I'm heading down to the Ouachitas on the first weekend in March for a short 3-day trip.
There's plenty of good hiking in OK, but not a lot of super-long trails (like, if you want to do a 5-day, you're pretty limited unless you want to go into MO, TX, or AR).
Here's my local list:
Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge - There's a lot of cool (what I call) "Nevada-style mountains" over there - very little trees and a lot of canyon/cliff rocky areas to hike in (very little cover - be aware of this). Here's a thread with some good info:
https://www.okshooters.com/showthread.php?178248-Backpacking-in-the-Wichitas&highlight=backpacking
Quartz Mountain State Park - This place is cool and you can free-hike up on the mountains. There's a huge state park below and an awesome lake (and a lodge, RV hookups, cabins, tent-camping, etc...), so its not secluded or anything, but the mountains are pointy nevada-style mountains (very little trees/brush - open view at the tops of all the mountains). Watch for rattle snakes.
Red Rock Canyon State Park - Love this place - sort of smaller (south of Hinton) and its a state park, so its not too exciting, but you can get up on the canyon rim and free-hike. Really only a day-hike's worth of hiking, but there's also some repelling in the middle of the park.
Winding Stair National Forest / Ouchita National Forest - Winding Stair Campground is a nice out of the way tent-camping area, but you can hike up and down the trails all the way into Arkansas (there are a ton of different trails and very few maps have all of the trails on them as some are equestrian, some are bicycle, some are ATV, and some are hiking-only). This area has what I call "Ozark-style mountains" with a lot of tree cover and good nature to look at, but there are places to poke through and look out over the landscape every now and then. If you want to do a 3-5 day hike, this is one of the few places to do it with actual trails in OK. There is a dedicated backpackers campground near Winding Stair's tent-camping facility.
Robber's Cave - Has a trail that goes all the way around the park and its good for a day-long or overnight backpack. The cave-side of the park is cool to spend some time playing around in, but its not that large. They have a dedicated backpackers camp-site too, but its not much. Also beware of the water in this area as there are a lot of horses that come through so I would personally use chlorine tablets or boil in addition to filtering. I've heard that north of the caves is a wilderness area that you can backpack in for a couple of days but I don't think there are too many trails.
Devil's Den (in Arkansas) - few trails that are pretty good for a day-hike, but there are some longer 2/3-day trails around the area too (last time we went it was pretty crowded).
Petite Jean State Park (Arkansas) - very cool place with quite a few shorter trails and some nice camping - be sure to go all the way around the flat-top mountain looking for trails as there are some pretty cool spots out of the way.
Mount Magazine State Park (Arkansas) - Lots of good stuff to do around there too - staying in a Cabin on the edge of the mountain and waking up in the morning and going out and getting into the hot-tub with that view first thing is an experience like no other - one of my favorite family camping spots and plenty of day-hiking trails (there are also more than a few places to get lost back on some of those RV trails and see some pretty awesome scenery in some of the cliffs/mountains nearby).
Mount Nebo State Park (Arkansas) - A little small, but more than a few trails to get you up and down the mountain. They do hang-gliding off of the mountain and if you're there when they are doing it, its very cool to see.
Gloss Mountain - cool smaller spot to wet your appetite with a few-hour hike and see some cool scenery. Alabaster Caverns are nearby if you want to try your hand at some light spelunking (not super-impressive, but still cool).
Palo Duro Canyon (Texas) - This is a pretty awesome canyon just across the border / South of Amarillo and there's enough free-hiking to keep you busy for a few days.
Mark Twain National Forrest (Missouri) - I don't know a lot about this area, but I've started looking more and more into backpacking in MO and everyone seems to rave on Mark Twain so I'm planning to go at some point in the future.
There's plenty of good hiking in OK, but not a lot of super-long trails (like, if you want to do a 5-day, you're pretty limited unless you want to go into MO, TX, or AR).
Here's my local list:
Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge - There's a lot of cool (what I call) "Nevada-style mountains" over there - very little trees and a lot of canyon/cliff rocky areas to hike in (very little cover - be aware of this). Here's a thread with some good info:
https://www.okshooters.com/showthread.php?178248-Backpacking-in-the-Wichitas&highlight=backpacking
Quartz Mountain State Park - This place is cool and you can free-hike up on the mountains. There's a huge state park below and an awesome lake (and a lodge, RV hookups, cabins, tent-camping, etc...), so its not secluded or anything, but the mountains are pointy nevada-style mountains (very little trees/brush - open view at the tops of all the mountains). Watch for rattle snakes.
Red Rock Canyon State Park - Love this place - sort of smaller (south of Hinton) and its a state park, so its not too exciting, but you can get up on the canyon rim and free-hike. Really only a day-hike's worth of hiking, but there's also some repelling in the middle of the park.
Winding Stair National Forest / Ouchita National Forest - Winding Stair Campground is a nice out of the way tent-camping area, but you can hike up and down the trails all the way into Arkansas (there are a ton of different trails and very few maps have all of the trails on them as some are equestrian, some are bicycle, some are ATV, and some are hiking-only). This area has what I call "Ozark-style mountains" with a lot of tree cover and good nature to look at, but there are places to poke through and look out over the landscape every now and then. If you want to do a 3-5 day hike, this is one of the few places to do it with actual trails in OK. There is a dedicated backpackers campground near Winding Stair's tent-camping facility.
Robber's Cave - Has a trail that goes all the way around the park and its good for a day-long or overnight backpack. The cave-side of the park is cool to spend some time playing around in, but its not that large. They have a dedicated backpackers camp-site too, but its not much. Also beware of the water in this area as there are a lot of horses that come through so I would personally use chlorine tablets or boil in addition to filtering. I've heard that north of the caves is a wilderness area that you can backpack in for a couple of days but I don't think there are too many trails.
Devil's Den (in Arkansas) - few trails that are pretty good for a day-hike, but there are some longer 2/3-day trails around the area too (last time we went it was pretty crowded).
Petite Jean State Park (Arkansas) - very cool place with quite a few shorter trails and some nice camping - be sure to go all the way around the flat-top mountain looking for trails as there are some pretty cool spots out of the way.
Mount Magazine State Park (Arkansas) - Lots of good stuff to do around there too - staying in a Cabin on the edge of the mountain and waking up in the morning and going out and getting into the hot-tub with that view first thing is an experience like no other - one of my favorite family camping spots and plenty of day-hiking trails (there are also more than a few places to get lost back on some of those RV trails and see some pretty awesome scenery in some of the cliffs/mountains nearby).
Mount Nebo State Park (Arkansas) - A little small, but more than a few trails to get you up and down the mountain. They do hang-gliding off of the mountain and if you're there when they are doing it, its very cool to see.
Gloss Mountain - cool smaller spot to wet your appetite with a few-hour hike and see some cool scenery. Alabaster Caverns are nearby if you want to try your hand at some light spelunking (not super-impressive, but still cool).
Palo Duro Canyon (Texas) - This is a pretty awesome canyon just across the border / South of Amarillo and there's enough free-hiking to keep you busy for a few days.
Mark Twain National Forrest (Missouri) - I don't know a lot about this area, but I've started looking more and more into backpacking in MO and everyone seems to rave on Mark Twain so I'm planning to go at some point in the future.
