Ozark Highlands Trail, Ozone Trailhead

On Thursday Pat took me on an auto-tour.  We drove through some beautiful country before arriving at the Ozone Trailhead of the Ozark Highlands Trail.  This is located in the Ozark National Forest, Ozone Recreation Area. The Ozark Highlands Trail consists of 218 miles through seven counties in Arkansas, going from Lake Fort Smith State Park, across the Ozark National Forest, to the Buffalo National River.  At least at one time it was planned to connect it to the Missouri Ozark Trail, which would increase it to 700 miles.  I did find out that technically, the Ozark Mountains aren't really mountains.  The Ozarks are really a plateau that has been uplifted, and then dissected by streams eroding and cutting down the the uplifted area.  We took a short walk on the trail.  It was headed down, which means only one thing, you have to come back up!  I will blame it on Krikkit, but right now I'm having more intense leg/butt/hip (somewhere in there) problems, and I don't think I could have made it.  Pretty sure Pat was disgusted with both of us.  It was definitely heavily forested, but the path was clearly seen.

Happy Siblings Day to my brothers Mark and John (maybe 1959ish???)!

Ozark Mountains

The road on the left takes you to the trailhead.

Ozone Trailhead

Since we're suppose to have another cold spell, signs of spring are always welcomed.

The curvy ride up to the trail had some interesting sites as well.  As we headed back down we came to the very little town of Ozone, just down the road on highway 21.  Located there was the Ozone Burger Barn.  It was closed today.  Not sure if that was seasonal or due to Covid-19.  It was definitely a take-out place and had a shelter with picnic tables.  The reviews looked pretty good.

In Ozone there was a beautiful, small building that is a historic school, built in 1942 and used until 1957, when the local district was consolidated.  I think it has been kept in its original condition, and was placed on the National Register of Historic places in 2015.  They use it for various community events.

Historic Ozone School

We found a cute little cemetery, Mt. Airy, in Johnson County.  I don't share the fondness for cemeteries that my Mom did.  I remember as a little kid, it seemed like we were always stopping at one, and she would get out and check out the gravestones.  This cemetery intrigued me, however, for as well as a permanent shelter for housing graveside services, it had permanent benches.  I don't remember seeing that in a cemetery before, but then again I don't stop at a lot of them.

Lots of over-nighters tonight (Friday), including ones from Manitoba and New Mexico.