Kayaking the Beautiful Buffalo National River: Ponca to Kyle’s Landing

Updated: April 2024

In 1972, The Buffalo National River became the first US National River. This is the best river to float in Arkansas (and many surrounding states). If it’s on your bucket list to float, it can be daunting to figure out how/where to kayak if you are not familiar with the area.

This article will help you know what to expect with planning and executing your bucket list trip to The Buffalo National River.

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Initial Plans for Kayaking the Buffalo National River

The Buffalo National River is 135 miles long (of 150 total river miles). With a quick Google search, you can find multiple kayaking trips and outfitters. Wading through all of the information can be overwhelming. Hours of Google, FB pages, and YouTube videos later, we settled on kayaking Ponca to Kyle’s Landing for our kayaking adventure.

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Important Information for Kayaking the Buffalo National River

You will spend about $80 for your vehicle to be shuttled (for this specific trip) if you bring your own kayak.

Shuttling rates vary dramatically depending on if you bring your own boat, where you are shuttling, and the days/seasons you are shuttling. You will spend $25-$300.

Before you can float, river levels are assessed every morning to ensure safety which may impact launch times. Recent rainfall can dramatically affect the river levels, flow and safety.

You do not need to make any reservations if you bring your own kayak. If you need to rent kayaks, book in advance. The particular outfitter we used warned that Saturdays book solid for up to a month in advance.

Our Initial Float Plan for Buffalo National River

For the 10.7-mile Ponca to Kyle’s Landing trip, our float plan is to arrive at BOC (Buffalo Outdoor Center) by 9:15 am, be on the river by 10:15 am, and be done floating by 3:15 pm. The must-see sights- Hemmed in Hollow (the largest waterfall between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains) and Steele Creek (bluffs).

Prior to leaving, we were still unsure of how to make it to Hemmed in Hollow or exactly what the shuttling process looked like. Fingers crossed for no major hiccups! Let’s see how this trip turned out…

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The Morning of the Kayak Adventure

With equipment packed the night before, the to-do list wasn’t long: load kayaks, and pack lunches. However, we still managed to get on the road a little later than expected, leaving at 8 a.m. And then a quick stop for breakfast put us a little further behind.

Arrival at Buffalo Outdoor Center

The Buffalo Outdoor Center is easy to find using Google Maps. We arrived just after 10 am.

BUFFALO OUTDOOR CENTER MAP

The ladies working the desk were extremely helpful, explaining how the shuttling process works, the float route we were taking, and what to look for to find Kyle’s Landing, and even gave us a special map for finding the Hemmed in Hollow hiking trail.

This process didn’t take long, at about 15 minutes (on a Monday morning).

The Ponca to Kyle’s Landing Shuttle

For the vehicle shuttling… You drive yourself to the launch point (at the Ponca Access), unload your kayaks, and leave your keys with the employees that are stationed there. They drive your vehicle to the landing (stopping) point, at Kyle’s Landing, and give you special instructions for getting your keys back at the end of your kayaking trip.

This process was a little unnerving to us, but there were plenty of BOC employees at both locations to ensure things went smoothly.

Kayaking the Buffalo National River

We were unloading our kayaks at the launch site by 10:51 a.m. (just 43 minutes after initially pulling into the BOC). By 11 a.m. we were situated to take off kayaking The Buffalo National River!

Just an hour later we reached Steel Creek and its impressive bluffs. This is the perfect place to stop for a snack and take in the scenery.

Hemmed In Hollow

It took us 3 hours from our launch site to reach Jim Bluff (the first marker on our map for Hemmed in Hollow). This bluff has a large marked rock so that you know exactly where you are.

25 minutes later we reached the Hemmed in Hollow hiking trail (3hr 25mins from the Ponca Access launch site). We left our kayaks on the bank, among the many other docked kayakers, to hike the trail.

It took us 20 minutes to dock and hike the Hemmed in Hollow Trail to the falls (0.4 miles).

If you kayak this route, this is a MUST-stop and see! Hemmed in Hollow Falls is the largest waterfall (at 210ft) between the Appalachians and Rockies.

By 3:30 pm we had hiked back and were back on the river, for a total 1hr 5min pit stop for Hemmed in Hollow.

@brandi_youre.a.fine.girl

Spectacular! 😍 Kayaked + Hiked to reach this one. #waterfall #tallest #buffalonationalriver #hiking #kayaking #hemmedinhollow #sunrises2sunsets #tallestwaterfall

♬ original sound – Brandi @Sunrises2Sunsets.net

More falls….

Just 15 minutes further down the Buffalo National River are more cascading falls to stop and visit. Some are visible from the river (on the left side), and even more, are found by following the cascades upstream on foot. This is a beautiful spot that is worth a quick stop (10mins).

We arrived at Kyles Landing at 4:42 pm, completing a total 5hr 42min kayaking trip (including the Hemmed in Hollow hike).

It wasn’t difficult to find the landing site, with a small “Kyle’s Landing” sign on the right bank, and seeing all the kayaks that had already docked and been carried up the bank.

Employees were available to assist in retrieving our vehicle keys. The bank sets next to a small sandy incline that kayaks must be carried up to reach the parking area. The entire docking and loading process took only 20 minutes.

Difficulty Level

This particular float trip is located in the Upper District of the Buffalo National River, known for being “fun.” Whereas, the middle and lower districts are reportedly more calm and serene. Kayaking Ponca to Kyle’s Landing definitely lived up to the “fun.”

We never paddled too long without some level of rapids. Some of the rapids were the slow, fun kind that you simply ride. And a few were the kind that you have to paddle hard to avoid being swept into obstacles (trees, rocks).

With the exception of one instance of being stuck on a rock (while sideways in the middle of the river rapids), I wasn’t overly concerned about flipping. But it is fun enough to get your heart rate up a little!

I would definitely recommend some level of experience before kayaking this portion of the Buffalo National River. You need a good base knowledge of how your kayak moves in rapids.

Once you hit the rapids, you have seconds to decide how you are responding in any given situation before it’s too late to change your mind.

I pulled hours of my research together into an easy-to-follow paddler’s guide. It includes one page for each section of the Buffalo National River, plus a general information page.

The information included: outfitters for each section of the river (plus the link to their homepage), all access points, how far (miles/hours) between each access point, a few words to sum up each float, and a link to an article or video about each float. This is something I wish I had when planning my kayaking trip. Download it on Etsy.

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