Maggie Slepian hiked this route in 2020
The Ouachita Trail is a 223-mile point-to-point backpacking route in Oklahoma and Arkansas. It is a blazed trail with frequent shelters, and can be hiked in 10-18 days.
Find my Ouachita Trail gear here, and the resupply guide here.
Region: Middle South, Plains Midwest (Oklahoma / Arkansas, National Forest)
Length: 223 miles (10-18 days)
Physical Difficulty: Moderate
- Trail can be rocky and overgrown
- Most climbs and descents are mildly graded and switchbacked
- Lots of PUDs
Logistical Difficulty: Moderate
- No permit needed
- Oklahoma terminus (west) is hard to access
- Many road crossings and easy resupply hitches
Season: Fall, winter
Average Elevation: 1,000 feet
Total Elevation Gain: ~30,000 feet
Hiking the Ouachita Trail
The Ouachita Trail is almost entirely under trees, winding through the Ouachita National Forest for hundreds of miles. The western side is decidedly more challenging than the eastern side, so we started with that to get the toughest part out of the way.
This is a blue-blazed trail with incredible signage and frequent blazes. Each mile is marked (yes, every single mile) and there are gorgeous shelters every 10 miles or so. The Ouachita Trail has the wonderful Friends of the Ouachita Trail (FoOT) that works hard to care for the trail and provide resources.
All along the OT, painted and signed arrows point you in the right direction, and you’ll encounter less than two miles of road walking along the entire length of the trail. You cross a highway several times—convenient for resupply—and you also hit Queen Wilhelmina State Park, which has a lodge with a restaurant before you’re even out of Oklahoma.
The initial few days (40 or so miles) felt as rocky and challenging as the hardest parts of Northern Pennsylvania on the Appalachian Trail. (If you know, you know.) Dense layers of slick leaves obscure the rocks, so each step felt cautious and unsteady since it was impossible to know what was under the leaves. I slipped and slid for two solid days, and to make it more challenging, the trail is incredibly well-marked for the most part, but can be frustratingly obscure through this tricky Oklahoma section. Since there are so many leaves carpeting the forest, it’s hard to tell if you’re on the trail or not.
After the first few days (heading east), the trail is a lot easier to follow and the terrain is milder and easier to follow. The climbs and descents are never more than 1,500 feet in elevation change, and there are very few steep climbs. Depending on the section, some days can accumulate the elevation gain—we had a few days with 3,500 feet of gain, but the individual climbs are switchbacked and rarely gain more than 500 feet at a time.
We hit a few overgrown sections around Blue Mountain across a low ridgeline. This was rough, since it wasn’t just overgrown, but overgrown with thorns and briars. But for the most part, the trail is extremely well maintained. Some sections are dense and green with ferns, others have towering oak and pine trees.
As you cross the halfway point, the ridgelines open up and you get sweeping views of the Ouachita National Forest rippling out in every direction. It’s truly stunning and expansive—I had never been to Arkansas or Oklahoma before and didn’t know what to expect. In the last 70 miles there are a few short side trails to different pinnacles. You’ll definitely want to take them and get a view of the low-slung mountains you just traversed.
The final section around Lake Maumelle is very flat and fast. Some sections are a bit overgrown, but overall there is almost no elevation gain for the last 30 miles.
This is a very quiet trail, getting fewer than 50 thru-hikers each year. We encountered a few section hikers, and saw a couple of hunters each day. Everyone we met was incredibly kind and friendly. This is a perfect trail for a first thru-hike or an AT shakedown. It’s blazed, it has a FarOut guide, and it is amazingly well-maintained and a wonderful distance to get some real backpacking in without committing to six months of hiking.
How to Get to the Ouachita Trail
Western Terminus: Talimena State Park, Oklahoma
Closest City: Oklahoma City (3 hours)
Eastern Terminus: Pinnacle Mountain State Park, Arkansas
Closest City: Little Rock (20 minutes)
We hiked this trail eastbound from Talimena, since that’s the harder side to access and we had prearranged a ride. There is no public transportation to either end, so your options are a car shuttle, a ride from a friend, or arranging a private shuttle. If you hike eastbound, getting to Little Rock when you finish is an easy hitch from Pinnacle Mountain State Park. You can post in message boards when you’re a few days from finishing and you’ll likely get offered a ride to the airport.
There is an active Facebook group where people post car swaps and rides.
Ouachita Trail Western Terminus
From Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, it’s a three-hour drive to Talimena State Park, and you’ll want to arrange a ride in advance or plan it with someone else in the active Facebook group.
You can also drive yourself to Talimena State Park and leave your car there for a small daily fee, then arrange a ride back through the trail community. Call the park in advance for information at 918-567-2052
Shuttles*
-Mike with Ouachita Trail Guide shuttles on the west side. 918-383-0060
-Lori, with the Bluebell Cafe at midtrail can do longer shuttles. 870-867-3999
*It’s not guaranteed any shuttle will drive you from OK City to Talimena
Ouachita Trail Eastern Terminus
From Clinton International Airport in Little Rock, it’s about 20 minutes to Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Little Rock has Uber and Lyft, which is the most obvious solution. You can also post in the Facebook group and try to share a ride with someone.
Again, there is no public transport to either end, so you’ll have to plan in advance.
When to Hike the Ouachita Trail / Which Direction
For a winter / shoulder-season trail, the Ouachita Trail is ideal. Think of it like an off-season trail compared to a “regular season” thru-hike. It never reaches over 2,200 feet, and while you might encounter freezing days and nights, it’s entirely doable throughout the winter.
