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Ozark Highlands Trail
Background. It used to be said that the Ozark Highlands Trail (OHT) was 165 miles long, stretching from Lake Fort Smith State Park to Woolum Ford on the Buffalo River. Now it is a little more complicated. First, on the west end Lake Fort Smith and Shepherd Lake were combined into one, Lake Fort Smith State Park was moved 4 miles north and the old trail was flooded. A new trail section has been laid that connects the new park with the existing trail in Jacks Creek. I don't have the trail mapped yet but it looks like this may drop as much as 5 miles from the total trail length. Making it up at the other end is the new Sylamore Section of the OHT. Though not contiguous with the existing trail at Woolum (and, in fact, over 30 miles to the east as the crow flies), it adds 31.6 miles to the OHT name. This is part of a plan to connect the OHT with the Ozark Trail of Missouri and form the Ozark Highlands/Trans-Ozarks Trail. I have not been on the new trail section, so it is not included, here. The Maps. The 17 maps, herein, begin at the new Fort Smith Lake State Park and stop at Woolum. They are all formatted to print at scale (1:24,000) on 11 x 17 paper. Click on the image to get to the full size map and right click to download. It is free! The base maps are a composite of USGS topos. The OHT is shown in red and other trails are shown in blue. Mileages between waypoints are provided and are based on the offical distances used by Tim Ernst's trail guide and the forest service. The forest roads have been enhanced and updated using aerial photos, satellite imagery and the 2005 Ozark National Forest map. Many different road designations are shown because they have different names on different maps and in different versions of the trail guide. These maps have been updated since I first posted them in January 2008. I found some more sections that I GPSed over the last few years and we covered the 40 miles between Ozone and Fairview in March 2008. In addition, I came across Eric Strong’s GPS tracks from his 2004 through-hike and with his permission, used it to correct some of my map and compass errors (his entire track is available for download on his site). Because of the scale of these maps and GPS data, they are more accurate than the forest service version. I hope you find these useful for your next trip to the Ozarks. Google Earth Images. Google Earth images of the entire trail are provided. You will note that the orientation changes on each one so that north may be up, down or any which way. The reason for this is because I have tried to orient each scene to provide the best view of the trail and to highlight the topography. Waypoints. Click here for a table of the 52 waypoints in Lat-Lon, decimal degrees. |
OHT Map 01: Lake Fort Smith to Dockerys Gap. Google Earth Images:
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OHT Map 02: Dockerys Gap to White Rock. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 03: White Rock to Fane Creek.
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| OHT Map 04: Fane Creek to Hare Mountain.
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| OHT Map 05: Hare Mountain to Lick Branch.
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| OHT Map 06: Lick Branch to Hignite Gap.
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OHT Map 07: Hignite Gap to Moonhull Mt. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 08: Moonhull Mt. to Ozone. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 09: Ozone to FR 1498/1003. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 10: FR 1498/1003 to Haw Creek Falls. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 11: Haw Creek Falls to Hurricane Creek. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 12: Hurricane Creek to Fairview. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 13: Fairview to Moore CCC. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 14: Moore CCC to Falling Water Creek. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 15: Falling Water Creek to Richland Campground. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 16: Richland Campground to Forest Boundary. Google Earth Images: |
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| OHT Map 17: Forest Boundary to Woolum. Google Earth Images: |
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To Buy Map: These maps are FREE. Click on image to access full size map, download it and print it. Color, weatherproof versions (11x17) of each map are also available for $5 each plus S&H by emailing CharlieWilliams@CleanAirAction.com. A 20% discount is available if you want the entire set. |
Weatherproof Topographic Maps at
OuachitaMaps.com - Hiking Trails of the Ouachitas and Ozarks Home |
