Cataract Landing
A Park Service landing on the Lower Current a fifth of a mile below Hickory Landing: the take-out for the Big Spring to Cataract float and the last named landing above Gooseneck.
Hickory Landing
A Park Service landing at River Mile 7 on the Lower Current, at the end of a gravel road off Highway E, and the shore point for the Lower Current's Cave Spring.
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Hickory Landing is the Lower Current's quiet lower door, a Park Service landing at River Mile 7 at the end of a gravel road off Highway E. The park brochure names it as the location of the Lower Current Cave Spring geologic feature, and Panther Spring, another of the park's listed geologic features, is reached by road or by river from this landing.
For floaters the landing does double duty. The Forest Service's float table puts the run from Big Spring down to Hickory Landing at 8.6 miles, making Hickory the standard take-out for the Big Spring float, and the put-in for the last short reach of the park: Cataract Landing sits two tenths of a mile below, and Gooseneck, the end of the Riverways, 6.2 miles beyond that.
The spring here is protected, not a swimming hole: park rules prohibit entering spring pools and branches, and the Superintendent's Compendium carves out a single exception at Hickory for the vehicle crossing at Cave Spring Branch on the way into the landing area. Look at the spring from the shore, launch or take out, and leave the water in the branch alone.
Good to know before you go
- Fees
- No fee is stated by the official source for this landing (recorded as unknown). No entrance pass is required anywhere in Ozark National Scenic Riverways.
- Hours and seasons
- No hours and no seasonal closure are stated by the official source. River conditions and flood closures can change access; the Park Service posts Current River levels and closures.
- Parking
- Road-end parking at the landing: east from Van Buren about 20 miles on Highway 60, right on Highway 21 for 4 miles, right on Highway E to the end of the pavement, then the left gravel road to its end, about 5 miles in all from the start of Highway E (National Park Service park brochure directions).
- Accessibility
- No accessibility statement is published for this landing.
- Nearest town
- Van Buren, Missouri
- Coordinates
- 36.89283, -90.90957
- Access type
- Canoe and kayak landing
What you can do there
- River landing at River Mile 7 on the Current River
- Shore point for the Lower Current Cave Spring geologic feature
- Put-in and take-out for Lower Current float trips
Best for
Filed under
Nearby places
Big Spring Historic District
A National Register historic district of stone and timber buildings the Civilian Conservation Corps built at Big Spring in the 1920s and 1930s: a dining lodge, cabins, and a museum, closed for restoration but walkable today.
Big Spring
One of the largest springs in the United States, pouring an average of 289 million gallons of clear blue water a day into the Current River, four miles south of Van Buren.
Big Spring Campground
The Park Service's main campground in the Big Spring area: 123 reservable sites on the Current River, a boat ramp, electric hookups in one loop, and Big Spring itself within walking distance.