Roam With Friends

Category: State Parks

Easter At The Campground

We kicked camping season off over Easter Weekend. It wasn’t planned to be an Easter camping weekend. It was meant to be the men’s annual fishing trip to Bennett Spring State Park. They selected the dates. After it was booked I realized it was Easter. I had a little anxiety about it. I mean, Easter is a big holiday, could we really be away from our families? Could we break tradition? I mean we have spent holidays in our campers: Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day are standard camping weekends for us. But Easter?

Thankfully I listened to a podcast by RV Family Travel Atlas about spending holidays in the campground. The podcast recommended finding a way to celebrate the holiday without all the fuss, staying true to your own traditions. It made sense to me. So, I let go of my family guilt and embraced the idea of opting out…outdoors.

I knew I needed three things to celebrate Easter away from home: some quite time to reflect on the purpose of the holiday, an Easter meal, and an Easter egg and scavenger hunt for the kids. I did most of the meal prep before the men left. The scavenger hunt seemed daunting but with a little brain work, I pulled that together as well.

Friday night when we arrived, I was so giddy to be camping. We have waited all winter long for the opportunity to be out in the fresh air and sleeping in ole Brown Betty. The weather Saturday could not have been any more perfect. We were able to walk all over the park. We hiked all the way from the campground to the bridge and from their to the spring. It was a perfect hike until a snake slithered out to greet me and nearly slid across my foot. And as if that was not enough as we approached the spring, we were warned of a water snake hiding under a rock we passed by.

After all the snake excitement we headed back to the campground for some down time. We even napped. The men got some fishing in. The Boy actually out-fished Wayne for the first time in ever. The Boy felt ten foot and bullet proof.

Angie found her own way of celebrating Easter at the campground. She invited some of her family down to Bennett Spring. They joined us Saturday evening for a fish fry with all those freshly caught trout. We sat around the campfire and enjoyed a crisp spring evening.

Easter Sunday arrived and so did the rain. Our Easter Scavenger Hunt might have been a little damp but the girls had a great time. Watching them complete a blindfolded “how well do you know your Easter candy” challenge was very entertaining!

The rain cleared an hour or so before lunch. We got to enjoy our Easter dinner outside at the picnic table. I may have been apprehensive about breaking tradition but honestly, this holiday was perfect! I am thankful for the tips in the RVFTA podcast. It really helped me step outside my box and find a way to have Easter while doing what we love; exploring and enjoying the outdoors.

April 22, 2017
Happy 100th Anniversary Missouri State Parks!
On April 9, 2017, Missouri State Parks celebrated it’s 100th Anniversary. In 2016, Missouri State Parks kicked off a quest to celebrate their milestone achievement: The Missouri Centennial Passport. The public was encouraged to visit all 88 state parks and historic sites in Missouri and get their passport stamped. Those completing the passport would be entered into a drawing for prizes. Angie and I purchased our passports last Memorial Day Weekend, and got our first stamp, at Onondaga Cave State Park (a side note: we were charged $10.00 when we saw passports on sale everywhere else for $5.00).

