Cost: $550

The Buffalo is America’s first national river, so designated in 1972.  Flowing west to east for some 150 miles, it is also one of the last undammed rivers in the lower 48 states.  The Buffalo flows through a variety of landscapes, with hundred-foot bluffs of limestone, dolomite, chert, sandstone, and shale, alternating with lower expanses of forested woods and locally named “hollows.”  Thanks to millions of years of erosion—still underway--gravel bars grace the bends where the current slows enough to deposit the mountain debris, providing spontaneous campsites and excellent fossil-hunting opportunities.