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Cossatot River State Park From the article "Cossatot River State Park
Protects Stream, Environs" The park's first facilities and 160 acres in the vicinity of the Ark. 246 bridge were donated by the Arkla Gas Company in exchange for a natural gas pipeline right of way across the park. Picnic sites, two restrooms, a hiking trail and parking areas were constructed, as was a pedestrian walkway atop the pipeline immediately south of the bridge. Developed campsites (no hook-ups) and restrooms are available at Cossatot Falls, while primitive camping is available in three other areas, one of which also has restrooms. In order to preserve the park environment, bags are provided for campers to transport their trash home and all restrooms are solar-composting. Access to the park's interior is by way of gravel roads. The park's 17-mile River Corridor Trail extends between the Ark. 246 and U.S. 278 areas. The Harris Creek Trail is a three-mile loop starting near U.S. 278. A new park visitors and education center is under construction and is expected to open in summer 2004. It will have an exhibit room focusing on the river, a wildlife viewing area, two classrooms and park offices. "A big part of our mission with this building will be natural resource education," said Stan Speight, the park's superintendent since its creation. In addition to its rare fauna and flora, the park hosts common Arkansas woodland species such as deer, turkey, squirrel and raccoon, and a breeding-bird count yielded 55 species, Speight said. "In the winter," he added, "we have bald eagles on the river." Though renowned for its whitewater, Speight said, the Cossatot is not consistently at floatable levels. "Some people head down here expecting to see the kind of water they've seen in photographs and are disappointed when they arrive," he said. "We advise everyone to check the water levels beforehand." The stream's upland watershed means that it "goes up and down really, really fast," Speight said, and it is generally floatable for at most a few days after significant rainfall. "It's a pretty short window of opportunity," he said. The Cossatot is only for very experienced floaters, sporting rapids rated up to Class V in difficulty. "It's not ever a stream where Mom and Dad can get out there and float with the kids," Speight said. Education is a major role for the park and natural area. "We want people to be able to see and
realize things they generally don't think about, like ecology and
watershed concepts," he said. "We want them to understand,
for example, that the smallmouth bass in the Cossatot aren't just
out there cruising around in their own little world; they are dependent
on the aquatic insects and other parts of the natural cycle, like
clean water, in order to live. We want to get those kinds of concepts
across to people so they can understand how the whole system works."
Talimena National Scenic Byway
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