HARRISON, Ark. — The Ozarks spread like a lush green belt across the nation's middle, spilling over southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.
The ancient hills and rocky soils aren't good for growing much but trees. But those hills drop down into valleys that glisten with rivers so clear you can spot a crawdad on the gravel bottom, creating a playland for floaters. Ozark rivers don't have the churning rapids that draw whitewater enthusiasts but offer a more leisurely ride that shows off the ferns and the wildflowers, the red-eared sliders and the great blue herons.
As a native of the Show-Me State, I was familiar with the jewels of the Missouri Ozarks — the Current and Jacks Fork rivers and the Eleven Point — and had floated the bluff-lined Buffalo River in Arkansas. I asked resident expert Mike Mills to compare the Ozarks of the two states.
"Well, Arkansas is the Ozarks," said Mills, who is more than a bit biased; he is the state's former tourism director and the current owner of Buffalo Outdoor Center at Ponca, which rents canoes, kayaks and ridge-top cabins with views of the Boston Mountains rolling into the horizon.
"The tops of the mountains in Arkansas are more than 1,000 feet higher than Taum Sauk," Missouri's tallest mountain, Mills said. "You do the Missouri rivers and like them, then come do the Buffalo and fall in love."
Now, Mills was stirring up something of a border war. When America sought to protect its sparkling streams, the Current and Jacks Fork were the first to be chosen. The Ozark National Scenic Riverways, a national park that takes in much of the two rivers, was authorized in 1964. Buffalo was named the country's first national river — eight years later.
"You don't get to be America's first national river by being second best," Mills countered.
Doug Ladd of The Nature Conservancy in Missouri picked up the gauntlet. "The Arkansas Ozarks are fine, they're a beautiful place with lots of scenic and natural amenities — for those who don't qualify to get into the Missouri Ozarks," he said.
He pointed to Missouri's fine floating streams, saying that Arkansas had nothing like "the incredible scenery of the St. Francis Mountains landscape with those ancient igneous knobs, elephant rocks and shut-ins geologic formations."
"The Missouri Ozarks, by far, are the best," Ladd said, "although they are both important areas."
To see more of what Arkansas offered, I headed to Harrison, which bills itself as the "gateway to the Ozarks."
My adventure began with three hangers-on, who also brought kayaks. Five days later, our floating caravan had grown to 15, including one casualty who ended up in the emergency room with a gashed leg held together with duct tape. More on that later.
Too old and too spoiled for tents, we established a base camp at the 1929 Hotel Seville, which was built at a cost of $150,000, a lavish amount for the times. The hotel reopened in December after a $3 million restoration that took most of the interior back to its bare bones while retaining the Moorish architecture and the lobby with terrazzo floors and a wrought-iron chandelier.
Co-owners Jack Moyer and Donald Alberson worked on similar historic rescue projects at the Crescent and Basin Park hotels in nearby Eureka Springs.
"Harrison is a really wholesome destination," Moyer said. "There's a lot of true Americana here."
The Hotel Seville also has John Paul's Restaurant, the only place in Harrison to get a drink if you're not a member of the Elks or the country club.
If anybody knows every foot of the Arkansas Ozarks, it's Tim Ernst, the prime mover in creating the 165-mile Ozark Highlands National Recreational Trail. Ernst is a professional wilderness photographer and the author of 15 guide and photography books featuring his home state.
"I laid out this trail with a surveyor's wheel, putting up mile markers," said Ernst, 54.
Ernst and the other volunteers with the Ozark Highlands Trail Association chose the route to showcase the natural features, especially the waterfalls. Among Ernest's books is a guide to 133 waterfalls.
"We have hundreds of waterfalls that are 10 to 50 feet tall; probably 40 of them had names," Ernst said. "You couldn't publish a guidebook with 90 falls without names, so I got to name a lot of them."
As Ernst talked, he led the way up a rocky path to Pam's Grotto, where a stream of water spilled over a ledge into a turquoise pool. The picturesque spot is named for Ernst's wife and looked like a National Geographic photo, which it was in an October 2008 article about the trail. Another falls was named Fuzzybutt, after a photo showed Ernst skinny dipping.
