Ouachita National Forest ATV Trail

The Ouachita National Forest ATV Trail system in the Choctaw Ranger District occupies the Kiamichi Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma near Big Cedar, the wildest and most topographically rugged corner of Oklahoma, where the Ouachita Range pushes north into the state from Arkansas in a series of parallel sandstone ridges and shale valleys that are unlike anything in the flat-plains interior of the state. The system runs within the Winding Stair Mountain National Recreation Area corridor, which encompasses some of the most heavily forested public land in Oklahoma and provides the mixed pine-hardwood terrain that gives Ouachita riding its distinctive southern mountain character: shortleaf pine and oak-hickory forest on the ridge faces, bottomland hardwood and cedar along the creek drainages, and the sandstone outcroppings that define the Ouachita Range at every elevation. Trail routes wind through this terrain and cross the creek drainages that form the headwaters of the Mountain Fork, Kiamichi, and Glover rivers, streams that carve the steep V-shaped valleys characteristic of the folded Ouachita geology. ATVs, UTVs, and motorcycles are permitted on designated routes. No day-use fee; Oklahoma does not require OHV registration for national forest use. Wet weather frequently causes temporary closures on sections of the system, always call the Choctaw Ranger District in Heavener before making a trip (918-653-2991). Daylight hours year-round on open routes.