Reddit reviews Arkansas waterfalls guidebook

Arkansas Waterfalls Guidebook by Tim Ernst

This is so thoughtful! I think if you search for farmers' markets in Conway and Little Rock you should find a ton of resources. You can actually buy local online at Arkansas Local Food Network. You might want to check out Little Rock Urban Farming too.

As far as locally sourced meats go, the only place I can personally vouch for is Hillcrest Artisan Meats. Their FB page is really informative too. I've also heard great things about Falling Sky Farm. EatWild could be really useful to you as well.

Ok, on to the bit I know something about: Hiking!
Some of the best times of my 7 year relationship were spent waterfall hiking in the winter with my boyfriend. No snakes and, if you're lucky, frozen solid waterfalls. Arkansas Waterfall Guidebook and Arkansas Hiking Trails are my favorite books on the subject. The best trails/waterfalls (IMO) are near Jasper, so if you guys have a free weekend it would be really fun to rent a cabin and hike around. Jasper has lots of cool local shops and restaurants too.

The Ouachita (pronounced Wash-it-aww) and Ozarks are national forests and very, very large. Lots of good places within them though.

My suggestion would be to go to the Buffalo River and hike Hemmed-in-hollow and Goat Trail on the same day or to hike Indian Creek. Hemmed-in-Hollow is a waterfall and Goat trail takes you onto the side of a quite tall bluff. Indian creek is a creek you can hike/wade to see some excellent waterfalls. At the end there's a cave you used to be able to climb through to get to what's called the Eye of the Needle but it's been closed for several years to protect the bats. Just getting to that point is a lot of fun though. Great photographs too. Renting a canoe and floating the Buffalo river is fun. Not a lot of white-water just a few rapids and a fun day on the river. If you're in this area at night stop by to see the Elk. They were reintroduced several years ago and come out to graze in a farm nearby. There will probably be a dozen cars parked on the side of the road watching them.

Drive down to Petit Jean state park. The Boy Scout trail there is ~10 miles long and there's plenty of other short ones you can loop together. Cedar Falls is only a short hike and a great view.

Hot Springs is nice but not top of the list. The trails there are pleasent but the downtown is pretty touristy. Still, it's a National Park and I always like to cross those off my list.

After that go southwest to Eagle Rock Loop. It's been mentioned before for a reason. It's great.

Other ideas are the Richland Creek wilderness area, the Hurrican Creek wilderness area, Forked Mountain, and Sylamore creek. The books below have a pretty extensive list of trails. The three long trails are the Ozark Highlands Trail (165 miles), the Ouachita Trail (222 miles), and the Buffalo River Trail (~40 miles).

https://www.amazon.com/Ouachita-Trail-Guide-Tim-Ernst/dp/1882906438/ref=sr_1_19?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103125&sr=1-19&keywords=Tim+Ernst

https://www.amazon.com/Arkansas-Hiking-Trails-Selected-Natural/dp/1882906128/ref=sr_1_1/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-1&keywords=Tim+Ernst

https://www.amazon.com/Arkansas-waterfalls-guidebook-Tim-Ernst/dp/1882906489/ref=sr_1_3/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-3&keywords=Tim+Ernst
https://www.amazon.com/Ozark-Highlands-Trail-Guide-Ernst/dp/188290639X/ref=sr_1_4/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-4&keywords=Tim+Ernst

https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-River-Hiking-Trails-Ernst/dp/1882906403/ref=sr_1_5/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-5&keywords=Tim+Ernst

A couple of books to get if you live in the area: Ozark Highlands Trail guide and the Arkansas Waterfall Guidebook, both by Tim Ernst. He also has one specific to the Buffalo River area.

The other great resource is the Forest Service site. Either use the interactive map or go direct with the Find A Forest tool. Recreation | Camping menu will lead you too a bunch of places as will the Maps & Publications choice.

The Buffalo River area is a National Park so a bit more restrictive. There is backcountry camping or you can go to some of the established campgrounds and just move up or down stream a bit. Kyles Landing and Steel Creek are popular places to jump off from.

I've spent more time south in the Ozark Highland area. White Mountain is a favorite. White mountain / shores lake loop. Not dispersed but in the middle of nowhere. Camp host last time out made a mean batch of cider.

Anywhere along the Ozark Highland Trail is nice.

From Little Rock you should head west in to the Ouachita area. Ouachita Trail very similar to Ozark Highland.

Check out Ouachita Maps for good hiking and backpacking ideas for much of Arkansas.