#1: [21-Jul-01]

12-May-2025 --

On a relaxing excursion through the lush green hills of eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas, Bailey and I paid a visit to 35N 94W. This confluence is nestled in the Ouachita National Forest and somewhat forgotten, only documented once before in 2001. It would be a perfect detour off the beaten path, and we were both happy about the prospect of a short stroll/bushwhack through the woods.

The preceding morning/early afternoon had been idyllic, as May days tend to be in eastern Oklahoma when the weather cooperates. We entered Arkansas via the very picturesque Talimena Scenic Drive, a road we followed from its beginning in Talihina OK. There were plenty of scenic pullouts along this byway, and I personally consider it one of the prettiest roads in Oklahoma; can't speak for Arkansas since I haven't seen enough of the state. From this road to the confluence (some two hours of driving), we were almost exclusively inside the boundaries of the Ouachita Nat'l Forest. North of Mena AR, we reached US 71 and turned north en route to Waldron, a small town 8 mi (13 km) southwest of 35N 94W. Feeling hungry, today's local confluence meal came before the visit — we stopped at a place in Waldron called Judy's Drive In, the nearest restaurant to the point and one that I can heartily reccommend. (There, I tried corn nuggets for the first time, a Southern US side dish I'd never heard of up to then. Good stuff!)

We reached our turn off US 71 shortly after leaving Waldron, starting eastbound down a gravel road (plainly named Government Trail) that leads to several recreation/hiking areas based on a reassuring sign at its start. Of course we weren't interested in any purpose-made hiking trails today, but it meant that we were heading into unambiguously public lands. This road was passable in a two-wheel drive sedan, but necessarily slow going to avoid ruts and pothole-like suspension destroyers. There were two or three low-water crossings along the way too, fortunately not very deep this afternoon. After some 5.5 mi (9 km), we split north from Government Trail onto Hawks Peak Road, then turned left at Roadrunner Trail about 2 miles (3.3 km) later; these were similarly rough gravel roads. The car trails transected a couple properties as we got closer to the confluence, and I saw at least one resident on their porch turn their head to see us drive past. Certainly a beautiful place to live, although I can hardly imagine regularly driving in and out on these roads for errands and such! Roadrunner Trail eventually brought us to a truly ideal starting point for our walk — a small pullout for the car, located beside an ATV track (or long-abandoned driveway) that led north in the direction of our target. This was right on the 94th meridian west, and before even setting off I caught a glimpse of 'all zeroes' on my GPS's longitude reading.

Not long after starting our walk (with a straight-line distance of 0.3 miles/460 meters to the confluence), we came across an old looking chimney and fireplace sticking out of the vegetation off the track. Seems like this piece of land was once a lived-on property, probably many decades ago (since even the 2001 report didn't suggest it was in active use). People must still come out here on occasion, based on the presence of a shooting target attached to a tree and a crushed Brisk iced tea bottle at the edge of the forest. The track we'd been following ended here where the trees began, and we commenced wading and snaking around trees and other vegetation: 150 meters to go. I know next to nothing about plants, but Bailey was able to keep a close eye out for poison ivy and poison oak — we wore long pants and socks and didn't experience any ill effects after the hike, but there were patches of plants that uncomfortably resembled these potential adversaries. We encountered friendlier sights too, including a scattering of yellow wildflowers and precisely one wild raspberry. Outside of passing birds, the only fauna we saw along our hike were bugs, inevitably walking through a spiderweb once in a while or swatting away the odd mosquito.

After whittling down the GPS coordinate decimals to within a couple ticks of perfect, I (inevitably) found myself weaving through and under plants for a couple minutes trying to catch a glimpse of the satisfying all-zeroes reading — I haven't done many forest confluences yet, but I imagine this is more or less the rule. Eventually we found it: Bailey and I now stood at 35N 94W, our first Arkansas confluence. The exact spot wasn't as pretty as much of the walk there had been (see the overview photo), being essentially swallowed by trees on all sides. But it is a good representative sample of the surrounding area, so I can't fault it too much. As hinted at earlier, the weather was picture-perfect: scattered slow moving cumulus clouds cast shadows across the tree canopy, and the air was calm and neither dry nor humid, with a temperature probably about 80°F (27°C). As soon as the directional photos were taken, we were swiftly chased from the confluence by a pesky wasp (or wasp lookalike); I guess that's par for the course when you're standing in a bunch of trees several hundred yards into a random forest.

We retraced our steps southbound on the way out, enjoying some of the views observed going this other direction. It took us no more than 15 minutes from leaving the confluence to arrive back at the car, but I feel the same way that the 2001 visitors did: if not for the GPS, it'd be easy work wandering around in circles back there (so it's a good thing that this hobby is basically predicated on having a functioning GPS receiver). We started our vehicle-based departure by continuing west on Roadrunner Trail for around a mile, getting a nice view of the Petit Jean River along the way (a river that comes within 0.5 km of 35N 94W to its northeast). We then reached and turned left onto Eagles Nest Road, following it (about a mile) to Tate Road where we also turned left, driving for several miles to a road called "Crazy Duck Crossing" (awesome name). Turning right here brought us back to the paved highway network (specifically, AR 23). It'd been a great afternoon in a beautiful part of Arkansas — scenic confluence adventures don't come much easier than this!