Trail Overview

This is a basic road with a wonderfully scenic view of the back side of the Broken Bow Lake area. This runs by a wildlife area and is the access road to lots of Forest Service roads and areas. We utilize this as a base road to get to a lot of the "backroads and logging roads" that have been abandoned and make great trail rides. The trail offers some wonderfully scenic views of McCurtain County and the Quachita National Forest. The Trail runs from Highway 70 east of Broken Bow to North of Hochatown. There is a water crossing near Highway 259 that should be of interest and not crossed in high water. It has a low water bridge, but it can be too deep to cross. There are several creek crossings and some swimming holes on the trip, but all have low-water bridges. Have fun, but check the rainfall for the Narrows, the area with the low water bridge across Mountain Fork River.

Photos of Union Valley Road

Want to see more?
View All Photos

Difficulty

The road is a main thoroughfare for the locals but this area is sparsely populated. The road is not always two vehicles wide but is always wide enough to allow passing in both directions.

History

Most of the trails are older, the side spurs are logging roads since abandoned. This does come close to a NWS area and it is quite remote.

Technical Rating

Tom Watson

Dec 20, 2025

Open

Zech Swendsen

Jul 12, 2025

Open

Easy crushed stone dirt road with some great views. This route has some great views and can help bypass the Hochatown traffic as well.

Judd Kennedy

Mar 17, 2025

Open

We started at the southeastern point and headed northwest, so the first large leg of this was the logging roads. They were in good shape for us for our trip though. We did see roughly 3 or 4 logging trucks - one of which came through at speed, so lots of dust was thrown around. Great views of the forest, and when you enter Ouachita national forest it gets even better views. We stopped to have lunch at a river crossing, and took the first forest road offshoot which deadended (near buffalo creek camp), but had a great time. Overall, we took a few hours on this trail. Started at roughly 1130, and got off the trail around 245-2pm (after lunch break with the kids). A nice drive with the family!

Robert Gray

Feb 08, 2025

Open

Started in off of hwy 259. Trail is very easy and mostly gravel and logging roads. At 30 plus miles in length you will average 8-10 mph and see all the beautiful sights. About 12 miles in, it's like you have seen it all. Long afternoon, be patient.

Michael Tucker

Jan 22, 2025

Open

90% of Back Bone is a very easy logging trail with some inclines near the north side. I passed several semi trucks traveling north. There are multiple trails that branch off that offer varying levels of difficult terrain, some that are still covered in snow due to the recent snow. It’s a very long route that took almost two hours, while exploring a few side trails. The northern part of the trail was more mountainous and offered more attractive views, several camp sites and an optional low water crossing.

Shannon Melton

Dec 26, 2024

Open

We drove the trail starting at hue 70 when we got to the mount fork river crossing at hey 259 it was flooded