Arkansas Float Rivers

Live conditions, access points, and float planning for 7 rivers in Arkansas.

• Buffalo National River

  148 mi · Class I-II · Buffalo National River

  America's first National River (1972), a free-flowing, rain-driven Ozark river draining the Boston Mountains of northwest Arkansas. Flashy and seasonal in its upper reaches, near year-round floatable in its lower reaches. Managed by the National Park Service.

• Caddo River

  75 mi · Class I-II (easy family float; occasional Class II rock-garden rapids, with an isolated Class III hole/wave train on the long lower run ~15 mi below Glenwood at high water) · Ouachita Mountains (west-central / southwest Arkansas)

  A clear, spring-fed Ouachita Mountain stream and one of Arkansas's most popular family floats, running east past the boulder gorge at Caddo Gap toward DeGray Lake. The classic Caddo Gap-to-Glenwood run mixes fun Class I-II rock gardens with long, calm pools.

• Crooked Creek

  87 mi · Class I · Ozarks - North-Central Arkansas (Marion & Boone counties)

  A clear, gravel-bottomed Ozark stream running across north-central Arkansas to the White River near Cotter. A Blue Ribbon smallmouth fishery with easy Class I floating past long gravel bars and riffles — entirely rain-fed, so it drops skinny in summer.

• Kings River

  111 mi · Class I · Ozarks

  A clear northwest-Arkansas Ozark float flowing north to Table Rock Lake.

• Mulberry River

  70 mi · Class I-II (II+ to III at high water) · Ozark National Forest / Boston Mountains, NW Arkansas (Franklin, Johnson & Crawford Counties)

  Arkansas's premier whitewater float, free-flowing out of the Boston Mountains in the Ozark National Forest. Scenic canyon walls and reliable Class I-II rapids that stiffen to III at high water — notoriously flashy and best run fall through spring.

• Spring River

  58 mi · Class I-II (Saddler Falls & High Falls ledges) · Ozark Foothills

  A cold, clear, spring-fed float in north-central Arkansas, rising at Mammoth Spring and running past Hardy toward the Black River. Reliable year-round flow, trout in the upper reach and smallmouth below, and a few lively ledges like Saddler Falls.

• War Eagle Creek

  68 mi · Class I (American Whitewater rates the corridor Class I-II; upper reaches are the liveliest) · Ozarks / Northwest Arkansas

  A scenic Class I Ozark float in northwest Arkansas, flowing past Withrow Springs State Park and the historic War Eagle Mill to Beaver Lake. Framed by tall limestone bluffs; a rain-dependent, flashy creek best floated during spring runoff.