The Benefield West Loop Trail at Mount Magazine State Park is a pleasant and easy .9-mile wooded loop with little elevation change. There is a pond on the west end of the loop.

Mount Magazine is the highest mountain in Arkansas. It is near Paris in Logan County and is surrounded by the Magazine District of the Ozark National Forest.

Getting to the Benefield Picnic Area

To get to Mount Magazine State Park, you can take Highway 309 south from Paris. Highway 309 goes through downtown Paris. Follow the signs from downtown.

The park is about 17 miles from Paris.

If you’re coming from the south, head north on Highway 309 from Havana for about  10 miles.

The Benefield West Loop starts at the Benefield picnic area at the southeast area of the park. The trailhead is near the restrooms. (It is the same trailhead as for Bear Hollow Trail.)

The Hike

This is an easy well marked hike that is just under a mile. Start at the trailhead near the restrooms. The first part of the hike is basically just a walk on a dirt road. At about .1 miles, you would turn right and go downhill for the Bear Hollow Trail or Benefield East Loop. Stay straight to continue on this loop.

At close to .2 miles, there is a right spur to a different part of the Bear Hollow Trail. This spur joins that trail a little to the west of Inspiration Point. But for this hike, continue straight.

At around .5 miles, the trail reaches the first crossing of Highway 309. On the other side of the highway, the trail goes uphill slightly as it approaches a small pond, presumably made by earlier settlers.

At the pond (about .6 miles), you would turn right for the Mossback Ridge Trail. Take a left to continue on this loop.

There are no vista views on this trail but during leaf-off there are places on the trail where you can see some of the valleys in the distance through the trees. This is one of those areas.

At about .7, you reach the highway again, near the entrance for the Benefield Picnic Area. Cross the highway, and walk up the road back to where you started at the picnic area.

Final Notes

Elevation change: About 50 feet.

Trail condition: The trail was well marked and in very good condition when I hiked it on November 26, 2021. These photos are from that hike.

AT&T Cell coverage: About 50%.

Photo Gallery

Click below for full-screen photo gallery.

Map

Last revised: 1-7-2022.

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Will Apple’s Road Trail at Mount Magazine State Park, named for a Mount Magazine farmer, is one of the easier trails there. It is a former road that was a main route the early settlers during the 1800’s. It was one of the first roads to reach the crest.

The trail is still basically a dirt road, making it easy walking. It is a pretty gradual slope.

It connects the visitor center to the horse camp, and runs about 1.6 miles. The elevation change is just about 200 feet.

Getting to Will Apple’s Road Trailhead

The trailhead is well marked and is on the east side (right side) of the Visitor Center.

To get to Mount Magazine State Park, you can take Highway 309 south from Paris in Logan County. Highway 309 goes through downtown Paris. Follow the signs from downtown.

The park is about 17 miles from Paris.

If you’re coming from the south, head north on Highway 309 from Havana for about  10 miles.

The Trail

Don’t expect to see any vista views during leaf-on, but there probably are some pretty views to the north through the trees during leaf-off.

During warmer months, you will probably see wildflowers and butterflies.

A highlight of the trail is the remains of the Buckman Pool, built in the 1920’s. There is a sign for the spur (.1 miles) down to the pool.

Unfortunately, the spur was rather overgrown when I last visited. The pool area was interesting. It looked like a stone lined pond.

Final Notes

When I last visited the trail on July 23, 2016, it was well maintained and easy to follow. I had AT&T cell signal about 60% of the time.

These photos are from that hike.

Photo Gallery

Click below for full-screen photo gallery.

Map

Mount Magazine: Will Apple's Road Trail
Location	Mount Magazine State Park, Logan County, Arkansas
Length/Type	3 miles out and back (1.5 mi. each way)
Difficulty	Mildly challenging (2 of 5)
Other permitted usage.	Pets on a leash.
Gpx file by Mike	Link
Date Hiked	July 23, 2016 (and earlier).
Directions	Google Maps Directions to Visitor Center Trailhead
Official Info (Links)	501-321-5202 Website Park Trail Map (pdf)

Last revised: 8-15-2021.

