Mt. Magazine Lookout

Mt. Magazine Lookout
Mt. Magazine Trail, Arkansas

This is a lookout along the Mt. Magazine Trail from the highest mountain in Arkansas, Mt. Magazine, which rises to a 'towering' 2,753 feet (839 m), and has this one good bluff for a worthwhile scenic glance before you head on down the trail:

Before you start your descent, walk out to the edge of the bluff . . . because you won't get any good vistas on the trail. Forming the bluff and ringing the top of Mt Magazine is a layer of Savannah sandstone (Savannah Formation). This 300 million year old rock was deposited in a basin bounded by the Ozark highands to the north and the Ouachita Mountains to the south, known as the Arkoma Basin. Below the Savannah sandstone you can see the slope of the mountain taper to the plains below. This is the McAlester shale showing its weakness and inability to form cliffs. At the base of the mountain covered in pines is the Hartshorne sandstone. The Hartshorne is often associated with a commercially viable coal seam (Hartshorne coal) and was formed in an ancient delta system.

Good to know all that, 'specially about why the only bluffs are along the top. But there's little to see here, so let's return to the Boston Mountain heights, courtesy of Mr. Charlie Williams and his maps . . .