OK, Arkansas may be tops in the Ozarks when it comes to waterfalls, but Missouri has the edge in another aquatic feature — springs.
Big Spring in Missouri is the largest in North America, with an average daily flow of 278 million gallons of crystalline water. Greer Spring isn't far behind with 220 million. The Current, Jacks Fork and Eleven Point are spring-fed, meaning stretches of the rivers can be floated year-round.
The biggest spring in Arkansas is Mammoth, with a flow of 100 million gallons or so a day, meager by Missouri standards.
Arkansas gets the nod in another category: The 10-mile float from Ponca to Kyles Landing on the Buffalo River gets my vote as the most scenic in the Ozarks. The way is lined with streaked bluffs, some more than 500 feet high, and many drip with water that sparkles like diamonds as it cascades through the sunlight. Hemmed-in Hollow is on that stretch and boasts the tallest waterfall in the Ozarks. When the wind blows, the water seems to dance as it plunges 209 feet.
But the stretch is at the top of the river and usually runs low on water by early June, so floaters move downstream. We tried one last run of the season during our visit in early June and found more rocky challenges than usual because of the shallow water. A rookie with us dumped and came up with a cut below his knee. Luckily, we had an emergency room doctor in our group. He ripped up a sweatshirt to bandage the wound, and bound it tight with duct tape. Their dinner that night was delayed by a drive to Harrison for stitches.
The next morning, three of our battered floaters didn't make the call, spending the day enjoying the view and hot tub at RiverWind Lodge, Mike Mills' largest cabin. The rest of us took a lower stretch from Pruitt to Hasty on the Buffalo and had a smooth run, stopping often to swim and fish in the deep green pools.
In mid-summer, the float season moves lower on the Buffalo, and we sampled the stretch from Baker Ford to Gilbert. The river was a bit wider, but the bluffs were still striking. We had hitched a ride up to Baker Ford with Buffalo Camping and Canoeing, situated in the historic Gilbert General Store, which was built in 1901 and is worth a stop in itself. Owner Ben Fruehauf put a more neighborly spin on our Missouri-Arkansas debate.
"There's enough to do in the Ozarks for two vacations," he said. "You can visit both Missouri and Arkansas, and leave a little sales tax money in both states."
IF YOU GO:
1929 HOTEL SEVILLE — 302 North Main Street in downtown Harrison. The hotel has 42 historic guest rooms ($79 to $109), 14 executive suites ($109 to $160) and a presidential suite ($219 to $249). 1-870-741-2321 and hotelseville.com.
BUFFALO OUTDOOR CENTER IN PONCA — Can arrange float trips and has cabins on a ridge overlooking the Boston Mountains. Rates range from $179 for a valley cabin for two to $929 for RiverWind Lodge, which has four bedrooms with baths, a sleeping loft with four double beds, a kitchen with two stoves and two dishwashers and a hot tub. 1-800-221-5514 and buffaloriver.com.
TIM ERNST — His guide books and photography books are available at 1-800-838-4453 and cloudland.net.
BUFFALO CAMPING AND CANOEING AT GILBERT — Can arrange floats and has cabins and guest houses for nightly rental. 1-870-439-2888 and gilbertstore.com.
MARINE CORPS LEGACY MUSEUM AT HARRISON — Run by two former Marines, Dick Millis and his son, Red, the museum's displays cover Marines from Roman times through the global war on terror. Admission is $8 for adults, $3 for children under 12. On the town square. 1-870-743-1680.
BUFFALO NATIONAL RIVER — The National Park Service is 1-870-741-5442 and nps.gov/buff. Thirteen campgrounds are accessible by car and open on a first-come, first-served basis. Currents is a handy visitors guide available by contacting the park service.
HARRISON, ARK. — The Convention and Visitors Bureau is 1-870-741-1789 and harrisonarkansas.org.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.