The passport quickly became more than just getting a stamp in a book. Instead it became about moments, bonding time with family and friends. It became about adventures. It became about family memories we will cherish for the rest of our lives. Here are a few of the exciting moments I have had in the last 11 months chasing stamps for the Centennial Passport:
- My coworker, and friend, Priscilla and I spent our lunch hour driving to Van Meter State Park during our break from training. We got all the way out there to find the office was closed for lunch. We did not yet know that you could still get a stamp even if the park was closed by taking a photo of the code and sending it to the Department of Natural Resources. That was an important lesson to learn.
- My Mother, Daughter, and even Brother spent and entire Saturday driving around the Central Region visiting parks and collecting stamps. The laughter and jokes in that car on that day linger. We got 5 stamps that day. We visited a civil war site, geocached in a park for veterans, and we learned that the descendants of Daniel Boone mined salt in Missouri from saltwater springs, and we visited the historical picturesque town of Arrow Rock.
- During our trip to the new Echo Bluff State Park last August we were blessed with a rainy day. We used that time to roam the back roads of the Ozarks to visit four different state parks. While visiting Current River State Park, my husband decided to throw a fishing line in the pond/lake there while waiting for me to get my passport stamped. He pulled the biggest bass out of that water that I have ever seen. (Don’t worry ya’ll he put it right back in there for the next visitor to meet.)
- Making it to Big Lake State Park over Labor Day Weekend with Meeghan and our kids to find a bald eagle in the midst of eating his dinner. He was only tolerant of my photo taking skills for so long before he flew away!
- Casually driving to Watkins Mill State Park and Watkins Mill State Historic Site and spying a beautiful spotted owl in a tree just off the road. The world stopped as I stopped the vehicle and just watched him watch me.
- Road Tripping with Coworkers to St. Louis via Jefferson City. We decided to take a less traveled road so we could pit-stop at Deutschheim State Historic Site in Hermann, MO.
- Having grown up in love with the house on the bluff (Bothwell Lodge State Historical Site) and getting excited to finally visit it. Only to have driven to it 3 times and never catch it open. While the grounds are pretty the little girl inside of me still wants to visit the inside. Maybe one day.
- In March 2018, Myself, The Short Chic, Angie, Z, and my mother all hopped into the Todd’s “carvan” and went for an 1800 mile road trip to collect stamps from the St. Louis and Southeast Region. We hit 32 state parks in three days! We went from Troy, MO to New Madrid, MO taking us all to the boothill for the first time in our lives. We walked to the point where the Mighty Mississippi River meets the Missouri River. We met a former Kansas Citian at the home of Scott Joplin. We met a current Northlander at Dr. Edmond Babler Memorial State Park. We arrived at Sandy Creek Covered Bridge an hour before the park opened. We visited Don Robinson’s grave site on the anniversary of his death while visiting one of the newest state parks on the land he donated. Angie and I made a late evening trip from Popular Bluff to Thayer just to arrive at Grand Gulf State Park after hours. Despite a locked gate and darkness we did got that code!
- This past weekend, with only 6 parks left, my family took me to Joplin, MO for a weekend getaway. We visited 4 parks on Saturday including Big Sugar Creek State Park and Nathan Boone Homestead State Historical Site. We hiked at Big Sugar Creek and followed the creek bed for miles. We found morel mushrooms and all kinds of spring plants blooming. While at Nathan Boone Homestead, we enjoyed a wonderful chat with the park ranger and leisurely strolled around the grounds.
- Sunday, April 9, we had 2 parks left to visit. We decided to go to Prairie State Park first and finish at Harry S. Truman’s Birthplace. We found wildlife before we formally entered Prairie State Park, we almost ran over a water snake on the road. Luckily for him, we missed him but he did have to deal with us backing up and snapping photos of him. At the park the ranger, Katie, was so nice that I felt guilty for not picking Prairie as my ending place. Katie gave us some direction to find the bison that roam freely in the park and we set off to find them. We did find the bison along the Standstone Trail with no real effort other than fighting the wind. As we went to grab our cameras for photos, my dearest husband realized he had dropped his cell phone somewhere along the trail. Unbelievably, he found it and we bailed on the rest of the hike and proceeded to our last stop.
- As we approached Lamar, MO it was past lunch time. We were hungry but we decided to grab a snack and eat after we visited Harry S. Truman’s Birthplace. Wayne kept joking that the ranger could get sick and close early so we had to finish as soon as possible. We arrived at the park office around 1:30. Bubbling with excitement I told the ranger that I was not only just there for a stamp but I was there for my 88th stamp. She was super nice and helped me finish the certification process. Afterwards, she provided us with a tour of the home Harry S. Truman was born in. I loved seeing my kids realizing how privileged they are when they see a home without running water, or electricity, or in my son’s case a full size bed that is smaller than his own bed.
The most common question that I have been asked is what is my favorite park. I have decided that is a hard question to answer. I have so many favorites, but I have come to realize that my favorites are all from places where I had a conversation with someone. A connection. Maybe not a forever one but an “in the moment” connection. So thank you to the rangers at Trail of Tears State Park and Nathan Boone State Park for just being nice and chatting with us. Thank you to the employee at Rock Bridge who did not close early that day so I could rush in from site seeing to stamp my book at the close of business (or maybe a little after)! Or the employee at The Battle of Pilot Knob who allowed us to explore the historic site even though he had reached the end of his day. To Aaron at Onondaga Cave State Park for helping us get into the park last year among the flooding. Thank you, and I am sorry, to Katie at Prairie State Park. I do wish I had certified with you! To all the Park Rangers and Volunteer Staff, you are the face of the Missouri State Parks system and you do a great job! There would not be a celebration without you all and your hard work.

