Cossatot River, Little River, Pond Creek NWR, Arkansas

The boat launch into the lower Cossatot River and the Pond Creek NWR is at Wilton Landing, a Corps of Engineers site, off of Highway 71, on the Little River, above Millwood Lake, in Arkansas. You need either 5 bucks or an America the Beautiful pass hung on mirror. When I returned from my out and back paddle more than half the trucks parked in the lot had a ticket under their wiper blade for not paying, so ‘they’ are watching. The kayak route went up the Cossatot River, as the map shows, and was excellent–unobstructed paddling (most of the way), scenic, isolated, with some gators for excitement (picture below). Just to the east of the Hwy 71 bridge, down a long access road, is a Pond Creek NWR primitive campsite called Cahoots Springs, mostly unused. Near the campsite was a pipe out of which flowed natural spring water. A fellow drove all the way down the access road to fill up a jug or two but to me it tasted sulfur pretty strong.