The Lower Mississippi River Water Trail

Rivergator:

Greenville to Vicksburg

MM 537-437

© 2013 John Ruskey

For the Rivergator: Lower Mississippi River Water Trail

The www.rivergator.org is a free public use website

presented by the Lower Mississippi River Foundation.

Re-printing of text and photos by permission only with proper credits.

 

Intro: Greenville to Vicksburg:

Welcome to the 2013 update to the Rivergator: Paddlers Guide to the Lower Mississippi River!

 

This section describes the big river as it flows through the Lower Delta, the last 100 miles of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, from Greenville, the Queen City of the Delta, to Vicksburg, the Gibraltar of the South, at the confluence of the Yazoo River.  After leaving the industrious Greenville Harbor and paddling past Warfield Point you’ll quickly round Vaucluse Bend and be propelled under the new Greenville bridge and go flying past some grain elevators in Arkansas.  And then you’ll quickly return to the wilds of the Lower Mississippi with nothing but forested islands, big river and big open skies as your scenery. Of course there’ll be towboats and fishermen and a few more granaries and refineries along the way.  But it’s amazing how quickly the city disappears into the wilderness.  You’ll camp on beaches the size and feel of Caribbean beaches, and paddle through narrow chutes with lush overhanging willows and cottonwoods.  You’ll be hemmed in by revetment and dikes in one place, and then released into long open sections where the main channel meanders through enormous swaths of floodplain forest and riverbank wetlands still connected directly to the river.  The river and its floodplain create an incredibly vibrant ecosystem of bayous, sluices, chutes, pools, and back channels overflowing with wildlife, notably at Cracraft Cutoff and Paw Paw Chute. 

 

NOTE TO PADDLERS:

The Rivergator is for your free use!  Please print or access from your smart phone.  (Presented here in roughly 100 miles sections from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico).  

Best case scenario: 1) print up section of Rivergator that you will be canoeing or kayaking.  2) Print up accompanying USACE river maps.  3) Print up NOAA River Stage Forecasts the day before you embark on your adventure for latest readings and forecast.  4) Lastly, listen to and print the latest weather forecast. 

 

Secure the above by inserting pages into 8.5×11 page protectors and bundle into a 3-ring notebook or waterproof map casing (available at most water outfitters such as Outdoors Inc. Memphis or online at REI or NRS).

 

If using smart phone protect with water-proof casing!  The river is hungry for electronic devices and equipment that doesn’t float!  (I have personally left several marine radios, a half dozen knives and one camera with the sturgeon and catfish at the bottom of the river!)

 

The Rivergator is a public service brought to you compliments of the Lower Mississippi River Foundation with support from dozens of river experts and partner organizations.