When I walked into Harry S. Truman’s Birthplace State Historical Site on April 9, 2017, I did not realize it was the actual 100th Anniversary. I was trying to finish my passport before my own birthday. Angie told me after I called her with the news that I had finished. I can’t think of a more perfect way to finish this journey.

So, what is your favorite Missouri State Park? I can now say, “Oh, I have been there!”

Thank you to everyone who walked a part of this journey with me.
April 12, 2017
Halloween Camping

We love fall and our favorite fall activity is Halloween. I do find it a bit bittersweet, the fact that the end of camping season is near but Halloween is so much fun that you kinda put the doom of what is coming out of your mind for a while.

A few of our local state parks have started hosting Halloween Campouts (Watkins Mill State Park and Wallace State Park). We sorta stumbled onto the first one and had such a great time that we keep going back. Last year we even won the Scariest Campsite Contest and earned ourselves three free nights of camping. We used that reward and booked sites at Watkins Mill State Park for the 3rd Annual Halloween Campout this past weekend.

When the judges brought us our first place prize last year they said, “You really blew us away and we can’t wait to see what you come up with for next year!” I am sure that was some kind of standard reply they give to everyone but we took it to heart and looked at it as a challenge. Could we top the Mad Science Lab we did last year?

Maybe I should pause here and explain who all is involved in this haunted camping trip. The Taylor’s and The Todd’s have been at every single Halloween Camp-Out at Watkins Mill. Last year we extended an invitation to The Merriman’s because they are fun and love Halloween as much as we do. This year, the Todd’s had to cancel due to a conflict with Z’s sports schedule. So, I invited my friend Meg and her family. (Do you remember Meg? She wrote a blog post for us called Growing Up Camping.) Then we have my dear Mother who comes to help and participate the day of the Halloween party. We also have other friends who attend the same camp-out so it is nice to spend time with so many great camping friends!

We settled on our theme for the year: Zombie Prom. We decided a prom had three main elements we needed to create in our campsite. First we needed a DJ. You can’t have a school dance without someone playing music. Second we needed a photo attraction. I am sure all of you out there have a “memorable prom photo” from back in the day. And finally, we needed a refreshment table with cake and punch.

I would say we it took us about 2 months to pull together all of our decorations. Finding formal attire we could muck up at a price point reasonable to us took a little while. In the end we told our family members that as long as they had something to do with high school we would be happy. So, we ended up with a Zombie Prom Queen and her date, a Zombie baseball player, football player, a few cheerleaders, and even a Grimm reaper responsible for collecting the departed souls.

We used two easy up tents as our frame. We covered the tents with inexpensive black dollar store plastic table cloths to create walls. Not only did the walls give us an area to transform, it also kept us hidden from the watchful eye sight of other campers. I think this helped create an excitement around our campsite as everyone’s anticipation kept building about what was inside that tent. On top of the black walls, we hung up some red plastic table cloths that we unevenly cut into strips. I remember back to my high school days and we used rolls of crepe paper to create the walls of our dances. Hours were spent hanging the crepe paper and twisting it in the same direction and taping it to the floor. We wanted our Zombie Prom to look like it had been pretty at one point but had been discarded and forgotten until this one night.

Our original plan was to have red and white plastic tablecloths cut to look like crepe paper streamers but when we got to the campground I realized I had picked up round tablecloths and not rectangle ones. Meg was quick on her feet and suggested using the rounds as valances on top of the red and it worked out well!

For our photo attraction, The Merriman’s and I made a giant 6 foot 3 inch coffin out of cardboard. We were gifted the shipping box of a whiteboard and set about measuring and cutting. Once cut, we painted it black and duck taped it all together. Our original thought was to have someone “pop” out of the coffin and provide a timely and funny photobomb but in the end, we left the coffin closed because it felt stronger. We added chains and a “beware of zombie’s” styrofoam sign to the coffin. Around the coffin we had a candelabra with zombie candle’s, skulls, and a flower arrangement of dead flowers. The Merriman’s and I also made a sign to sit in front of the photo attraction that said “Zombie Prom “#3rdAnnualHalloweenCampout #WatkinsMillStatePark.