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The North Rim Trail at Mount Magazine State Park (Logan County, near Paris) is a wonderfully scenic hike with some great vista views.

As an out-and-back hike, it is 5 miles (2.5 miles each way), but it’s not difficult. About the only significant elevation change is in a stretch in the western part.

My full review of the trail is in this post.

These are additional photos from my June 5 and 11, 2016 hikes on the trail.

Photo Gallery

Click below for full-screen photo gallery of these and other pics from my June 2016 hikes on this trail.

Last revised: 3-11-2020.

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The North Rim Trail at Mount Magazine is one of the 3 trails with the park’s best views. (The other two are Bear Hollow Trail and Benefield East Loop Trail.)

The trail runs along the north rim from the visitor center on the east end over to the campground at Cameron Bluff on the west end.

It’s 5 miles as an out-and-back hike (2.5 miles each way). It has some great views and is not too difficult.

Getting to Mount Magazine Visitor Center

It’s probably easiest to start at the visitor center (east end). That will make most of the climbing on the first half of the hike.

To get to Mount Magazine State Park, you can take Highway 309 south from Paris in Logan County. 309 goes through downtown Paris. The park is about 17 miles south of Paris. You can follow the signs from downtown.

Or if you’re coming from the south, head north on Highway 309 from Havana. It’s about 10 miles.

When you get to the park, stop at the visitor center. The trailhead is on the left side of the visitor center.

The Hike

With an elevation difference of only about 180 feet, it’s not a difficult hike. About the only significant climb is in the west part of the trail around Gutter Rock Hollow. Most of the rest of the trail just has some mild up-and-down hill climbing.

The very first part of the trail heads slightly downhill from the visitor center toward the rim. After a few hundred feet, the trail turns and heads generally westward the rest of the hike following the in-and-out contour of the north rim.

During the first half-mile or so, the trail crosses 2 creeks — School Creek and later Dill Creek. These are quite scenic spots during wetter times of the year (usually late fall through spring).

The scenic highpoint of the trail is Dill Point at about .75 on the hike. This overlook is a very short walk just off of the trail via a spur. There are great views here in almost all directions.

My favorite view from Dill Point (as pictured) is the east-facing view  of Mount Magazine.

There is another great vista point that is just about 100 feet over to the west. It has similar views to Dill Point.

During leaf-off, there are a ton of great views along most of the trail. There are not as many wide-open views during leaf-on, but the leaves add wonderful color to the trail and to the vista views.

The other really great vista area is at around 1.2 on the hike. (There are also 2 great vista places here, about 100 feet apart.) This area (which I’ll sometimes refer to as the west vista area) has wonderful views to the north and great views of the Cameron Bluff area over to the west.

The Western Segment

Around 1.8 miles, there is an intersection with signage on a large wooden pole. As the sign indicates, turn right here to stay on North Rim Trail.

If you want to head over to the Mossback Ridge Trail, instead go straight to take the spur over to that trail. If you head over to Mossback Ridge Trail from here, you can make a 10-mile loop using the Bear Hollow Trail and Will Apple’s Road Trail.

Back on North Rim, the trail heads downhill to the Gutter Creek area. (Again, it’s only really flowing during wet times.) Then the trail climbs back uphill again as it heads to the Cameron Bluff area.

This part of the hike has the most significant climbing. It also crosses a scenic stream branch or two.

At around 2 miles, the trail crosses Overlook Drive. The last half-mile back to the campground area is a gradual uphill wooded walk that’s not difficult.

Final Notes

There were not a lot of blazes (red) the last time I did the trail, but they aren’t really needed. The trail is easy to follow. It was in great condition last time I hiked it.

If you decide to start at the west end, access there is about as easy as at the east end. Just park in the campground and walk to the trailhead at the back.

I had AT&T cell signal about 75% of the time on the trail.

These photos are all from my two most recent walks on the trail on June 5 and 11, 2016.

For another enjoyable short trail at Mount Magazine, check out the Signal Hill (Highpoint) Trail.

Photo Gallery

Click below for full-screen photo gallery of these and other pics from my June 2016 hikes on this trail.

Map

[Last updated: 7-25-2021]

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