Driven: Arkansas 21

Spring in the Ozarks is high time to get outdoors and hit the road. If you're plotting a path of escape, Arkansas Scenic Highway 21 is a great way to experience warming days and greening views.

[Arkansas 21 on Google Maps]

Starting South from US 412, AR-21 plods along farmland beside the Kings River, then ascends onto high ground Southeast of Kingston. Here the highway takes on new severity as it steeply descends into the Boxley Valley along the Buffalo River. The area is among the sharpest, most beautiful terrain in the Ozarks. Lost Valley State Park, the Ponca Wilderness Area, and a range of superb roads flow from AR-21 at this point.



Bounded on either side by rocky ridge lines, AR-21 levels briefly and tracks the Buffalo River for a few miles. The flat terrain affords the opportunity rubberneck exposed bluffs and the odd elk before the road regains intensity.



Arkansas 21 hits it stride South of Boxley Valley. It twists back into the landscape, then eases into a fast, open stretches through deeply wooded hills. The 35-mile drive that follows is designated the Ozark Highlands Scenic Byway, and it doesn't disappoint. The pavement straightens at times, but it changes direction regularly and rides through gorgeous land in near-isolation. Find an off-peak time for tourists, and the road is yours to enjoy at your pace.



On a Wednesday in March, I didn't meet another car but once every 10 minutes. It's a common story in this part of the Ozarks, much like Arkansas 16, reviewed earlier. No surprise that AR-16 and AR-21 are contiguous for a few miles, and split again at Fallsville. AR-21 remains excellent through Salus and Ozone, throwing in bends at intervals until the last thrusts of the Ozarks give way to the Arkansas River Valley.



AR-21's main sell is that it puts the full panorama of the Ozarks is within easy reach. It's all there: hiking, camping, canoeing, shooting, wildlife-spotting, scenery-gazing, and even more driving. AR-16 and the infamous AR-123 both link to AR-21, and the Pig Trail and Scenic 7 run parallel through the mountains on either side. Just as importantly, the roadside is minimally populated and lightly developed, with few chain stores. For example, you might lunch at the Ozone Burger Barn, fuel up ironically at the Chat-N-Scat, and get killer repairs at Murder's Auto Service in Clarksville if you play too hard. Wherever the wanderlust takes you, AR-21 is a fine place to start.

Traffic: varies by time of year
Driving challenge: decent, nothing wild, set your pace
Purty mouth: squeal if you like a pleasant drive
Ozarkbahn rating: Ozarks for all

Roaring River State Park

Missouri's Roaring River State Park is a valley packed full of Ozark-centric recreation: camping, pic-a-nics, hiking, lodges, cave-fed springs, and wow, trout husbandry. While modest in scale (more Jellystone than Yellowstone), it's a popular spot and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources maintains it well. In best Ozarkbahn form, you'll also have plenty of fun getting there.



The park sits just a few miles from the Arkansas border, and has several points of entry. The route from Northwest Arkansas tracks Missouri 112 East from Seligman through a few miles of farm land, then dips into the Mark Twain National Forest. It's a short, but moderately curvy road with elevation changes and excellent woodland scenery. Leaving the park East on MO-F will take you over rolling hills to Missouri 86, which is a spectacular drive North towards Cassville, or a pleasant jaunt South to Eureka Springs, AR. Quite a few of my own drives have taken a detour through Roaring River.

[Seligman, MO, to Roaring River State Park on Google Maps]



Even if you're just in the neighborhood, Roaring River is worth a stop. The Deer Park Trail is less than a quarter mile long, and climbs rock stairs and boardwalks to a bluff overlooking the spring-fed pool that begins the Roaring River.



There's a great view of the trout hatchery below, which is a surprisingly neat-o enterprise. I never counted on fish farming being all that interesting, but their network of moving pools filled with junior troutlets is quite a sight. A quarter-fed dispenser allows you to feed the fish, and they'll be delighted to see you.



Though most of the park's traffic is bent towards camping and trout fishing, a number of hikes ring the surrounding hills. For example, the 1.5-mile Devil's Kitchen Trail visits a couple of smaller cave springs, and it shows off a fair cross-section of local limestone crags and native flora.



As you can tell by the progression of seasons in the pictures, I've been here a few times. Pretty sound endorsement, I guess?

[Roaring River State Park gallery]

Ozarkbahn ratings
Treefullness: A+
Fish: trouty
Hikes: spoiled for choice
Nearby roads: pretty good when traffic allows

Ozark Event: 100 Acre Wood Rally

Performance rally racing is the among the most impressive and demanding of all sports, and every year the Ozarks host one of the biggest rallies in the country. Sanctioned by Rally America, the annual 100 Acre Wood event in Missouri follows the same premise as the rest of the rally calendar. Rather than making laps on a permanent track, racecars are flung through nature at intervals, one at a time, with the goal of finishing unrehearsed routes between checkpoints in the shortest time. A navigator in the passenger seat barks a non-stop stream of pace notes to the driver, who completes the stage with unflinching speed.

