Reddit mentions: The best rivers in earth science books

The Ouachita (pronounced Wash-it-aww) and Ozarks are national forests and very, very large. Lots of good places within them though.

My suggestion would be to go to the Buffalo River and hike Hemmed-in-hollow and Goat Trail on the same day or to hike Indian Creek. Hemmed-in-Hollow is a waterfall and Goat trail takes you onto the side of a quite tall bluff. Indian creek is a creek you can hike/wade to see some excellent waterfalls. At the end there's a cave you used to be able to climb through to get to what's called the Eye of the Needle but it's been closed for several years to protect the bats. Just getting to that point is a lot of fun though. Great photographs too. Renting a canoe and floating the Buffalo river is fun. Not a lot of white-water just a few rapids and a fun day on the river. If you're in this area at night stop by to see the Elk. They were reintroduced several years ago and come out to graze in a farm nearby. There will probably be a dozen cars parked on the side of the road watching them.

Drive down to Petit Jean state park. The Boy Scout trail there is ~10 miles long and there's plenty of other short ones you can loop together. Cedar Falls is only a short hike and a great view.

Hot Springs is nice but not top of the list. The trails there are pleasent but the downtown is pretty touristy. Still, it's a National Park and I always like to cross those off my list.

After that go southwest to Eagle Rock Loop. It's been mentioned before for a reason. It's great.

Other ideas are the Richland Creek wilderness area, the Hurrican Creek wilderness area, Forked Mountain, and Sylamore creek. The books below have a pretty extensive list of trails. The three long trails are the Ozark Highlands Trail (165 miles), the Ouachita Trail (222 miles), and the Buffalo River Trail (~40 miles).

https://www.amazon.com/Ouachita-Trail-Guide-Tim-Ernst/dp/1882906438/ref=sr_1_19?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103125&sr=1-19&keywords=Tim+Ernst

https://www.amazon.com/Arkansas-Hiking-Trails-Selected-Natural/dp/1882906128/ref=sr_1_1/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-1&keywords=Tim+Ernst

https://www.amazon.com/Arkansas-waterfalls-guidebook-Tim-Ernst/dp/1882906489/ref=sr_1_3/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-3&keywords=Tim+Ernst
https://www.amazon.com/Ozark-Highlands-Trail-Guide-Ernst/dp/188290639X/ref=sr_1_4/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-4&keywords=Tim+Ernst

https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-River-Hiking-Trails-Ernst/dp/1882906403/ref=sr_1_5/136-4949382-1411237?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505103098&sr=1-5&keywords=Tim+Ernst

A few years back the author William Least Heat-Moon took a boat trip across America, starting in New York and ending in Portland. Of course he had to portage a bit to get across the Continental Divide, but apparently that was less than 75 miles, and all the rest of the trip was accomplished in the water. It's fun to follow the lines on this map and see how such a journey could work.

The Man Who Walked Through Time: The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon by: Colin Fletcher

Such a great book!

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Walked-Through-Time/dp/0679723064

I'd highly recommend taking an intro to meteorology class.



If not able to (many schools don't have them whatsoever), I'd suggest trying MetEd: https://www.meted.ucar.edu/resources_faq.php There are a few courses available there.


I wouldn't suggest purchasing many intro-level books that are focused towards young children. Though many books I've seen are qualitative, some don't provide enough information.


This is the textbook I used for an intro level course at a UC. Qualitative but informative. Meteorology https://www.amazon.com/dp/0073659630/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_FulQzbBY7NJ0X Pretty much all of the available copies seem to be used.

The Man Who Walked Through Time. Very good. A philosophical adventure story.

Tim Ernst wrote the best guides for this.
https://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-River-Hiking-Trails-Ernst/dp/1882906403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520289641&sr=8-1&keywords=buffalo+river+hiking+trails

This is my go to for waterfalls in the area. He also has several other great books:

Waterfalls of Southern Appalachians

The Man Who Walked Through Time classic story of hiking the Grand Canyon.

read the book -- The Man Who Walked through Time...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-Walked-Through-Time/dp/0679723064

The issue is that you are walking not at the river level in the canyon but on one of the shelves. Much planning and mapreading involved. The guy who wrote the book had several airdrops of supplies also.

How do you plan on getting past the dams? You'll have to portage them

How do you plan on getting from the Columbia to Chelan?

How much thought have you put into this?

If you're serious, people have paddled the Columbia. For example:Voyage of a Summer Sun: Canoeing the Columbia River

https://revelstokemountaineer.com/new-documentary-salmon-awareness-voyage-up-the-columbia-river/

And there are guides: Paddling the Columbia: A Guide to all 1200 Miles of our Scenic and Historical River