Arkansas City Gage

Arkansas City Gage

We will switch over to the Arkansas City Gage (AG) for this section of river. This gage is located 24 miles downstream of the mouth of the Arkansas River at mile 554, and has been fixed approximately seven feet below the Helena Gage.

Low Water = -13 to 13 AG

Medium Water = 14 to 29 AG

High Water = 29 to 36 AG

Flood Stage = 37 AG and above

Paddling down to the Mouth of the Arkansas River

For better understanding of the immensity of this river wonderland while reading the below, go to a map I created on Google Earth: [CLICK HERE: Map of Mouth of the Arkansas River]. Make sure you're looking at the Satellite View and for extra effect click Earth.

You are entering one of the wildest places in North America -- and not because its so quiet, or so remote. Actually there is a lot of activity here from the nearby Rosedale Harbor, and from all of the hunters and fishermen that frequent the area. Indeed it's not the absence of humans here or lack of human activity that makes it feel wild. Instead it's wildness comes from the meeting of two great rivers, the Mississippi and the Arkansas, and the dynamic shifty landscape created at their junction. The last 40 miles of the Lower Arkansas Valley is so flat and flood-prone -- and the river waters so unpredictable -- that the Army Corps never tried to make it navigable, but instead created access through the White River and Arkansas Post Canal (see previous section). As result the Lower Arkansas runs untamed as a young tiger as it approaches the big mother river the Mississippi.

Paddlers have many outstanding options as they come downstream of the Great River Road State Park (or leave out of the Rosedale Harbor) and approach the Arkansas Bar. 1) Main Channel: the first choice of course is to stay in the main channel and enjoy the confluence of the Great Rivers as you glide by, the channel opening up so completely wide you feel like you are paddling out of a river delta into the ocean. 2) Omaha & Quapaw (Up and Down): The second choice is to paddle upstream the Arkansas River from the confluence a few hundred yards to the bottom of Big Island, or a few miles to one of the beaches on Cat Island, and then turn around and paddle back out. 3) Island Hopping: Third choice is to run behind several of the many splinter islands crowding the confluence, jump into the Arkansas, and paddle down out of the Arkansas to rejoin the big river. 4) Circumnavigation of Big Island: 4th choice would be a complete circumnavigation of Big Island, which would be a challenging week-long expedition in of itself. It might take upwards of 3 days to get up the Arkansas, one day for the portage to the White, One day down the White back to the Mississippi, and one day on the Mississippi. Add two days for exploration, bad weather, and unforeseen circumstances.