The Eagle Rock loop in Arkansas used to be 3 paper maps and a guess, now it's 14 apps yelling at me

Patricia Nguyen · 2026-09-21T10:50:03.771654+00:00

I hiked the Eagle Rock Loop outside Hot Springs back in 2011 with nothing but a folded USGS quad map, a compass, and a vague memory of a blog post I read at work. Took me 4 tries to even find the right trailhead because the forest road signs were half shot up and one just said 'ROAD' with no number. I remember standing at a creek crossing for 20 minutes debating which way to go, and a guy in a beat up Tacoma finally pointed me left with his coffee cup. Fast forward to my trip there two months ago and I had three apps running at once, all disagreeing about one section near the Winding Staircase, which was honestly somehow more stressful than being lost. The trails themselves are the same, the rocks and the creek crossings do not care what year it is. What changed is that I used to trust my own legs and a paper map, and now I stand there staring at a blue dot like it owes me money. Has anyone else noticed the apps eat way more battery than they should in that Ouachita stretch, or is mine just old?

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The Eagle Rock loop in Arkansas used to be 3 paper maps and a guess, now it's 14 apps yelling at me | Backpacking Routes - The Community Guide