The DJ was the easiest and maybe the funniest part to set up. We have access to a life-size medical skeleton that we like to call Bob. Bob was always going to be the DJ for the prom. We were going to call him “Bob Bones” and use bone lettering to make him a DJ sign for his booth. However, the presidential debates happened and Ken Bone made himself an internet sensation. So, we changed Bob’s name to Ken, gave him a mustache, put a red sweater on him, and called him Ken Bone, DJ 4 Hire. We put Beat headphones on him, rested his hands on a turntable and a laptop. I even found a brand new mirrored disco ball on Craigslist and hung it from the roof of the tent. We used our red/green garden lasers to caste light onto the disco ball so the entire prom spun with light.

We always knew we wanted cake and punch at the refreshment table but really debated over fake cake vs real cake. A month or so ago, I stumbled onto a tutorial from another RV blogger, Gretchen about a fake cake she had made in the past. (Gretchen has two blogs one for home, Boxy Colonial, and one for the RV, Boxy Colonial On The Road.) I knew immediately that this was the type of cake we were going to have. So I set about buying cake forms with my 40-50% off coupons and used some Plaster of Paris I had at home to frost the cakes. I used old Mardi Gras beads painted black for decoration and made clay roses uses Sculpey clay I had on hand. Ironically, I never figured out how to make roses with frosting but my clay roses turned out amazing! We added some old flower arrangements painted black to the table along with some blood red punch with eyeballs and had a spooky looking refreshment table.

Outside the tent we created a grave yard with styrofoam headstones and compost dirt. We put strobe lights and warning tape up. We also lit the pathway from the road to the tent with solar lights and we ran floral wire between three trees and taped red glow sticks to the wire to give the effect of floating red candles.

Reflections from the night:

This was the most forgiving theme we could have picked. It did not matter how inexperienced we were at mucking clothing up, it looked great. Not a single one of us felt confident with our make-up skills going into this but we nailed it! The Plaster of Paris got bumped around a bit as it cured, it didn’t matter it looked like it was a decade old.

I am not sure how many parents at the Halloween campout knew who Ken Bone was. He was funnier to us than any visitor!

We had a line to visit our Zombie Prom all night long. In hindsight, we should have created a front entrance and a back exit. Our photo attraction got a lot of attention and it slowed down the traffic flow.

We ended up taking first place again! It was a shared victory with all the kids and all the adults who helped plan. We all went to bed with big smiles and maybe some sore muscles from all the dancing we did. People greeted us with their hopes of seeing us next year and looking forward to our site. It seems we have a reputation to uphold.

There were other really cute sites in the campground. A short drive around, we snapped some photos of our favorites.

This was our campground host. They used their Class A cab to create a giant monster face and even used the grill for a mouth. I also love the Halloween pail totem pole.

The Short Chic and I saw this large frame made of PVC pipe during our morning walk. We wondered how they would use it. Well, it was nice to find out. I am not sure if they purchased this or made it but they put a giant Frankenstein cover over the PVC frame.

This trio of skeletons sat around a campfire roasting marshmallows all weekend. The fire was very realistic and crackled and popped just like our real fire did!

A trio of witches brewing up some special potion just for Halloween. They had motion sensors and startled me when I got close enough to activate them.

This camper has been pickin his banjo a long ole time.

This group skeletons look like they are enjoying camp life.

If you have the opportunity to go camping for Halloween, we encourage you to give it a try! And if you are interested, we will back at Watkins Mill State Park next year for the 4th Annual Halloween Camp-out. See you then!

October 31, 2016
Spelunking at Onondaga Cave State Park

Occasionally all the parts come together in the right order and the right amounts and make something next to wonderful. Just one little alteration would change the composition and you would have a different outcome. I am not sure how, we certainly experienced more than our fair share of challenges, but our trip to Onondaga Cave State Park came together and will go down in history as one of our most favorite camping trips. We had a steady supply of laughter to balance out the frustration. We were just far enough from home that we felt like we were on a real adventure but close enough to make it home within a few hours. We had just the right mix of friends. We balanced a good dose of adventure out with some rest and relaxation. What more could you ask for in a camping trip?