[In-car footage from 100 Acre Wood Rally 2009 winner Ken Block]



It may look undramatic from the comfort of your computer desk, but the reality is a frenzy. Drivers are sliding sideways inches from ditches and trees with smooth precision, at speeds that would get you arrested on most highways. For this event, all on narrow gravel roads. The cars are production sedans modified to perform at speed on all surfaces and in all conditions, yet they're required to remain street legal for transit between stages on public roads.



To watch a rally, you don't buy a grandstand seat and drain cups of beer. You get up close and personal at roadside, which requires some work. While the rally cars are knifing through the woods at competition speeds, meeting them at spectator stages means carrying on your own rally. The 100 Acre Wood race weekend demands hours of navigating curvy, rolling backroads in near-total isolation, then hiking up fire roads and into the woods to camp for a prime viewing location. In 2009, the weather factor added six inches of snow for the final evening.



The mix of driving thrills and physical toil rewards with an intense display of performance cars and driving talent. Rally fandom means dedication, and it affords a grassroots-level experience rare in any sport. You'll often eat breakfast in a country diner with the team, follow their exploits throughout the day, and retire to the service areas where they prepare the vehicles for upcoming stages.



The rally also demonstrates how much of the Northeastern Ozarks remain beautiful frontier, densely wooded hill country unmarred by population. Spectacular roads such as MO-DD, MO-P, MO-Y, and Highways 32 and 49 become vocabulary over the course of a weekend, themselves worth the travel from home. The terrain mapped below gives a hint of the excitement for both competitors and spectators.

[Google Maps Sample route between Salem, MO, and Potosi, MO]

Part race, part outdoor adventure, the 100 Acre Wood Rally is a must for Ozark driving enthusiasts. See my pictures below if you need further convincing.

[2009 100 Acre Wood gallery]

Stopover: Disney, OK

Along the Western frontier of the Ozarks's magical kingdom, you'll find the small town of Disney, the happiest place in Oklahoma. It sits at the fringes of Green Country, the hilly region bordering Beige Country, as the rest of the state is known.

[Disney, OK, on Google Maps]

Disney anchors the Grand Lake O' the Cherokees, home to lots o' watery standards like boating, fishing, sailing, and swimming. The rocky spillway and trails below are a major off-road playground, and the neighboring roads are among the best in Oklahoma. It's where dreams come true, provided yours involve something along the lines of a Jeep or pontoon boat.



Disney came to life when the lake was created by the mile-wide Pensacola Dam, a Depression-era construction that was the first to bring hydroelectric power to Oklahoma. It's the largest arch-span dam in the world, an imposing structure with from the time of Gotham and deco.



The dam was completed in 1940, but Disney was not formally incorporated until 1959. It was named for Oklahoma Congressman Wesley Disney, who loosened the necessary millions in public works treasure from Franklin Roosevelt to start construction. Walt Disney did not factor so much as a namesake. Supposedly.


Crime on Disney Island? Qwakwaaaaaakwaaaaaak...

The fact that Disneyland - America's most iconic mid-century tourist destination - opened just a few years before seems a bit serendipitous. Christening a town with fortunate name association is never a bad draw, especially when you make your living half an hour from the Mother Road, Route 66. As mentioned a few weeks ago, McDonald County temporarily succeeded from the United States around that time. Why? For being left off the Missouri Highway Commission's Family Vacationland promotional road map. Ozark tourism, serious business.

Disney's popularity is seasonal, having a permanent population of less than 300. Still, it's big enough to show a few neat trappings of America driving culture. My favorite is Pistol Pat's Bar-B-Que, an example of the disappearing style of walk-up burger shacks being obsoleted by fast-food chains. To me, getting a shake from a smokey, sizzling chamber of meat and ice cream is the definition of Summer. Sure, Pistol Pat bears a slight resemblance to licensed Oklahoma State mascot Pistol Pete, but that's no matter. We've established that coincidental associations never hurt.



Something unique about Pistol Pat's is that the menu is also in Cherokee, an odd intersection of Westward-roving, conquer-by-car America and Native America. Once a history of strife, the old Cowboys and Indians paradigm comes together under a barbecue-glazed olive branch of peace. If there's a common ground, it's that "fried cheese balls" translates to "delicious" in either tongue.

If you can't make it to Anaheim, the Disney of the Ozarks is a start.