What is the closet lvl 1.2…kayak river from branson? Looking to day trip from vacation there…?
As I recall the Buffalo isn’t far from Branson, MO. (Take 65 south to Harrison, 7 toward Jasper, and 16 from Jasper to Ponca and “Lost Valley”.) It’s a rain dependent river and, though always beautiful, if its low there will be some carrying over shallows. Above Ponca (Boxly Canyon, I believe its called) is spoken of as tricky Cl III. (I’ve never done that part.) Ponca to Erbie I’ve done several times and is great fun but needs about a 3’ - 3.5’ gauge height at the Ponca gauge. (There are outfitters at Ponca to call if it doesn’t show up on the USGS site.) Otherwise its beautiful and not particularly tricky. There are a bunch of campgrounds along the way - we’ve used the Ozark campground between Harrison and Jasper(off hwy 7) several times for Pnet rendzvous.
The Mullberry isn’t far beyond that , if I recall. That’s a more challenging river. It would be a long day, I think, if you tried to make it a day trip from Branson.