Connecting to USGS…
The Index · Twenty-One Rivers
Rivers,
in order of flow.
Click or tap any river below to see float trips, gauge details & a live map.
Live river levels, float trips, and the right boat for 28 Ozark rivers - see what's runnable today.
Click or tap any river below to see float trips, gauge details & a live map.
Most Ozark rivers have no signal once you launch. Float Mode uses your phone's GPS to show your live position moving down the river, how far to your next take-out, and your trip progress · even with zero bars. Save any of our 28 rivers before you go and navigate the whole float offline. No app store, no account, no download from a store.
Deep guides to all 28 rivers - outfitters, camping, lodging, hikes & post-float food.
Browse riversPick your town - the closest rivers & lakes to float, with live levels & drive times.
By townEvery gauge, put-in & take-out across the Ozarks on one interactive map.
Open mapBest seasons, honest kayak advice (cheap vs. real boat) & overnight gear by boat type.
Read guideKayak, canoe, raft, tube or SUP? A quick quiz dials in the right craft.
Find your boatPick the perfect day: historical flow stats meet a 16-day forecast, color-coded.
Start planningNo-motor & electric-only lakes that paddle calm all summer - no rain or gauge required.
Paddle a lakeHow to read CFS & gauge height, use proxy gauges, and judge ungauged or spring-fed creeks.
Learn to read levelsPick one or both. We watch the gauges so you don’t have to - no spam, just water.
Levels come straight from USGS river gauges and refresh about every 15 minutes. Each river card shows current CFS, gauge height, and a 24 hour trend so you can tell if the river is rising or falling.
Every river has its own floatable range. Each river card and guide shows that range in CFS along with a plain verdict: too low, prime, or too high. Learn how to read the numbers in our guide to river and lake levels, and when in doubt call a local outfitter. They are on the water every day.
The Illinois River is the closest float for most of NWA. Its Hwy 16 put-in at Savoy is roughly 20 to 40 minutes from Fayetteville and Bentonville, and the lower Oklahoma run near Tahlequah adds a second gauged reach about an hour out. War Eagle Creek and the Kings River are close behind, and the Elk River in Missouri is about 90 minutes out. The Float Near You pages list drive times from your town.
No. Outfitters on nearly every river rent canoes, kayaks, rafts, and tubes, and they run the shuttle so your car is waiting at the take-out. Each river guide lists its local outfitters, and the boat guide helps you pick what to paddle.
Yes. Float Mode gives you free offline river maps with live GPS, so you can see where you are on the river, the next access point, and the miles left in your float with zero bars. Learn how Float Mode works.
Floating is one of the most beginner friendly ways to get outside in the Ozarks. Most floats here are calm Class I to II water. The basics keep you safe: check the level before you go, wear your life jacket, skip rivers that are high or rising, and start with a short trip through an outfitter. The first timer float guide walks you through all of it.
Wrong CFS thresholds, broken outfitter link, a put-in we missed - we read everything. Be brutal.