Crowley's Ridge Parkway - Arkansas
Crowley's Ridge Parkway - Arkansas is a National Scenic Byway in Arkansas. Within Arkansas it covers roughly 200 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Crowley's Ridge Parkway - Arkansas with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Crowley's Ridge Parkway runs 212 miles along Arkansas' Crowley's Ridge, from Helena-West Helena north into Missouri's Bootheel. The ridge is a narrow, forested upland that rises unexpectedly out of the flat Mississippi Alluvial Plain, and takes its name from Benjamin Crowley, who settled there in 1800 to escape the Delta's frequent flooding, and geologists still debate exactly how the windblown loess formation came to stand above the surrounding lowlands. The route threads Piggott, Paragould, Jonesboro, Wynne, Forrest City, and Marianna, along with stretches of the St. Francis National Forest, passing Civil War battlefields, archaeological sites, and numerous properties on the National Register of Historic Places. Arkansas designated it a state scenic byway in 1997 and it became a National Scenic Byway in 1998, with Missouri adding its own stretch to the byway system in 2000. Unlike most Delta driving, which is flat cotton and soybean country, Crowley's Ridge offers genuine elevation change and hardwood forest in the middle of the alluvial plain.
- Crowley's Ridge
- Jonesboro
- St. Francis National Forest
- 212 miles
- Benjamin Crowley
- National Scenic Byway 1998
- Mississippi Alluvial Plain
Designated for its natural qualities
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Places to stop along Crowley's Ridge Parkway - Arkansas
Delta Cultural Center
A Helena museum of Delta history and blues, home of the long-running King Biscuit Time radio broadcast.
Bear Creek Lake
A 625-acre lake in the St. Francis National Forest atop the ridge, with camping, swimming, and fishing.
WebsiteLake Poinsett State Park
A small lake park on the ridge's wooded slopes, good for fishing and quiet camping.
WebsiteCrowley's Ridge State Park
A park with CCC-built log and stone buildings around a spring-fed lake, on the homestead of the ridge's namesake.
WebsiteHemingway-Pfeiffer Museum
The Piggott home of Pauline Pfeiffer's family and the barn studio where Ernest Hemingway wrote parts of A Farewell to Arms.
WebsiteChalk Bluff Natural Area
A bluff above the St. Francis River at the ridge's northern tip, site of a 1863 Civil War skirmish, with a short trail.
Where to Stay along Crowley's Ridge Parkway - Arkansas
No campgrounds are listed close to Crowley's Ridge Parkway - Arkansas yet, but there are rooms near the route.
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Photos of Crowley's Ridge Parkway - Arkansas
What is a National Scenic Byway?
National Scenic Byways are roads recognized at the federal level for at least one outstanding quality — scenic, natural, historic, cultural, archaeological or recreational — that gives travelers a reason to seek them out rather than just pass through.