[thundermountainatv]

The area is open to ride, however the "park" is far from being completed. We rode there last weekend, ran into a friend up there who is kind of a local.... he rides almost daily up there. He told us of places they had ran a dozer over to make the trail wider, yep we found one, miles of new trails. Our friend also spoke of a third trail head up on old #12 crossing road yet to be built, just south of Devils Den State park .The creeks are all down making crossing Lee Creek easy for now. the trails on the other side of lee creek are much rougher and technical, some I have heard of must be pretty "hairy". Rumor has it when completed there will be a camping fee and a riding fee for the park so ride for free now and enjoy it while you can . Don,t forget a national forest sticker on your atv,s only $5.00 and it's a one time fee to ride in the forest in Arkansas.

 

[Arkyrider]

The area is open to ride, however the "park" is far from being completed. We rode there last weekend, ran into a friend up there who is kind of a local.... he rides almost daily up there. He told us of places they had ran a dozer over to make the trail wider, yep we found one, miles of new trails. Our friend also spoke of a third trail head up on old #12 crossing road yet to be built, just south of Devils Den State park .The creeks are all down making crossing Lee Creek easy for now. the trails on the other side of lee creek are much rougher and technical, some I have heard of must be pretty "hairy". Rumor has it when completed there will be a camping fee and a riding fee for the park so ride for free now and enjoy it while you can . Don,t forget a national forest sticker on your atv,s only $5.00 and it's a one time fee to ride in the forest in Arkansas.

What forest fee are you talking about? I have rode both the Ouachita and Ozark forests for years and have never heard of such a thing. Nothing on either forest web site as of yet. Where are you getting this info from? Arkansas has a ten dollar one time tax fee and sticker, but it has nothing to do with the National Forests and the LEO's in the National Forest cannot enforce a state tax.

 

[thundermountainatv]

Ok ,so they either raised the sticker cost to ten bucks or I was in error, either way getting caught without one in the natl forest could get a guy a stiff fine......next time you are up in the Fort Smith / Fayetteville area go west on AR170 just south of Fayetteville on I 540. Take AR220 west (a dirt road) for seven or eight miles , look for a large parking area close to a concrete low water bridge. You are at the fall creek trailhead now. There are two proposed trail head yet to be built , one where buckhorn creek crosses cove creek crossing road and a third somewhere off old 12 crossroads road which would access the trails south of Devils Den State park without having to cross Lee creek .
So far I have rode trails marked with red diamonds and those marked with "A"," B" and "C" on the north west side of AR220. They don't correspond with any numbers on the "phase one map" you might have seen but the trails follow much the same routes as on the map . Those trails finished must be a small part of what is to come.
Seems strange as the Ouachita forestry service is trying to kill Wolf Pen Gap and the Ozark forestry service is busy building a new Park. I wonder if the way they are billing this park as an "OHV" park and not an "ATV" only area makes it more publicly palatable . So far I have met several Jeeps and Samaris on the trails , and expect to see some Rock crawlers in the area south of Devils Den park someday.
The rumor I heard was they were going to sell year long passes to the Park for around $35.00 . It seems like there must have been new life given to this project from somewhere, it has been over three years since I first heard of it being "studied" for environmental impact.

 

[Arkyrider]

Glad to hear Buch Horn is starting to move forward again. I have rode there a couple of times in the past. The Ouachita Forest Service sucks. WPG is being hit hard by the US Fisf and Wildlife for water quality issues and the FS cannot figure out how to get past them.
Again the sticker here in Arkansas is a State tax sticker and has nothing to do with the US Forest Service. They have no authority in the National forest to inforece that sticker. Riders from out of state do not need to purchase it and if one of us does not have it, then it is a state law issue only. Some of us have dug well into the issue on more then one occassion and it is nor enforcable by the FS.

Back to BH trails, if they do have a $35 charge per year, it is starting to sound as if it is worth it. I was told that they have also added 60 miles of looped trails east of Macs Pines to the Moccasin Gap trails. I think it is what people have been riding all along but it is now part of the trail system.

When all this MVUM stuff started back in 2005 we thought he Ozark Forest wat going to be the hardest to work with, but it has turned out to be the Ouachita Forest is next to impoosible to work with instead.

 

[thundermountainatv]

I have known of and ridden at wolf pen for years, too bad the Ouachita nf bunch can't pull the head out of their @#$ long enough to see what is going on nation wide with off road vehicle access at some of the country's most beautiful forests. The real problem is with the water standards , Mother nature herself would be in violation if she lets loose with a hard rain.

 

[thundermountainatv]

Got a letter from John J. Lane the Recreation Program Manager of the Boston Mountain Ranger District here in Ozark here is some of it :

Presently, there are 3 trail heads proposed for the Buckhorn OHV Trail system.

One trail head is located on the west side of the trail system off of Forest Road 1716 in Range Hollow, just north of Buckhorn and Cove Creeks.

The second trail head is located off HWY 220 in the middle section of the trail near Fall and Lee Creeks.

The third trail head is located on the east side of the trail system off Freedom Road, west of Freedom Church. This would be north of Old 12 Crossroads.

The map you have is likely the same map that I have. There have not been any new maps produced in quite some time.

We are nearing the final stage of construction in Phase 1 of this project, which will include trail development on the west side, signage, and establishment of the 2 trail heads. We plan to complete work by the end of this fiscal year (Sep. 10, 2011). Then we plan to initiate Phase 2 of the project, which will include the east side trails, trail head, remaining signage, and complete the other 2 trail heads (bathrooms, kiosks, etc.).

 

[Dwight45]

Wow, sure nice to hear good news once in a while! We've ridden the WPG trail system and enjoyed it but it would sure be nice to have something closer to us. We're from eastern KS and that would be a nice close 1 day drive for us. Keep up the good work!

Thanks for investing all of the time and work necessary to get something like this going.

Dwight