Northeast Oklahoma route advice: Muskogee to West Siloam

[DKB_SATX]

We're going through OK to Eureka Springs, AR the first week in August. I'm deciding between staying on US69 all the way to US412 (the Cherokee Turnpike) and taking that east to the AR border, or turning off at Muskogee on US62 and taking that to Westville, then picking up US59 north to meet US412 at the OK-AR border. That route skips the toll road and gets us into hills sooner.

My question of anyone who's been through there is this: Is the route on US62 through Westville enough nicer to be worth the mileage penalty of driving in hills vs. prairie? On the terrain map it looks like lots of US62 is in valleys and not going up and down hills all the time, but I wanted to see if anyone had real-world experience with the route.

[jdalrymple]

69 to the turpike is easy. The turnpike is smooth and fast. A TV and a trailer with one or two axles is $4.25 or very close. I have a pre-paid pass, so I don't know for sure.

62 to Westville is curvy and some short hilly ups and downs, but is it a pretty drive through rural country. This route will add around 1 to 2 hours to your trip. 59 to 412 is not far, and flatter and wider road for the most part. You will meet 412 in Siloam Springs. From there it about 2 hours to ES. The trip through our version of urban sprawl is what eats of most of the time. Couple of ways to get from Siloam to Eureka, both are winding.

If you have a litte time to spend, and like driving on country highways, it's not a bad route.

We'll see ya on Saturday.

[DKB_SATX]

Heh... well, can't do much better than information from someone who lives right at the intersection of the 2 routes I'm considering!

Thanks for the feedback... I figured the US62-US59 route would take somewhat longer, but I didn't imagine it might add more than an hour. I may just plan out both routes and if we're magically ready to leave before traffic-time on Thursday morning we'll take the scenic route, otherwise we'll wait out the DFW traffic and just trundle along US69 to the turnpike. For us furr'ners who don't have an OK toll pass it's an extra dollar, their site says it'll be $5.25 with a 2-axle trailer. Discrimination!

Another possibility is to take the scenic route back home on Sunday, but that may also depend on departure time. It's already going to be a long pull and I'll want to unload and store the trailer Sunday night, though I can park it in front of the house for a day (in fact I'll be doing that Wednesday on our way out.)

Choices, choices...

[JBinKC]

Have $10 worth of quarters with you in that part of Oklahoma because the unmanned toll booths take exact change, you can't back up and you're stuck like chuck without change.

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by JBinKC

Have $10 worth of quarters with you in that part of Oklahoma because the unmanned toll booths take exact change, you can't back up and you're stuck like chuck without change.

NIIIIIICE. Thanks for that heads-up, I would have guessed they'd be manned since they don't to bill-by-mail like the Texas unmanned roads do. Here if you don't have a tolltag, they just bill you by mail with a surcharge for every month they have to mail you a bill. I guess if you don't pay they fine you somehow, but I have a tolltag so I don't know what they do in that event.

1 roll of quarters added to the checklist.

[jdalrymple]

The added time may be closer to the hour mark, but it will depend on how you like towing on the curves. Several streches of 62 are pretty winding, as will be the last 15 miles of either route into ES.