Onondaga Cave State Park is located just southeast corner of the central region of Missouri. It is right off I-44 south of St. Louis and North of Rolla. From Kansas City it is 275 miles one way. We first heard about Onondaga Cave State Park from a RV friend, Jenni, who showed us breathtaking photos of Onondaga Cave. The state park has a campground with 68 camping spots (less than 50 with water and electric). We secured our reservations for this trip a long while ago, when most of you were out taking advantage of Black Friday shopping.

The camping pads were concrete. We had water and electricity for $22.00 a night. We had sites 61-64 and in our opinion they were the best sites in the entire park. We had a wooded ridge on one side of us and behind our sites was a lovely tree lined creek. Our girls spent hours splashing in the creek. On the opposite side of the creek was a large greenway that made a perfect dog-walking area. Except the traffic on the road in front of us, it felt like we were secluded in our private area of the campground. There was no cell service in the park but they did have wifi. I will not say it was the best wifi available but we were able to connect and be connected for periods of time.

We have continued to teach ourselves how to geocache and by late Saturday afternoon we were ready to try and find one of the five geocaches located within the park. Out of the thirteen of us only four had even heard about this activity and half of those are still traumatized by the first attempt at geocaching. We set out to find the cache in the park amphitheater. Finding the first cache was challenging but once we found it several members of our group were immediately determined to go out and search for the next cache, even if it meant hiking steep hills and navigating some rocky terrain. We never did find the second cache but we sure did put in the effort. We talked about that hike for the rest of the weekend!

We originally desired to come to this park for one thing: spelunking or the exploration of caves. Missouri has over 6,000 caves and easily earns the title as The Cave State (hum, maybe we should be changing our tag line from The Show Me State to The Cave State). On our second full day in the park, we made plans to tour both; Cathedral Cave and Onondaga Cave. Due to the size of our group, we were able to arrange group discounts to each cave; bringing the price down to $10.00 per adult for Onondaga and $6.00 per adult for Cathedral. I should mention that if you scoff at the cave tours and desire for something wilder, you can do that at Cathedral Cave. A group called Onondaga Friends Association offers Off Trail Wild Caving a few times a year to small groups. If this interest you, be prepared to get wet and crawl around in parts of the cave not normally open to the public.I love spelunking but I am going to stick with the organized tours.

Park staff lead flashlight tours of Cathedral Cave on the weekends; the tours require a short 1/3 mile hike to the cave. We had the most amazing tour guide who was informative as well as entertaining. Our guide checked for “critters” before allowing us into the cave; I did not realize at the time she was looking for snakes. Ignorance really is bliss! As we entered the cave, we were ushered into an air lock room, a large concrete room that allowed us to close the door to the outside before opening the door to the cave. This minimizes the amount of air allowed into the cave, therefore protecting the delicate ecosystem of the cave. We were greeted by “locals” in the air lock room; three rather large wolf spiders! Thankfully for us, they were skittish and kept their distance during our short time in the room.

As we climbed the stairs down into the cave, another cave dweller waited to greet us, a cave salamander. Using flashlights, because the cave is not lit, you will see stalagmites, stalactites, columns, soda straws, Stromatolites (fossilized algal beds), and great amounts of cave coral. We were lucky enough to spot two grotto salamanders in the creek that runs through the cave. Unlike cave salamanders, grotto salamanders never leave the cave. They are born sited and with pigment but as they age, their eyes seal shut and they lose their skin pigment (who needs skin color or eye site in a dark cave?). By the time they are adults they are blind and colorless almost translucent.

Deep into Cathedral Cave is a Seismic Station that is constantly gathering earthquake measurements and sending them to the Earthquake Center in Colorado.. Right after the Seismic Station, we went down a 65 foot switchback taking us to the curtain the cave is named after Cathedral Curtain. We traveled approximately 260 feet below the surface during our tour of Cathedral Cave. My overall impressions of this cave is just how big it is. I never felt confined during any part of this tour. During the tour, the guide had us turn our lights off to experience the darkness of the cave. The depth of darkness is beyond any words I can find to describe it. If I had not been touching my daughters shoulders I would never have known she was standing right in front of me.

