Earthquake Ridge Trail

My wife and I were lucky enough recently to spend some quality time together hiking the Earthquake Ridge Trail near Mena, AR.

Fall in Arkansas is a wonderful time to get out on a trail. The weather is perfect. If you're lucky enough to catch the colors at their peak it's an experience you'll never forget.

After our morning ritual of getting the kids ready for school we made our way south to the east end visitors center of the Talimena Scenic Drive. There is a phenomenal trail system here that hikers can use to enjoy short hikes to several miles by combining different trail loops. The Earthquake Ridge Trail is also one of the best mountain bike trails around. Well, so I've read. I'm 100% positive that if I ever biked a trail I'd probably kill myself.

It was a perfect clear, cold, sunny morning when we started down the trail. We began from the visitor center and hiked counter-clockwise from the trailhead sign. The first part of the trail has a lot of ups and downs and can get your heart racing a little at times. There were a few colors left on the trees which we enjoyed as the trail wound its way north near the highway. I really didn't care for the trail being within sight of the highway but thankfully there was little to no traffic on a Tuesday morning but it could be a nuisance in the warmer months with all the tourists. It would ,however, be ideal for someone who is looking for a nice day hike and isn't accustomed to being in the woods. Which actually may have been the intention of the trail builders. I did get an awesome picture of my lovely wife and another of some scenery before the camera batteries died.

We stopped at the point where the trail crosses the highway and turns south to listen to what must have been 50 blackbirds flying around among the trees just across the road. They were making an amazing racket and we enjoyed siting on the guardrail and listening to their chaos before a motorcycle came by and spooked them off.

The western side of the loop was a much easier hike and there were some interesting rock formations along the way. Nothing spectacular but worth the visit. The colors on this side were much better and seemed to be peaking in a couple of spots which made for some beautiful scenery. We stopped and climbed up a small ridge to sit back and eat a snack while taking in the scenery.

We were having a fantastic time but all too soon we came to the end of the northern loop and had to end our hike there. We wanted to do the southern loop but we had to go check out some resale shops in Mena which turned out to be a very serendipitous adventure in itself. We plan on returning this weekend and taking the kids along the Orchard Trail which is another at the visitor center and is an ADA accessible trail. It is paved and has interpretive signs and benches along the way. Depending on how the kids are doing along the hike maybe we can loop down the Carriage Trail and back to the parking lot. Hmmm...maybe I can bribe them with some McDonald's. LOL.

On another note I wanted to thank everyone for their feedback on our little "monthly cacher' feature. We've selected the geocacher for December via the tried and true name from a hat method and will be contacting them shortly. If anyone has someone they'd like to nominate, ideas for questions, or anything else of note just drop us a line. Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving, or as the kids say "Happy Turkey Day!", and Happy Caching!