Mile 601.5 LBD — 598 Smith Point Sandbar

Smith Point Sandbar is high enough and large enough paddlers will discover it to be the best camping in this area of the river and should be included in any itinerary.  Of course, if the timing is off, or if it is very windy, you might chose elsewhere.  As with most big bars Smith Point is wide open and subject to any winds, storms and other caprices of the weather.

The most protected campsites are top end around mile 600 along or near the base of the three rocky dikes which radiate outwards.  As you paddle past the Smith Point Light 601.5 follow the tongue of water into Scrubgrass Bend and then start angling in Eastward LBD towards the giant sandbars you will see emerging from around the inside of the bend.  Pick and choose your place.  There are three miles of beach around Smith Point at medium water and more at low water.  You will always find good landings and campsites on this bar all of the way up to flood stage.  As the water rises above 35HG the choices become narrowed down to the sites found along the tallest plateau of sand that straddles the sandbar along the left bank behind the dike field.  But don't fret over finding something.  This is a gigantic landscape: now instead of three miles of beach landings you now have two miles to chose from!  At 40HG the bar is reduced further, to maybe one mile of beach, and then goes completely under around flood stage.

If you don't find any camping to your liking top end continue around the perimeter of the sandbar to the bottom end for other choices.  You will paddle past the shoaling area around the ends of the dikes below mile 600 and still hugging LBD look for the last possible landings & campsites along the abruptly falling bottom end of the Smith Point Sandbar.  At low water this giant sandbar ends in a steep cut bank of sand thirty to forty feet tall.  Its a long climb up a slippery sand cliff reaching the top at low water, but the view up into the White and down the Old Channel of the White is rewarding.  After unloading gear be sure to remove your vessel completely out of the water and secure it well above river level plus three feet higher (at least).  As the powerful tows begin their difficult ascent up the strong waters coming downstream around Scrubgrass they have to gun their engines full throttle and the resulting waves can wash high up the bank, sometimes as high as three feet above river level, and will immediately upset and pull back anything within their grasp.  Of course as the river climbs higher this steep bluff becomes more user-friendly, eventually water reaches sandy floor height (around 35HG) and then overtops the whole bottom end.