Author: Mike Newman

Mike Newman, editor and creator of Arklahoma Hiker, likes to day hike and walk outdoors in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Pinnacle Mountain: Base Trail – 3 mi

One of the cool hiking trails at Pinnacle Mountain State Park is the Base Trail, a 2.7-mile loop around the base of Pinnacle Mountain. Hikers often use either the north or south part of the Base Trail to make a summit loop — e.g., hiking up the East Summit Trail, down the West Summit Trail, […]

Caney Creek Trail – West (Ouachita Forest) – 11 mi (o&b)

Caney Creek

The western part of the Caney Creek Trail is a wonderfully scenic hike through the Ouachita National Forests’s Caney Creek Wilderness. It is a hike of 11.4 miles (5.7 miles each way) and has 22 wet crossings (11 miles each way), but it is well worth the effort. The Caney Creek Trail runs 9 miles from […]

Katy Falls Video (Ouachita Forest)

Katy Falls and Katy Creek. It is accessible from a spur near the west end of the Buckeye Trail.

Katy Falls in the Caney Creek Wilderness is a cool 12-foot waterfall in a beautiful little cove by the west end of the Buckeye Trail. It is in the Ouachita National Forest, near Shady Lake, southeast of Mena. The waterfall is on a spur near where the Buckeye Trail joins the Caney Creek Trail. Also nearby […]

Caney Creek Trail Cascade Video (Ouachita Forest)

Back in April, I got to hike the west part of the Caney Creek Trail in the Ouachita National Forest’s Caney Creek Wilderness (Polk County, Arkansas). I hiked it from the west trailhead near the Cossatot River over to the trail’s juncture with the Buckeye Trail, a distance of 5.7 miles, and then back for […]

Mount Nebo: Bench Road Trail – 4 mi

Bench Road Trail and a cool boulder.

While not as awesome as the Rim Trail, the Bench Road Trail at Mount Nebo State Park is a pleasant wooded stroll with a number of cool sites. The trail sits on the natural bench that circles the mountain a few hundred feet below the rim level. It was built in the 1800’s as a […]

Cove Lake/Lookout Window Loop (Ozark Forest) – 4 mi

South-facing vista view from Lookout Window Trail. Flattop Mountain and Mount Magazine are in the distance. Cove Lake is below.

Cove Lake Recreation Area is a scenic area in the Magazine District of the Ozark National Forest, near Paris. It has camping, boating, swimming, fishing, and two hiking trails: Cove Lake Trail and Lookout Window Trail. This hike involves both trails. The Cove Lake Trail is a roughly 3-mile trail (the trail part, anyway) that […]