Driven: Arkansas 123

Where do you find the most challenging drive in the Ozarks? It's as easy as Arkansas 123.

Among the many entertaining routes that thread the Boston Mountains, Arkansas 123 stands apart. It's too sharp, narrow, and raw to be promoted in any state literature, so casual sightseers are shuffled towards designated Scenic Highways like 71, 23, 21, and 7. You have to go out of your way to find 123, which means everyone on the road is either local or there on purpose. While we know and love a gold standard like the Pig Trail, so does every over-the-hill diddler between Little Rock and Pig Trail Harley-Davidson in Rogers. Notoriety and slowpokes tend to spoil a good time. For now, 123 is a hidden gem.



The drive starts in earnest at Hagarville, where it leaves the Arkansas River Valley near Clarksville and climbs North into the Ozark Mountains. The highway builds intensity as it gains elevation, pausing to join with Highway 7 after about 25 miles. This Southern portion of AR-123 is an absolute driver's road. Steep scenery and engaging curves, but little traffic.



The Northern half of Arkansas 123 splits from 7 after a few miles. We might as well call this 13-mile stretch der Nordschleife, like the infamous race circuit of similar length near Nürburg, Germany. The Nürburgring was nicknamed the "Green Hell" by Formula 1 racing legend Jackie Stewart, and 123 is the closest approximation the Natural State can muster.

[Arkansas 123 on Google Maps]

My recent experience on the AR-123 Nordschleife left out the "green" part, but kept the "Hell." The Forest Service was performing a controlled burn in the region, filtering the sky to a sickly orange cast. An ice storm two months prior had savaged the landscape, leaving splintered trees as far as visibility allowed. The effect was like stealing into Mordor. With less dwarves.



For our purposes, Mount Doom is replaced by the town of Mount Judea, Arkansas. If that sounds a bit ancient and Biblical, you're right. The most exciting part of AR-123 is draped atop the crude terrain between Kent Mountain and Dick Knob (not making that up) just South of Mount Judea. Having only been paved for the last decade, the bit of road in question was never engineered for much flow, camber, or safety at highway speeds. What you get is a three-mile melee of blind curves and damning hairpins, intermittently bound by curbs and guardrails.



Obviously, there is zero room for error if you think you need to hurry. Get it wrong, and you'll pong between hard objects if you're lucky. Misjudge in some spots, and you'll only discover gravity and pain. Sure, this is only dangerous for fools, but the road doesn't exactly cater to tourists, either.



The attraction of Arkansas 123 is that it's just there, a rough carving through beautiful territory, waiting to be discovered and enjoyed. You're given creative license to figure out the rest.

Traffic: light
Driving challenge: for once, there is one
Purty mouth: fortunately, too isolated for anyone to notice
Ozarkbahn rating: hard to top