Buffalo River 2010: June 9th - 13th Buffalo Point

This year's adventure is shorter than normal. Lars started a new job in February and has limited vacation time (but he is enjoying his job), so we left for our Arkansas loop on Wednesday evening making our first camp spot at Buffalo Point Campground, formally known as Buffalo River State Park. It was developed in the 1930s as project of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Since the campground was built well before the creation of Class A RVs the spots were small, but that has never stopped Lars from wiggling our nearly 38' RV into a spot. I think the sign said for camping units 23-30 feet in length, no problem.

Friday was all about relaxation and preparation for a 28 mile float trip on Saturday. We talked with many outfitters in the area about a shuttle ride and were told we needed 2 to 3 days to complete the journey. Little did anybody know that Lars had the secrete weapon...a trolling motor! I love the way he thinks.

Due to the information gathered on Friday we opted to get on the river early in the morning (6:30 am). This was around the corner from where we put in the raft at Tyler Bend.

Further down the river we heard and saw critters splashing into the river...nice beaver!

As we traveled down river we saw the National Park Rangers carrying canoes on their boat and taking them upstream. Why? Over the night, the river had risen 4ft and many people who were on multiple day floats had lost their canoes because they weren't parked far enough up on the river bank. That's no fun. We should have taken pictures of the Rangers and the couple who floated all of their belongings on the air mattress they slept on the night before. At least the scenery was beautiful!

The bridge in this photo was actually underwater in 2008...Holy Shnikes!

We arrived back at our campground to take pictures of Buffalo Point itself. It was definitely a neat perspective.

There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity...it may have been crossed. Yes, in this photo the red circle on the left is somebody getting ready to job off the cliff into water that wasn't as deep as he was tall. Yikes! The red circle to the right would be our home away from home (the RV) in camp spot #19 in loop A.