The Buffalo National River

We are out and traveling again! It felt really wierd to leave Indiana without our 4 wheelers! Usually we are headed to the desert trails of California or Arizona but this year we will probably not make it to the desert. So, instead of the ATVs, we loaded up our kayaks and took off!

Our first stop was in Branson, Missouri where we stayed at the Escapees park in Hollister and took in the sites of Branson and surrounding areas. While there we met a new friend, Pam Bristol, who had her kayak with her and invited us to paddle down part of the Buffalo National River with her and her dog, Mischief. Afew years ago we had paddled the upper river portion of the Buffalo where the white water is but never the middle portion.

The Buffalo National River is nestled in the, Arkansas Orzarks, which are bounded north, east, and south by the Missouri, Mississippi, and Arkansas rivers , respectively. The water is crystal clear and has high river limestone and sandstone bluffs.

We had a beautiful sunny day for floating and enjoying the scenery. It took us a little less than 4 hours to float 10 miles from Baker Ford where we put in and Gilbert, where we took out. The river is lined with authorized concessioners who offer shuttle service, rental canoes and kayaks, guided trips, and lots of information.

We started at Gilbert, Arkansas at Buffalo Camping and Canoes, an outfitter on the middle river. As it turned out we didn't need his shuttle service since both Pam and we drove our trucks. If we had only brought one truck, the outfitter would have shuttled us to the put-in and drove our truch back to the take-out for a fee, of course. The outfitter was more than happy to give us all the information we needed though even if we didn't need his shuttle service. We parked Pam's truck at Gilbert, along the river(the take-out) and threw all three kayaks in our truck and drove to Baker Ford (the put-in) where we unloaded the kayaks and our picnic lunches,and parked the truck. This portion of the river is a smooth ride with occassional gentle ripples and plenty of gorgeous scenery. I didn't get a lot of pictures of the bluffs since I had buried the camera in the cooler but I got a few before we started. We are so glad Pam wanted to go there or we might not have discovered the middle river.

We stayed in Branson for a few more days and then, after watching the weather forecast, left on a sunny day headed to Coffeyville, Kansas where our workamping jobs await us.