Round Top Mountain Hiking Trail, Ozark NF near Jasper, Arkansas

12/21/2019 -  Round Top Mountain Hiking Trails

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Parking Location:  35.983764,  -93.178591
  Cave #1:  35.986266,   -93.180037
  Turn off trail to caves:   35.986373,   -93.179762
  Cave #2:  35.986084,  -93.179999
  B-25 Crash Site:  35.987184,   -93.179868

Pet-Friendly:  Dogs are will have an easy time here, the trail is well maintained and traveled.  This area is not part of the Buffalo National River, so dogs are allowed.  It is a popular trail, so odds are you will encounter other people at some point.  If your dog is not well behaved around other people or other dogs, please keep it on a leash.

Hiking Statistics:  This is an easy hike as far as trail steepness and terrain goes.  The beauty of it is that it is all fantastic scenery and you can do as much or as little as you like.  Today, I tried to go everywhere there is an actual trail, so we ended up hiking a total of 3.55 miles.  The total minimum-to-maximum elevation difference was 373 feet, from the parking area to the top of the mountain.  I would rate this an easy hike.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post

  Round Top Mountain Waypoints
  Round Top Mountain Hiking trails GPS track

View from the north bluff overlook. 
The Newton County Fairground is straight ahead,
and Jasper is right behind it.

 Today, Bethany and I woke up in a Newton County frame of mind.  For some reason, right after breakfast, I started thinking about the deep-fried burger at the Ozark Cafe in Jasper.  After that, it was all downhill.  It doesn't take much to convince Bethany to make the hour-long drive up to Jasper if it means a stop at the Ozark Cafe.  We didn't want that to be the only thing we did if we drove up there, so what's a good hike to work up a little appetite around there?  Round Top Mountain, of course.  This trail system is just off Highway 7, just before you go down into Jasper.  It's not very strenuous at all, but plenty of trails to stretch your legs and see some awesome scenery.  Perfect for our needs today.

Visitor center and toilets (background) at the trailhead

Getting there is pretty easy.  If you have ever been to Jasper, you have no doubt seen the sign on Hwy 7.  If you haven't ever been to Jasper, what's wrong with you?  What a great little town!  As you drive into Jasper from the south on Hwy 7, you start a long decline from the mountain ridge top that Hwy 7 follows, about a mile and a half before you get to Jasper.  When you start that decline, you'll notice a sign on the left (west) that says "Round Top Mountain Scenic Hiking Trail".  That's it.  Turn onto the road and follow it about a hundred yards up to where you park at the trailhead.  If you are coming from Jasper, it will be on the right a short distance after passing the Newton County Fairgrounds.  There are public toilets here, as well as a small visitor center that has never been open any time I have been here.

Map at the trailhead

At the trailhead, you will also note a large sign with a map of the whole trail system, so you don't even need to download the GPX file above.  It's a fairly simple trail system with two big loops and is about impossible to get lost on.  We went up the trail and decided to hike the lower loop counter-clockwise today, so we turned left onto the loop.  I'm kind of lazy and like to do ascents early in a hike, while I'm still fresh, and then save downhill parts when I'm more tired.  Not that any of this trail is difficult or steep, it really isn't, it's just one of those hiking habits deeply ingrained in me.  By going this way, in about a quarter-mile you come to a trail junction on your right with a stone-cut stairway leading up to the upper loop.  We headed up to the upper loop and started hiking around it.  

South Gap Narrows

Every bit of trail here is just a leisurely stroll through some fantastic scenery.  It is great in any season, but especially beautiful in the Fall, in my opinion.   This was technically the first day of winter, and Christmas was right around the corner.  Normally, I like peace and solitude to enjoy the sights and sounds of nature, but today, we put our Christmas playlist on my phone and listened to Christmas songs on our stroll.  We only passed three other couples on our entire hike, and they seemed to enjoy the Christmas spirit as well.  On the very north end of the upper loop, there is a spur trail that goes down to an overlook from on top of the north bluff.  From there, you can see seemingly forever, and you can look down right into the downtown part of Jasper.  

