Russellville sits in the Arkansas River Valley between two very different landscapes, the flat, farmed bottomland to the south and the rugged Boston Mountains to the north. It is a university and industrial town of about twenty-nine thousand people, home to Arkansas Tech University, with a downtown of old brick buildings, a nuclear power plant on the river and the broad water of Lake Dardanelle, created by a dam on the Arkansas River in the 1960s. It is the sort of place where a ride along Scenic Highway 7 makes its decision about direction.
The town marks the gateway to the Ozarks. North of here the land rises quickly, and the highway climbs through hardwood forests of oak and hickory, with sandstone bluffs, deep hollows and long ridgelines. Mount Nebo, a flat-topped mountain southeast of the town, has a state park with trails and views over the valley, and Petit Jean Mountain, further east, has a lodge and a waterfall that drops into a gorge. The Arkansas River is wide and slow here, and in autumn the whole valley glows with colour.
Highway 7 is widely praised as one of the most scenic roads in the United States, and the first miles heading north from town give you a taste of it. The road narrows, starts to curve and climbs into the hills, with a good surface and generous bends. Traffic can be heavy at weekends in autumn, when leaf-watchers are out, and logging trucks and cyclists share the road, so patience is useful. Summer is hot and humid, with thunderstorms, while spring brings dogwood and redbud, and winter can leave ice on the higher sections.
Fuel and food are easy in Russellville, with plenty of choice along Interstate 40 and Arkansas Avenue, including local barbecue and diner breakfasts. It is smart to fill the tank and eat here, because the road north has stretches with few services. Dover and Pottsville are small towns nearby, and the next big town is Harrison, much farther up. Take water, check the weather and enjoy the start of a good road.