Reddit reviews Buffalo River Hiking Trails

Tim Ernst wrote the best guides for this.
https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-River-Hiking-Trails-Ernst/dp/1882906403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520289641&sr=8-1&keywords=buffalo+river+hiking+trails

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