On the southernmost point of the upper loop, there is a narrow spit of rock that you can climb on and walk out to the end, with sharp dropoffs on each side.  It goes right out and over the South Gap, a "gap" between Round Top Mountain and Judea Mountain just to the south.  The lower loop goes around the base of this narrow bluff.  Continuing on around the upper loop trail from South Gap, we soon came to our stairs leading down to the lower loop.  We turned right and continued our counter-clockwise hike around the lower loop trail.  At this point, the trail mostly follows the base of the bluff, with lots of small shelter caves, enigmatic holes in the rock, and fossils from a bazillion years ago when this was

South Gap Narrows
from below the bluff

on the bottom of a large sea.  We soon came to the base of that narrow spit of rock extending into South Gap and continued on around the lower loop trail.  At this point, the trail kind of meanders away from the bluff a bit as you hike along the west side of Round Top Mountain.  

There are a few points along the trail overlooking the lower bluff on this side of the mountain, with stunning vistas of the Little Buffalo River Valley.  If you want to explore the upper bluff, you'll need to leave the trail and do a little bushwhacking.  We didn't want to get overly dirty before going to eat, so we didn't do that.  Also, one of my goals for today was to cover all of the trails here and get a good GPS track of the whole thing, so we pretty much stuck to the trail today.  That said, it's a great trail to stick to, with beautiful scenery and cool formations everywhere.  After you hike all the way around the west side and north end of the lower trail,  the trail turns almost due south and a couple hundred yards after that is when you come to the B-25 crash site.  See the coordinates listed above.  

Back on February 6, 1948, a B-25 bomber was flying from Dayton, Ohio to Little Rock, Arkansas on a training mission with five crew members on board.  As Snoopy used to write, "...it was a dark and stormy night...".  No one knows exactly what went wrong, but at about 8pm, the plane crashed into the upper bluff of Round Top Mountain.  It is theorized that the freezing rain that night caused the wings to ice up, and the heavy fog limited the crew's ability to

Plaque commemorating the 1948 crash site

navigate.  Keep in mind this was in the days before on-board radar and the niceties of aviation electronics we know today.  One of my Uncles piloted a B-25E during WWII, and ironically crashed his plane into a mountain near Sarajevo.  Of course, his crash was helped by anti-aircraft fire.  We can only theorize about the details of this crash, but it was horrific.  All five crew members died.  One engine was actually embedded in the bluff rock, and you can still see scorch marks of the burning fuel.  Locals heard and felt the explosion while at a basketball game in Jasper, and helped authorities search the wreckage and secure the scene until daylight.  The crash site was finally added to the register of Arkansas Historic Places in 2010, and a plaque honoring the crew was placed at the crash site.  I like to just stop and take a moment here to pay my respect and do a little deep thinking about life in general.

Cave #2

There are still some remnants of the wreckage here, but please take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints.  Continuing south on the lower loop trail, you soon pass another point of interest.  On the right, there is a volunteer trail leading up to the bluff and a couple of small caves.  For me, it's hard to pass by a cave without going and checking it out, so I did.  They are small and not all that special, but they are caves and caves are cool, at least for me.  Going south on the lower loop trail from there, you soon come full circle back to the trail leading from the loop trails back to the parking location.  This is an enjoyable, fairly easy hike that I would highly recommend for hikers of all ages and hiking abilities.  By the time we finished our hike we had worked up quite an appetite, so off we went for our 'reward' at the Ozark Cafe.  Deep-fried burger with cheese and an egg over-hard on it, then brownie with a ton of toppings for dessert.   

Along the lower loop trail - with Bethany

This hole in the bluff was just the right size, so I stopped and took a breather.
Behind me, there is a chimney that goes all the way to the top of the bluff.

Round Top Mountain Trails