Plan your drive around this celebrated corner of Arkansas for October, and you'll find yourself immersed in fall colors. Enveloping the twisting roads that interlace the northern part of Arkansas are deciduous forests that, in autumn, create a kaleidoscopic palette of crimsons, saffrons and ochres.
Adding even more color to these rugged mountains are the people who live in and around the little burgs along the route. Some trace their lineage to Scotch-Irish immigrants, once labeled as hillbillies. Others arrived during the hippie back-to-nature days, in search of nirvana and cheap land. Still others are avid outdoorsmen who love to wet a line or hike a trail.
People and history notwithstanding, it's the beauty of the Ozarks—a region that extends on up into southern Missouri—that makes this drive extraordinary. The mountains that so daunted early travelers still roll off to the horizon, ridge after forested ridge. The clear streams burble over pebbles and through meadows. And deer and raccoons and songbirds still wake every dawn to animate this timeless landscape.
Overview
The drive follows a counterclockwise loop from Eureka Springs south and east to the Buffalo River, through Jasper, then east to Mountain View, before winding back around to the starting point.
Start in Eureka Springs
The greatest glory of the funky-hip town of Eureka Springs is its vintage Victorian architecture, which has earned accolades from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Just stroll along Spring Street to wrought-iron balconies in all patterns, turrets in all shapes, and gingerbread houses in all colors perched on steep hillsides. Indeed, a fine panorama unspools from the mountaintop 1886 Crescent Hotel (75 Prospect Ave.; 877 342 9766; www.crescent-hotel.com), a reminder of the days when Eureka's "healing" springs made it a fashionable spa.
The largest collection of colorful characters in the Ozarks is found in this playful resort town, whose unofficial motto is "where misfits fit." Eureka attracts musicians, New Agey seekers of enlightenment, religious fundamentalists, gays, motorcyclists, and countless dreamy-eyed honeymooners who fill its dozens of romantic B&Bs, inns, and cottages and their heart-shaped bathtubs.
Another big draw is the Great Passion Play, performed May through October at a 4,100-seat amphitheater (935 Passion Play Rd.; tickets, 866 566 3565; www.greatpassionplay.com). On the same grounds is the 67-foot-tall Christ of the Ozarks statue, a classic roadside attraction dating to 1966.
Then there is the food. Don't miss the veggie hashbrowns at Mud Street Cafe (22G S. Main St.; +1 479 253 6732; www.mudstreetcafe.com), or the pork tenderloin at Rogue's Manor (124 Spring St.; 800 250 5827; www.roguesmanor.com). Also check out the small but striking Thorncrown Chapel (12968 Hwy. 62 W.; +1 479 253 7401; www.thorncrown.com), a glass-and-wood structure 1.5 miles west of town that the American Institute of Architects voted one of the ten most important building designs of the 20th century. You'll be glad you did.
Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge
South of Eureka Springs, turn off Highway 23 at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge (239 Turpentine Creek La.; +1 479 253 5841; www.turpentinecreek.org) to see lions and tigers roaming the spacious outdoor habitats for the cats. The refuge's mission statement says it all: "To provide lifetime refuge for abandoned, abused, and neglected ‘Big Cats' with emphasis on tigers, lions, leopards, and cougars." With 459 acres, the refuge has plenty of room to expand.
