Some roads know exactly how to bend you into all the right shapes, and this one didn’t disappoint even though it was a sunset drive as opposed to a sunrise drive.
Wrapped my last Zoom, walked out to the hotel lot, and found Shane and John already arguing about whether we had a one-hour drive or a two-hour drive in us before dinner. One hour won — mostly because none of us wanted to roll into the historic district smelling like hot brakes and regret, and nobody was excited about finding those hidden driveways in the dark on the way back. No planned route, no printed map. We just opened Porsche’s ROADS app, let it sketch a loop for us near Eureka Springs, and it delivered.
The designed circuit runs close to 48 miles through a mix of tight curves, open countryside, more winding road, and a forest stretch before looping back — we ran close to the whole thing. I started tracking on Scenic a little late leaving the lot and killed it early when we hit town for dinner, so the logged data only covers the middle 35 miles and 45 minutes of it — real drive, just a partial recording.
South out of Eureka Springs the road just kept folding back on itself. Curvy, hilly, blind crests, and enough hidden driveways tucked into the tree line to keep you honest — first time up here for me, so every one of those got my full attention. Traffic thinned out fast, maybe ten or fifteen minutes outside town, and after that it was just us, the elevation changes, and a whole lot of green. Even the middle chunk Scenic caught logged over 600 feet of elevation swing and more than 160 direction changes — the road never let up long enough to get comfortable.
Then dinner. Upstairs, historic district, overlooking the main drag — didn’t catch the street name, but the food did the talking. Shrimp skewers and lobster bisque for me, brisket sandwich for Shane, and John ordered something I’ve since forgotten because the conversation got too good to take notes. That’s the real finish line on days like this.
Turns out you don’t need a plan. You just need the right road, the right app, and people who’d rather be curvy than quick.
