Buffalo National River, Arkansas fall foliage

Ponca sits on the upper Buffalo River in the Ozarks, where the river runs between tall limestone bluffs and wooded hills. The Buffalo became the country’s first national river in 1972 and flows free, with no dams, for about 135 miles. Near Ponca, the Lost Valley Trail, about 2.5 miles round trip, follows a narrow canyon to Eden Falls, and at Steel Creek, Roark Bluff rises more than 200 feet above the river. Nearby, the trail to Whitaker Point, also called Hawksbill Crag, leads to a rock ledge that may be the most photographed spot in the Ozarks.

Highways 43 and 21 follow the river through Boxley Valley, a historic farming valley where a herd of elk often grazes in the fields early and late in the day. About 10 miles east, Jasper sits on Highway 7, which winds north and south through the Ozark hills. For more Ozark color, Eureka Springs is to the northwest.