FreeWine

Mulberry River - Ozark Whitewater

If you enjoy fast flowing Ozark whitewater rivers like the Lower Mountain Fork River in Broken Bow, Oklahoma, you will love the Mulberry River.  My wife, Dianne and I just made our first short float trip down the Mulberry River a couple weeks ago.  We had a blast! Although we decided to paddle the Mulberry in our recreational kayaks (Dianne took her Heritage 9.5 Angler kayak and I took my Perception Swifty), you can rent boats when you get there.  Two outfitters have been servicing the Mulberry River for ages: Turner Bend Canoe Rental and Byrd’s Adventure Center.  Both outfitters rent rafts, kayaks and canoes as well as providing shuttle service private boats. If you use the Turner Bend take-out be sure to take a moment to admire the electric boat lift they use to bring canoes & kayaks out of the water. Such luxury!

The Mulberry River offers about 40 miles of seasonal whitewater fun that runs through scenic forests. In fact, if you want to save some coin while paddling the Mulberry, try camping out! Economical camping is available at the several U.S. Forest Service campgrounds including : Redding Campground, (479) 754-2864; Shores Lake, (479) 667-2191; Wolf Pen, (479) 754-2864; and White Rock Mountain, (479) 667-2191.
Kayak paddlers should certainly snap on the sprayskirt for the Mulberry River. At a little over 2 feet, according to the Turner Bend gauge, it was not as rocky as the Mountain Fork River. Because several small creeks dump water into Mulberry on this run, there are loads of standing waves. Sometimes it can be difficult to see rocks that are just below the surface. The river descends at a consistently swift pace through rapid after rapid, so we didn’t do any flatwater paddling to speak of. Although we took the short trip from Redding Campground to Turner Bend, I’m told the bigger rapids are on the section that runs from High Bank down to Redding.  I can’t wait to give that section a try!

To photograph this river without losing my camera, I dry bagged the camera for runing bigger rapids.  However, for most of the trip I just kept it around my neck but INSIDE my PFD. This protects the camera from most of the splash and spray as long as you keep your kayak upright!  More Mulberry River pictures can be found on my Flickr photostream.  Visit my Float the Mulberry River page for more details on kayaking the exciting whitewater near Clarksville, Arkansas.