Talimena Drive runs through the Winding Stair and Ouachita Mountains. The mountains are unique in themselves, as they are a "fold-and-thrust" mountain range ... formed when rocks from the south where shoved hundreds of miles over the rocks in the north. So, basically ... this area was once part of a deep sea floor in Texas and once was as high as the Rocky Mountains. Over time, the mountains have simply eroded away.
Unlike most other mountain ranges in the US, the Ouachitas run east and west rather than north and south. This physical oddity sometimes confuses pilots flying overhead.
These photos are in sequence as taken from driving east to west from Mena to Oklahoma Highway 259. (brochure and map)
