The story behind Float NWA
I have lived in the Ozarks my whole life, and floating is the thing that has always cleared my head. Camping on a gravel bar, pushing off into the morning fog, letting the current set the pace for a day. When everything else gets loud, the river is the escape. It always has been.
For years I recommended floating to friends and coworkers, and the reaction was almost always the same: curious, then hesitant. To a lot of people a river feels scary, or at least unknown. Where do you put in? How many miles is the float? How do you know where you are out there? What water level is actually safe?
Those are fair questions, and the dangers on a river are real. But every one of those questions has an answer. Education is what turns a river from intimidating into inviting: knowing the access points, the float miles, where you are on the water, the current level, and whether today is a good day to go. Give someone that information and they usually discover one of the best outdoor activities there is.
This site is built for two kinds of paddlers, because I have been both.
My wife and I found floating to be the best escape there is, pure relaxation. When we started dating, a lot of it happened on overnight floats down the Buffalo. Gravel bar camps, no cell signal, nowhere to be until the take-out. Those trips are a big part of why this site exists, and why it will always be free.
Our goal is simple. Give people who already have the passion the fastest path to the information they need, and invite everyone in Northwest Arkansas and the surrounding Ozarks to experience the bliss of floating down a river, in whatever way they want to experience it. Kayak or canoe, three hours or three days, a lazy tube in July or spring whitewater on the Mulberry. The river has room for all of it.
River levels come straight from USGS gauges and refresh about every 15 minutes. Access points, float miles, outfitters, and camping are compiled from public agency data, mapping sources, and paddler reports, and we review them before they go up. Hazard pins are reported by other floaters and are not verified by us - and because nobody can report what they did not see, the absence of a pin never means a stretch is clear.
Landowners: access points shown here are compiled from public and mapping sources, and we can get them wrong. If a spot we list crosses your property, or you want it taken down, send a note below and we will remove it - no argument, no delay.
We put real work into getting this right, but none of it is a substitute for your own eyes. Access can change hands, a gravel bar can move in one flood, and a strainer can drop across the channel the afternoon after someone floated it clean. Conditions change fast out there, so always confirm with a local outfitter before you go. If something on the site looks wrong, send a note below and I will fix it.
See you on the water.
The couple behind Float NWA