After touring Cathedral Cave a lunch break was needed. It is down right amazing how hungry you can get hiking around in the Ozarks! I also needed time to recharge my camera battery as I ran out of camera juice in the first thirty minutes of being in the cave.

The entrance to Onondaga Cave is located at the Visitor Center. Out of the two cave systems in this park, Onondaga is the more visited, more commercial cave. Flashlights are not needed when visiting as the pathways are lit. I also noticed baby strollers on the paths, so I would say there is some accessibility but I also noticed part of the tour the path gets tight and involves a large incline/decline. There is a waiting area for those who do not want to go onto this part of the path, so I would say you could make your own decisions about accessibility. We had a 90 something year old man on our tour (he had previously visited the cave in the early 1940’s when he was a young teen) , walking the entire time.

Just like Cathedral Cave, you have to enter an air lock room before entering the cave. The one at Onondaga is much cleaner than Cathedral (we were not greeted by wolf spiders) and it is equipped with red lights to help our eyes get use to the dimmer light conditions. Onondaga Cave is beautiful, you will still see the same cave features as Cathedral, but our overall impression is we enjoyed our time in Cathedral Cave more so than Onondaga. Onondaga does have a lost river running through out it. The 90 year old gentleman on our tour told us he remembers his first visit (around 1942) he entered the cave by boat. At times the water seems stagnate but it is in fact running; a former cave owner even built a small waterfall to prove to the public that it was indeed running.

Onondaga Cave has a few mentionable features: The Twins are duo stalagmites, The Rock of Ages, the King’s Canopy, The Queen’s Canopy, and the Big Room. Just in case you wondered we did learn some cave lingo: Stalagmites grow from the ground and might reach the ceiling one day where Stalactites hang tight from the ceiling. When the two of those meet they create a column. Our favorite mentionable feature of Onondaga Cave was the Lily Pad Room; a room full of speleothems and water.

During our tour of Onondaga Cave, we met a very nice lady from Rhode Island who was visiting Missouri with her husband. Their 21 year old son is currently stationed here and they came to celebrate his 21st birthday with him. We invited them back to our campsite after the cave tour to celebrate his birthday with an adult beverage and ended up getting a great lesson in how to play Bocci Ball from some folks who were really good. It was great to meet new friends while we travel and I do believe we are all addicted to the game of Bocci.
In a recent study it was found that in the last year campers preferred public campgrounds to private campgrounds two to one (this has increased from the previous year). Onondaga Cave State Park is a perfect example of why state parks are becoming more popular. Besides hiking, visitors to this park can explore two cave systems, or spend their time playing in the Merrimac River either fishing, floating, splashing, or swimming. The camping pads are top notch and you get water and electric for $22.00 a night. If you are needing a summer weekend get away, we would highly recommend giving Onondaga State Park a try.

Want some more, check out our video!

June 10, 2016
Bennett Spring State Park
Bennett Spring State Park is one of our most favorite camping spots in the state of Missouri and we tend to make a yearly pilgrimage to visit the river stocked with fresh trout. Trout fishing season opens March 1 and goes until October 31 and fish are stocked daily throughout the season.

Bennett Spring State Park has a total of five campgrounds with a grand total of 189 camping sites available. The majority of their sites are basic, or electric sites but they do have 48 sites with full service hookups. This year we opted to stay in Campground 1, the full service campground located closest to the river. We selected our campsite and made our reservations online through the Missouri State Park Camping Reservation System six months ago.

Campground Basic/Review:

The last time we stayed in Loop 1 was approximately 8 years ago in our vintage Argosy. The loop had more and bigger trees than I remembered. I did notice that the row we selected had our campers facing North, with the doors and awnings facing West and the slides to the East. I thought to myself, in the heat of the summer, the long hot afternoon and evening hours would effectively render our shade producing awnings useless. Luckily, spring is upon us and the temperature highs were in the mid-seventies and the lows in the upper forties. I did make a mental note to look at the orientation of the map the next time we select a campsite online. Each site came with a completely level concrete pad, a fire ring, a picnic table, and a post with a hook. Some of you might think that is for trash or even a lantern but we fisherman know that post is for our wet waders.

