Mile 564.0 - Miles 564-558: Choctaw Bar Island
564-558 Choctaw Bar Island
[CLICK HERE: Map of Choctaw Island]
Choctaw Island, the superlative Mississippi River Island for voyageurs, consists of every floodplain landscape possible: giant beaches, large meadows, extensive woods, wetlands, and muddy banks. The shoreline is as close to the Caribbean as you'll find in the middle of America. The interior sand dunes and sandy plains are reminiscent of the Sahara, especially on a scorching hot summer's day. The grasslands will remind you of the Serengeti. But the forests are similar to any Mississippi Valley floodplain forests: a mixture of various hardwoods along the higher ridges, hackberries, oaks, sweetgums, sycamores & cottonwoods, falling away to willows lower, and thick privets bunched and overhanging in the wooded wetlands. The animals love it, the birds love it, the paddlers love it. Seen from the air Choctaw Island is shaped like a fat seal leaping out of the water. The 6 mile shoreline main channel and 4 mile back channel envelope 8,000 acres of paradise. An intrepid paddler might make the complete 10 mile circumnavigation for a challenging but rewarding daytrip.
The best camping on Choctaw Island is either top end backside, where the sandy beaches meet various clumps and ridges of trees thriving on top of their relative heights, or bottom end main channel 559-561 where the muddy cut-bank gives way to a broad sandy beach and dunes of sand rolling through the willow forest. Of course water level effects everything and you can camp anywhere you can make a decent landing. Paddlers ending their water trail adventures at Arkansas City could make one last camp on the top end of Choctaw and then take-out the next day at the back channel boat ramp, which is about halfway down the channel, dropping down from a parking and camping are that sits on a tall wooded bluff several hundred yards below the last wing dam.
Locals maintain Choctaw is one of the steamboat islands -- that it was created by the sediment accumulating downstream of an old wreck, in this case the steamboat the Indiana which sank in 1875. Thanks to this re-generative location (and subsequent support from the army engineers) Choctaw has maintained itself against the raging river. Compared to other river islands it retains its essential shape and size regardless of water level from low to medium, and only loses its massive size at levels above flood stage. The big dike sealing off the back channel top end was intentionally cut open with a wide gaping notch and runs strong until the water drops to 4AG. There is a water connection that can be paddled through all the way down to -3AG and maybe even lower following the scouring of the Great Flood of 2011. At medium water there is a strong current through the back channel and the top end sandbars begin to disappear. At high water an isolated sandy island gets separated from the main island and is formed in the top end back channel, but on the main island there are still hundreds of acres of wonderful camping anywhere around the top end and miles of beaches. It is the tallest island in the area. When most other islands between Memphis and Vicksburg are completely under water at flood stage Choctaw still has plenty of sand and thousands of acres of dry ground can be found in its meadows, woods and on the beaches.
Note on Low-Water Camping
You can find beautiful low water camps on the giant sandbar that forms on the mainland opposite the bottom end of Choctaw Island. Or anywhere along the outside edge of the top end of the island. But this is not advised in windy weather, or cold weather, or with any remote threat of oncoming severe thunderstorms. Check latest forecasts. Storm often appear un-announced from over the horizon! But if the air is calm there will be less mosquitoes and more cooling breeze on the outer shelf of sand than somewhere close to the trees.
Narrow concrete ramp descending at steep angle from a wooded bluff that sits atop the steep muddy bank of the back channel. Grooved concrete yields better traction. Boat ramp fills with sand and mud after highwater, and needs frequent maintenance thereof. Paddlers can always find a way to get their vessels out of the water and to their vehicles. Drivers have a much more difficult time. More than one vehicle has needed to be towed out of sandy or muddy landing that looked firm! Parking lot above, and camping found beyond. Inquire locally about suitable camp sites and regulations. Never leave your vehicle unattended at this or any other river landings.