It's not the Blue Ridge Parkway, nor is it the Highway to the Sun, but if you're traveling through eastern Oklahoma or western Arkansas, you need to head south of the I-40 corridor into the Ouachita Mountains (pronounced wash-i-ta) to one of the best kept secrets of all America's scenic byways, the Talimena Trail or Talimena Scenic Drive.
For those of you who've never heard of the Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas, these mountain ridges do something that virtually no other mountains in North America do... they run east to west... not north to south as most of America's ranges tend to run. As if that isn't enough, miles and miles of hardwood and evergreen forests with Alpine-like valleys and blue-green lakes will surprise you at each new turn in the road.

The Talimena Trail gets its name from the towns on either end of this incredible 54-mile ridge road, Talihina, Oklahoma, and Mena, Arkansas. You can start from either end of the trail (although I'm partial to starting in Mena), but it's definitely better if you're not facing into the sun whichever way to decide to go, after all - you will be running east-west!