Arkansas in October 2008 - Mountain View Area

[Black Eye]

I shot up to Arkansas (Mountain View area) yesterday, making an overnight trip out of it. A few things learned from this trip along the way.

#1 Even if the route is shorter in mileage, stay away from curvy roads while trailering. I trailered in taking Hwy 9 which is a more direct route from Clinton to Mt. View, turned out to be 34 miles of up and down the mountain full of 20/30mph switchbacks – not fun pulling a trailer.

#2 No need to base anywhere other than Clarksville, Ark to access the best roads available north of I-40. You can be in Clarksville in 5 hours vs. trailering to Mountain View taking 2.5 additional hours. So there was a loss of two hours ride time. Mountain View offered up some great riding, plenty of curves, excellent pavement, plenty of road choices. That being said the area roads were more populated than I had anticipated. There was more traffic on the roads and also a lot more residential driveways along the roadways, finding myself worrying about the ever pulling out automobile or school bus in my case. The one exception to the area is Push Mountain Road, 25 miles of a deserted and most twisty road. The Mountain View area can be reached easier by motorcycle basing out of Clarksville, so no need to trailer this far over. Live and learn.

#3 Make a reservation. Don’t assume you can pull into town and just get a room. At arrival, I wanted to stay at Best Western - Fiddlers Inn, having all the non-smoking rooms already taken, I declined and was redirected to a place down the street – Dogwood Inn. Nice place but no trailer parking so to speak – I had to unhitch the trailer and park it separately. I’m to use to Clarksville I suppose where they have plenty of truck/trailer parking.

Ok, on to the write-up and photos.


Map of the area



I trailered out leaving at 3am, knocking most of the drive out in the darkness. Daylight arrived so I started taking pictures from the truck. Here we have a couple photos of Arkansas finest. This was the extent of any patrol I observed while in state. As usual they are on the main highways, but scarce through the mountain roads.



This photo is the Immanuel Baptist Church. I crested a hill and the building looked ginormous sitting on top of that hill, so thought I would snap a picture.



This was the first sign of that you were headed for the mountains. Nice descent and heavily treed toward the Arkansas River. The is the bridge spanning across the Arkansas River, very scenic photo ops in this area.







This is Highway 58 near Mountain View. Having taken ample tree terrain shots in the past, I thought I would try to focus more on road shots this trip. I got several which I think show how good Arkansas roads can be twisty wise and pavement wise. You can’t help but think some of these roads were manicured for motorcyclist. These two shots here are the same road taken from the same standing position looking each direction. This is how the whole road is…..curve, curve, curve, and curve!!!!



Highway 58 - A couple photos of the Arkansas River flowing.



One additional shot of Highway 58, if you notice the arrow markers as they extend around the curve. An excellent 180 degree or more continuous sweeper.


These next shots on Highway 9 heading south from Melbourne. A great road up and down the mountain. The road texture could be improved, but I was told this section of 9 is the old way up/down the mountain before the other major roads in the area were built. The road was full of 20mph switchbacks, little guard railing observed with treacherous downfalls toward the valley. One scenic shot of the surrounding forest.






Intersection of 9/14/5. I took one scenic shot of this mountain wall.






I continued on taking 14. This section of 14 was phenomenal for about 20 miles. I turned off at 341 – Push Mountain Road which was one of the main reasons for the trip. I sampled this road with Greg on our last trip. Having the Honda Hornet that run, I was eager to return with my R6 for some more aggressive slicing / dicing. I stopped and spent an hour talking with the guy that runs Pushmountainpics, having met him from another forum it was great to meet a face and chat in person. Not many pics of Push Mountain as I was too busy riding it to stop much. Here are the few I did get; trees are just starting to change colors.






After running Push Mountain I headed back to Mountain View, grabbed some dinner at a local place rather than a fast food joint. Name of the place has slipped my mind – I had what they call a Mammoth Cheeseburger with potato salad and drink. Excellent food, new establishment it appeared – ate out on the balcony. Snapped a picture of this old time car driving down the road. Headed back to the motel and called it a day after logging 250 miles.


Awoke this morning and wanted to ride a couple more roads before leaving. Set out at the crack of dawn spanking out 150 miles. Temperature was a chili 52degrees when I left, with lots of fog. I rode the remainder of 14. The road was full of curves with two problems. Lots of vehicle traffic and lots of driveways – area is more populated further west of Push Mountain. Thanks to the school bus driver who “looked twice” almost pulling out in front of me. Hit a small bit of construction on Hwy 65, but it was a short wait. I continued on taking Hwy 66 back to Mountain View. This road was nice, plenty of curves climbing and descending the mountains, some straighter sections too.








The End!

[ronnath]

Nice writeup and pix, luke. thanks for posting.

[Black Eye]

I just got these in from Jack, the photo guy at PushMountainPics. He was very nice and sent me the photos he took.

[needles]

Luke-

Good stuff. I had a great time riding the 5 through Mountain View on my trip back east last summer. Being in Mountain View, CA (the web search capital) it was great to see Mountain View, AR (the folk music capital).

Cheers,

dan

[Halftrack58]

Nice pics. I love the Mountain View area. I try to make it a point to visit the Mountain View area at least twice a year. I've been riding there for the past 20 years, and I never get tired of the scenery or the music. A great destination for people who like bluegrass/folk music. Free concerts at the court house square.