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Monday, May 12, 2008 07:51 PM
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If you're needing canoe rental on a weekend in May, we still have canoes available for Fridays and Sundays. Saturdays are completely booked at this point, as is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. While Saturday is the most popular day to canoe, there are advantages to canoeing on a Friday or Sunday. First and foremost, there are fewer people launching. About 500 canoes launch in the Ponca area on a Saturday, whereas that number is dramatically reduced on Fridays and Sundays. Another advantage is you typically don't need an advance reservation: you can simply walk in the day of your float and get a canoe. You also don't have to pay in advance, whereas Saturday bookings require payment by credit card at the time of booking. So, if you can plan to your Buffalo River canoe trip for a day other than a Saturday, you'll find there ar...
Posted by: Rhonda Mills
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Tuesday, May 06, 2008 08:30 AM
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The American Canoe Association has a great Web page that is a wonderful resource for canoeing and kayaking safety information. The site offers pdf downloads on all kinds of paddling safety topics from a paddler's safety checklist to a River Paddler's Guide to Rescue . While the Buffalo National River is rated Class I/II, which is classified as easier river water to paddle, being able to responsibly and safely paddle and perform self-rescue is still important, especially if you are paddling with beginners or children. This is a great site and we highly recommend its contents to even...
Posted by: Rhonda Mills
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Saturday, April 12, 2008 02:03 AM
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If hiking is your game, then the next couple of months will be special on Buffalo National River trails as spring wildflower season is upon us. As an added bonus, the waterfalls run nicely whenever we have good rainfall, so it's a Kodak moment for sure when the two combine alongside a creek or rocky ledge. Wildflowers abound late March through June, with something new bursting forth every couple of weeks. Some of our favorites include the wild mountain azalea, umbrella magnolia, columbine, fire pink, yellow trout lily, shooting star, wild hyacinth, purple coneflower, and the elusive yellow ladyslipper. Moist, shaded rocky ledges and damp woodland areas are the best places to look for many of these wildflowers, a...
Posted by: Rhonda Mills
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008 09:29 AM
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The Buffalo National River soared to 23 feet at the Ponca low water bridge on Tuesday, March 18th, at 2:30 PM. This put the river at 17 feet over the bridge. We've not seen a rise this dramatic since the flood of November 1982, when floodwaters covered the junction of Hwys 43 and 74, where the big bridge crosses the Buffalo at Ponca. As a result of Tuesday's flood, Hwy 43 from Ponca to Boxley was impassable. The adjacent fields where the elk feed were also under moving water. By 3:30 PM, Steel Creek was seriously flooded and water was lapping at the foot of the ranger's house on the south hillside. About this same time, the National Park Service used a raft to rescue two hikers stranded on the far bank of Steel Creek itself, which had become a force in its own right. Three vehicles at Steel Creek were eventually overtaken by floodwat...
Posted by: Rhonda Mills
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