Fishing Report:

Our four night stay at Bennett was primary to let the trout fishermen release some stored up cabin fever. The river was slightly low due to the lack of rain in the area so far this spring, but was a welcome relief from the damaging floods that occurred this past Christmas season. The fishing was great! We had no problems meeting our daily limit. My dad, Allen and I all noticed that the average trout seemed much bigger this trip than in the past and most of them when caught, had some seriously full bellies. No doubt the trout were eating well this season. We discussed theories on why the trout were bigger and we were able to track down a hatchery employee who did confirm for us that in fact the trout are bigger this spring than normal. He informed us that three things were contributing to the larger trout:
1. They had a surplus supply of trout that they held over from last year. This means there were fed in the beds all winter long.
2. The superintendent of the park made the decision to feed the river all winter. In years past the fish left in the river at the conclusion of the season were left to fiend for themselves. This resulted in skinny, “snake” like trout.
3. The fish are always a little bigger in the spring than the late summer/fall when we normally visit.
Local Community:

We did have a couple of interactions with the larger community during our stay. Allen had a small issue with his hot water and received quick and efficient service from Glynn’s Mobile RV Repair. Glynn came to our campsite and resolved his problem super fast. If you need emergency RV service while at Bennett, give Glynn a call.

We also visited our friends at Hidden Valley Outfitters, they are a full service campground literally right across the highway from the state park. Besides camping you can book float trips from HVO and they will take you up stream and you raft or canoe your way right back to the campsite. We stayed with them and took a canoe trip with them last summer. They also have a wedding chapel on sight.

We had a “quick” lunch at Hillbilly Burger which is located in the park. We had cheeseburgers, french fries, and their fried mushrooms. The fries are hand cut. Their mushrooms were good. The service was the slowest thing imaginable. We would have entertained the idea of ice cream but honestly we had to wait so long to order and for our food that by the time we were done with our meal, we were really done. I would also say it would have been nice for them to have at least given us our drinks while we waited for food.

Park Services:

Since Allen, my father, and I went down before our wives and daughters showed up, we visited The Lodge, a restaurant in the state park for several of our meals. As soon as you walk through the door, you’ll be greeted with a friendly face and we’ve always had great service. We visited The Lodge for breakfast once and supper a couple of times. The food off the menu is served hot and plenty of it. They always have a small fresh salad bar available as well. On the weekends they set up a buffet with more than enough choices including baked and fried chicken, catfish, baked pasta, fresh veggies, and mashed potatoes. Of course they have a selection of home made pies if you save some room.

The epicenter of the park is the general store. You can buy everything from daily fishing tags and waders to pork rinds and wind chimes. There is a full service fly shop, bait and tackle store as well. They sell Bennett Spring souvenir coffee cups and giant stuffed snakes. If you need it, they probably have it, if you don’t need it, they probably have it anyway. As always in the park you’ll get friendly service with a smile.

CAMERA

Be sure to walk around the rearing ponds at the hatchery. You can even take a tour, or do what we did, asked one of the park employees a bunch of questions. They seem more than happy to share their knowledge about the park with you. And brings some quarters with you so that you can buy some fish chow to feed the fish.

There also a Nature Center and several hiking tails you can visit as well. There is other lodging available in the form of cabins and hotel room and a swimming pool that’s open during the summer months.

Hopefully it is easy to see why Bennett Spring State Park is one of our favorites. We did enjoy our time at Campground 1 and will be making advanced plans to visit it again. I will leave you with this short video. The flat roads at Campground 1 allowed the girls to practice their bicycling skills, I am happy to say that soon both the girls will be wheelin’ around a campground near you!
May 3, 2016
Missouri Camper Award

There is a trend here at Roam With Friends that you might soon pick up on. Let me save you some time and just put it out there: we love camping at state parks. We love the price value, we love the sites, we love the activities, we love the adventure, and we love the choices the state parks give us. With that being said, our stay in a state park is usually short (two to four days).

A few years ago, we learned that our state parks system has a rewards program for frequent campers. It is called the Missouri Camper Award. I learned about the award doing one of the things that I do best; reading. Angie and I were sitting together at a picnic table on one of our very early camping trips and I was reading through the brochures the camp host handed us at check-in. Am I the only one who reads those brochures? There in one of the brochures I found a tiny paragraph about earning the camper award. The eligibility for the award looked simple: camp in five different state parks in one year, obtain the camp-host signature, return the form, and earn a patch. Our geek-ness took over and Angie and I decided we wanted the award!

