Blue Mountain Natural Area Connects Central Arkansas Trails

The Nature Conservancy and the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission opened Blue Mountain Natural Area to the public in 2023, completing the Maumelle Pinnacles chain of peaks west of Little Rock and adding 7.6 miles of new multi-use trails for hikers, mountain bikers, and trail runners. The property was jointly purchased in 2021 for $5 million from timber company PotlatchDeltic using state and federal conservation funds, filling the final gap in a connected ridge of protected natural lands near Arkansas's capital city.

The trail system includes three routes: the three-mile Luna Moth singletrack loop, the Dhu Drop downhill mountain bike trail, and the 3.5-mile Tarantula Hawk Trail linking to the adjacent Rattlesnake Ridge Natural Area. The opening marked a significant expansion of accessible public wild lands for Little Rock residents and cemented the Maumelle Pinnacles as one of the premier outdoor recreation destinations in central Arkansas.

Blue Mountain was the missing link, and the state has now drawn the map around it. In March 2026 Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders unveiled the Maumelle Pinnacles Master Plan, a 24,000 acre network running from downtown Little Rock to Lake Maumelle that stitches Pinnacle Mountain State Park, the 373 acre Rattlesnake Ridge and Blue Mountain into one trail system, KATV reports. The catch is water: Central Arkansas Water sits at the table because Lake Maumelle is the region's drinking supply, and every new access point is a runoff question. The plan arrived alongside $4.92 million in outdoor recreation grants to 23 counties, per Talk Business and Politics, so watch which connector trails break ground before the next grant round.