We took a roadtrip down to Arkansas for the weekend and had high recommendations to float the Buffalo River. After researching many of the outfitters on the Buffalo, we decided to use "Buffalo Camping and Canoeing" which is run out of the Gilbert General Store.
Reasons we made this decision:
1) They shuttle you to the put-in location and you float back to Gilbert. When you get out, you don't have to wait for a shuttle to bring you back to your car-- you're right there already! It is a popular spot for the surrounding outfitters to also have people finish their float, so I was pleased that we were in the right spot.
2) We were going to float the upper part of the river, because it was closer to us, but heard that the river was too low, so they were going to shuttle us to the middle part. Easy choice-- we just started at Gilbert and didn't have to be shuttled south.
3) The cost was better here compared to some on the upper river. Shuttling was also a good price (8.5pp on weekends, I believe).
4) Good reviews for Gilbert on other sites as well.
The river was beautiful with many outcroppings. There is even a little cave-like rock that you are able to canoe underneath at one point (to the side of the wide river). Beautiful river (though I did notice that it smelled a little, during this season). We went on a Saturday in July, so of course the river was very busy. We weren't alone at any stretch of the river, but still took some breaks along the way to personalize our trip. We even brought a portable/camping hammock and hung from some trees hanging over the side of the river. Awesome!
Working with the staff at Buffalo Camping and Canoeing was easy. We walked in, without reservation (called ahead to make sure they had left over canoes), signed up for a rental, waited on the porch for about 10 minutes, and they called our name (along with a list of others) to come and board the shuttle bus. We drove for about 15 minutes to put-in, got off the bus with all of our stuff (coolers etc.), grabbed some paddles, picked our canoe, and headed out. The staff gave just enough information to get us going, so they were mostly our transportation service. Other than that, the trip was up to us.
Tips:
-I did turn on a map-my-run type of app on my phone that helped me to pace the trip. That way I could know where we were in relation to Gilbert the whole time. If we would have paddled the whole time, we would have been done with the 6 miles in 1 hour-- instead we took breaks for lunch and hammocking, and it took us about 4 hours.
-There were very few rushing-current parts of the river. But, at one of them there were several tree snags in the river. We did see someone tip over at that point and their canoe ended up folding in half around the snag. Be careful out there!
-If you want to do a longer float, you have to get there earlier, and they will take you to the 10 mile trip.
Thanks Crew. We had a great time! read more