Late October through late March is very possible, with the bulk of the hikers hitting it in November. We hiked it in late November in 11 days, averaging about 20 miles per day. Depending on how challenging the day was, we would hike up to two hours after dark. As the trail got easier (and I got in shape), we were able to cover 20 miles during the limited daylight hours of a late-November hike.
It’s totally fine to hike this trail in either direction. Hiking eastbound from Oklahoma gets the hardest terrain out of the way first. If you are concerned about your fitness and want to start on easier terrain, start on the Arkansas side. Our decision was primarily due to getting a ride to the western terminus.
Ouachita Trail Terrain
The Ouachita Trail is a low-elevation, forested trail. You’ll climb and descend switchbacks over low peaks for most of the hike, with much of the climbing and descending in the first half of the trail. Some sections (Oklahoma) are quite rocky, but overall you can make really good time on smooth terrain. The last 30 miles or so are almost entirely flat.
Ouachita Trail Resupply
You have a few options for resupply on the Ouachita Trail. The trail crosses numerous forest service roads, and some hikers choose to cache a few days’ worth of food in bear-proof containers at these crossings. If you go this route, you’ll need to have a decent estimate of your hiking pace, and you’ll also have to drive the entire route twice: once to drop off the food, and once to pick up the containers.
You can also send maildrops to Queen Wilhelmina Lodge at Mile 51, and Bluebell Cafe at Mile 121.
The best way to do this is with one resupply in the middle, since Bluebell Cafe will pick you up and take you back to the trail, and Mount Ida, Arkansas, has a grocery story and a Dollar General. We resupplied three times on the trail, and didn’t do caches or mail drops. It was very easy and the locations were spaced a few days apart. The first and last time were hitches into town, and the middle was calling the Bluebell Cafe for a ride.
Resupply 1, Mena, Arkansas
Mile 51 or 56, Day 3-4
Hitch from Wilhelmina Lodge or the road crossing at Highway 270. Mena has a WalMart, and it took two hitches to get into town.
Resupply 2, Bluebell Cafe / Mount Ida, Arkansas
Mile 121, Day 7-9
Bluebell Cafe is located in Story, Arkansas. They love hikers and are happy to shuttle from the Highway 270 trailhead about 20 minutes from their store. Call them in the morning and give them an estimate of your arrival time to the trailhead. If they give you a ride, be sure to get food at the cafe and buy something. They are a tiny local business who does a lot for the community. We got a ride from a customer into the nearby town of Mount Ida, where they have a local store and a Dollar General.
Resupply 3, Hot Springs Village, Arkansas
Mile 155, Day 9-11
There is a large trailhead at the Route 7 road crossing here, and it was fairly busy. You’re only 65 miles from the end, so we just bought a few days’ worth of food from the Dollar General. We also ran into Warren Doyle at McDonald’s (???), making for an easy ride back to the trail.
Logistics: Camping, Water, Hunting Season
Camping: Camping is free and frequent along the Ouachita Trail, with amazing shelters spaced every 10 miles or so off well-signed intersections. There are numerous campsites with fire rings, and even if you don’t see a listed campsite on Gaia or FarOut, there will be a nice flat spot nearby, guaranteed.
Water: Water can be a concern on the Ouachita Trail, but if you keep track of water sources and streams on your app or map, you’ll be fine. We carried enough bottles for a three-liter capacity, and never ran out. There were two potential 20-mile waterless stretches, but even with that, there were a few icky streams we could have used if we were desperate.
Local trail crew and trail angels will often cache water at crossings and in shelters, but totally relying on other people’s caches is never smart. If you use the last of a gallon jug at a cache, do your part and strap the empty bottle to your pack and pack it out.
Hunting Season: The prime time to hike the OT is also whitetail season in Arkansas. We saw more hunters than hikers. Everyone gets along well and respects each other, but not a day went by when we didn’t hear shots ring out in the woods. You really, really need to wear at least one piece of blaze orange during an OT thru-hike. I totally spaced on this and didn’t wear a piece of orange, and I was fairly nervous at times. I respect hunters immensely and I trust them to know where they’re firing, but it should have also been my responsibility to keep myself safe by wearing blaze orange. A blaze hat, pack cover, or vest would have been fine.
Ouachita Trail Know Before You Go
Weather: A late-fall / winter thru-hike means being prepared for everything from 50 degrees and sunny to days and days of fog and rain. The visibility was low at times, which can be especially challenging when night hiking in the fog. Good rain gear is a must.
Shorter Daylight: Since this is a shoulder-season hike, you have far fewer daylight hours to hike. Plan accordingly—if you don’t like night hiking, you might hike fewer hours and your hike will last longer. If you’re night hiking, be prepared with a good headlamp (at least 300 lumens) and plenty of spare batteries, or a battery pack to recharge your headlamp. This was something I did not plan for, and had to buy a second headlamp in Mena.
Shelter and Trail Courtesy: The Ouachita Trail has the unique position (at least in my trail experience) of being a trail with a lot of amazing amenities and also very low foot traffic. As word of this trail spreads, the foot traffic will increase. Be respectful of the shelters, campsites, and resources. Don’t leave food as “trail magic” in the shelters (it attracts mice), and really take the time to appreciate the incredible pride and care that the FoOT and trail volunteers put into this corridor.
Ouachita Trail Resources
Friends of the Ouachita Facebook (they also make groups for each hiking year)