Going through some more photos from the past couple years…
During Labor Day weekend back in 2018, my friend Rob and I set out for a couple days of hiking and exploring down in Arkansas.
He wanted to go to some new places that he’d never been before, so I suggested we head down into the Ouachitas.
One of the places we stopped and explored that neither one of us had been to before was Forked Mountain, located west of Little Rock and in between Russelville and Hot Springs.
Forked Mountain is also in the Flatside Wilderness of the Ouachita National Forest, and from the top you can also see Flatside Pinnacle Mountain.
The views from the top were SPECTACULAR, although the climb to the top isn’t for the faint of heart LOL!
Neither of us had researched the area very much before, but I had a Hiking Arkansas book by Tim Ernst with me, and he describes the trail and how to climb to the top.
It didn’t start out all that bad, best I can remember, but you knew definitely knew you were climbing!
I do remember that about half way up the mountain, we realized we took a wrong turn somewhere, and had lost the faint trail, and were now bouldering and free climbing our way to the top.
At one point, I thin we reached a spot that both of us weren’t sure if we could continue up, nor make it back down the same way we came HA! But, we kept on at it, and persevered, although exhausted, and made it to the top… of the lower of the two mountain tops!
The view was pretty good from up here, but we wanted to get to the highest point we could here, and see the stunning views. The two mountain top are joined together by a kind-of saddle ridge, and it was east to cross down and over from one to the other.
When we made it to the top of the main one… WHAT A VIEW!
Rob said he couldn’t believe there were still places left in the Ozarks or Ouachitas that had this big of a view where you couldn’t see a house or building or town or road or ANYTHING except beautiful wilderness. I think that is what makes this places so special!
When we were at the top, resting and taking pictures, we met a dad and his young son who had been there before. It was cool to see a father and son out hiking and enjoying such a cool place together.
They showed us they “correct” way that they came up, and we followed them back down as we were leaving.
Yep, this would have been MUCH easier to climb than what we had just climbed LOL!
Explore the Ozarks 