Kayaking in Extreme Northeastern Oklahoma
The cool clear Spring River flows from
northern Kansas all the way down into the Ozarks in Oklahoma. Near
the border at Twin Bridges State Park it merges with the Neosho
River to form Grand River and Grand Lake. We recently went on
a flatwater kayak paddling trip down this lovely scenic Oklahoma
river. You can read about this trip and our most recent Oklahoma
area float trips on our PaddleTales
weblog.
Trip Report - 4/15/06 Spring
River near Quapaw, Oklahoma
This weekend Dianne and I made a quick overnight
trip to Twin
Bridges State Park & Spring River Canoe Trails near Quapaw
in extreme Northeastern Oklahoma.
Getting There is Half the Fun
I say 'extreme' not due to the attitudes of the locals, but to the
number of other states we accidentally visited on the way (both
Kansas and Missouri). Due to a slight miscalculation on the part of
our navigator (me), we ended up driving into both Missouri AND
Kansas. Did I mention I hate turnpikes? I think that they should be
called turn-less-pikes because there is nowhere to turn off the darn
things. That’s not a road; it’s a livestock-loading chute!
I suppose the first thing I should tell you about Spring River Canoe
Trails State Park is that it is much harder to find than the other
State Parks I have visited. Also, once we arrived at what we think
was Spring River Canoe Trails State Park; we found no sign
officially marking it as that particular Oklahoma State Park. In
fact, the only signs we found marked the spot as merely
"Park" and mentioned some history of the Nez Perce Indian
tribe. Looking around on the net, I think we may have been at
Bicentennial Park.
Maybe the proximity to one of the
nation's largest superfund sites has given folks a pessimistic
attitude concerning the area's potential for tourism development.
Oklahoma's Spring River
 Either
way, we were definitely on the Spring River near Quapaw, Oklahoma
and it was a lovely spot for paddling. The water is very clear and
cold with banks surrounded by large limestone bluffs. After only a
few miles of Spring River paddling, we saw more fish than in all of
the other rivers of Oklahoma that we have been kayaking in. The
river is quite low and full of stringy green moss. The flow is
plenty low for paddling both downstream and upstream where the water
is deep enough.
The water in the Spring River gets deeper as you near Twin Bridges
State Park and the Spring River merges with the Neosho River to form
Grand River. Twin Bridges State Park has deep, plentiful water even
in this oh-so dry rainy season. In fact I've read that Neosho is an
Indian word meaning "plentiful, clear water".
Sadly, we arrived to Twin Bridges Park too late to check in with the
park office and get any info on the Spring River Canoe Trails.
Although they are two separate parks, they share the same park
office. I wish we had made it their earlier, we could have used some
guidance. Looking around Twin Bridges, it was a lovely park but
seemed to be filled to the brim with RV's and Ski boats. The water
in the river was wide and the wind had stirred up large waves all
over the surface.
We decided that Spring River Canoe Trails with its primitive tent
camping spots and canoe launch might be more ‘our speed’. The
park we finally found right before dark was indeed primitive tent
camping. However, when we arrived they were several small
celebrations underway and only a few real campers. It would appear
that we had found the favored spot for teen drinking and mating
games. Since it was too late to explore other options (there is
another park on the Spring River in nearby Baxter Springs, Kansas)
we pitched our new, larger, Wal-Mart tent and hoped things would
settled down by morning.
A Fun Night in Quapaw
However, once the sun set people went a little crazy. Campers on
three different sides of our tent built campfires! As if that were
not appalling enough, considering the extremely high winds Saturday
night, one of the fires was huge. I would have considered the
campfire closest to our tent to be unsafe during a rain shower! One
of the other burn ban scofflaws spent most of the evening trying to
extract their pickup truck from a gravel bar that they had decided
to drive onto. About 11pm a large 4WD truck showed up that was
finally able to pull them out.
The next morning they asked to borrow my jack to change a flat on
their now unstuck truck. Once they got it changed, they left the
park with their campfire still burning brightly around 9:30am.
Clearly prudence was not the central theme of the holiday weekend
for these campers. Thankfully, we are not haters, so we didn't let
the foolishness of those around us spoil our goodtime. Nonetheless,
I cannot recommend the park as a place to take your family for an
overnight stay unless your family picks up beer cans for a living.
We were glad we had not brought Dylan with us on this trip.
After an excellent night's sleep, we woke up early and took down the
tent. We have learned that packing up camp before the morning
paddling tends to save us about a gallon of sweat and a lot of
frustration. The price is: we don't get on the river as early.
Actually, that price is pretty high for me. I love the way the
morning light looks on the water and taking down this new tent is
not a real rapid operation.
The decamping operation left us with
about four hours to paddle, take pictures and enjoy the river. Heck,
we spent that much time on the road getting here! Honestly, it's
gotten me shopping around for some kind of tent camper or van for
the family.
 Despite the short amount of time on the river, I really enjoyed the
trip. The Spring River is very scenic canoe and kayak paddling water
and we didn’t meet another boater the entire time on the river. In
addition to our paddling, we drove around and explored some more of
old Route 66 and ate at two cool cafes.
In many ways, the Spring River reminded me of
Missouri's Elk River, just a short drive away in Noel, MO...but
with more acid mine drainage.
This river is appears to be just loaded with
fish. The day we paddled the Spring River there were fish
hitting surface prey constantly. In many shallow
areas we could see the backs of huge fish wriggling their way
through the channel. I sure hope they aren't loaded with lead
tailings. Like the Buffalo River, the Spring River offers
little caves and coves in the limestone bluffs that provide some
much needed shade during warm weather floating.
Oklahoma Cuisine
I heartily recommend the Thomas Restaurant in Pryor, Oklahoma and a
great country cafe that I didn't catch the name of in Narcissa,
Oklahoma. The Thomas Restaurant was established in 1952 and is a
really cool kind of art deco looking cafe offering a pan-fried steak
w/ mushroom gravy that can't be beat! The cafe in Narcissa rocked
our world with their Chuckwagon Steak and Strawberry Shortcake. I
would like to apologize to them now for the pungent way I smelled
then. They were unlucky enough to catch us on our way home, but they
never complained. Nice folks around these parts. (Update: Thomas
Restaurant in Pryor was lost in a fire, it is my understanding that
it is now being rebuilt.)
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