Talimena National Scenic Byway — Winding Stair Mountain Summit Overlook

The Talimena Scenic Byway runs 54 miles east from Talihina, OK to Mena, AR along the crest of the Ouachita Mountains, topping out near Winding Stair Mountain. At the summit overlooks, you’re looking out over ancient folded ridges, dense oak-pine forest, and a landscape that doesn’t feel like Oklahoma at all. Multiple pullouts and developed overlook areas sit right on the byway, making it the single best orientation point before dropping into the Lonesome Pine Road corridor below. Fall color here — mid-October through early November — is serious, and traffic picks up accordingly.

The byway is paved its entire length but the side roads dropping off the crest into dispersed territory are dirt and clay — slick when wet. Cell service is essentially nonexistent along the ridge. Ouachita National Forest manages the corridor. No permit required to drive it.

Oklahoma's rooftop ridge drive.