a number of scenic overlooks. From some, you could see other twisty roads on the southern approach to the Byway, some looked back at the mountain ranges to the west, and a couple let you see where you were headed. One in particular showed a thread of the road running right on the crest of the mountain. As I reached the top, I started noticing that the trees sure seemed short, some of the trees at top looked to be 15' tall at most. A sign at one of the overlooks indicated they were as old as 200 years. The same white oak trees at the bottom of the mountain were said to grow up to 115' tall. There apparently is so much wind and ice in the winter that nature keeps trimming these trees back. I don't think I'll plan a winter drive up there....

At the top of the drive is Queen Wilhelmina State Park. The park has a lodge and a restaurant. It appears to be a popular place for a biker lunch break. About half of the vehicles in the parking lot were motorcycles the day I was there.

I went back through Heavener on my way home, had some time for a side trip, so I popped over to the Heavener Runestone State Park. Wikipedia documents some more details on the Runestones themselves.

With the distance and all of my stops along the way, the only way I made this trip within a time similar to Google's time estimate was due to the higher speed limits in Oklahoma. A pretty stiff wind at my back on the drive back didn't hurt :-)

Map