The Missouri Camper Award was actually started in 1971 with only 13 recipients. Each year the program has grown to reach nearly 600 recipients in 2011. In addition to the Missouri Camper Award, Missouri also offers a “Distinguished Missouri Camper” award. You are eligible for the Distinguished Missouri Camper award for every five years of participating in the Missouri Camper Award.

To participate in the program you need a Camper Award form. You can get these directly from Missouri Department of Natural Resources or you can just ask the camp-host at check-in. Every time you visit a new state park you ask the host to certify your form (they date it, sign it, hand it back to you). When you have camped at five different state parks, you mail it in the the Department of Natural Resources. Shortly after that you will receive a package back in the mail.

Your package will contain a certificate, a patch and a year bar for each member of your family. After your first year, you will receive a new year bar and a certificate. It is up to you to decide how you want to display your patch. We made a flag for ours that welcomes people to our campsite.

We will be working on year number three this summer. We have four trips to state parks lined up and are looking for one more. What about you? Does your state have a rewards program? If so, tell us about it!

March 12, 2016
Favorite Destination of 2015: Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park
Unanimously, The Taylor’s and The Todd’s agree that Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park was our favorite 2015 destination. Johnson’s Shut-Ins is located near Lesterville, Missouri which is just over 100 miles south of St Louis, under 200 miles east of Springfield, and 295 miles southeast of Kansas City, MO, which is where we are based.

Park Details:
- Johnson’s Shut-Ins is a state park.
- Senior Citizens receive a discount.
- Special sites are designated ADA and can’t be used by the general population.
- There are 5 different loops with a total of 85 sites.
- There is designated sites for camping, hike-in camping, camper cabins, electric only, electric/water, and electric/water/sewer sites.
- Due to the 2005 Taum Sauk Reservoir breach, the campground was relocated to a new location in the state park and is brand new.
- There are ample pull-through and back in sites.
- Each site in loop 1, 2, 3 and 4 have concrete pads.
Camping Fee’s

Basic camping (non-improved site) is $13.00 a night. Electric Premium sites (50 amp service) is $23.00 a night.. Electric/Water Premium site is $25.00 a night and full service (sewer/electric/water) is $28.00.

Booking:

Missouri State Parks uses an online registration system. The site is relatively easy to research and select a site. We use the campground map as well as the online photos. There is also a toll free number if you prefer to speak to a person instead of the online registration. Missouri State Parks allows advance registration six months prior to your trip.

Size of the Campground:

The entire state park is over 6,000 acres. The campground is large. The sites are spacious. There are five camping loops at Johnson’s Shut-Ins. The first loop is designated for Equestrian and has ten water and electricity sites. Loops 2 and 3 have a total of forty, 50 amp service some with electricity and others have full hook-ups. Loop 2 also has six camper cabins. Loops 4 is designated for walk-in camping and has 14 sites, and Loop 5 is designated basic for tent campers and also has 14 sites.

Campground Details:

Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park became a state park in 1955 but people have been enjoying the Shut-Ins longer than this park has been in existence. What is a Shut-In? Well, simply put it is a constriction in a waterway. In this case, granite boulders from the St Francois Mountains have jutted up to the surface in the Black River. The Black River is constricted with these boulders and the erosion has made pools of water, water falls, and chutes in this canyon-like gorge. People love to come and spend time cooling off and playing in the Shut-Ins.

In December 2005, the Taum Sauk Reservour that is housed high above the Shut-Ins breached and sent 1.3 billion gallons of water rushing down Proffit Mountain. The water brought down boulders, trees and other debris with it and literally almost destroyed Johnson Shut-Ins. The campground, then located near the Shut-Ins was destroyed. The campground host and his family barely survived. The ecosystem at Johnson Shut-Ins was severely damaged. Since 2005 this park has been under restoration. Cutting edge technology has been used to try and save the ecosystem and the campground area was relocated to higher ground as a safety precaution.

We expected to find very little shade at Johnson’s Shut-Ins due to how new the campground is. Instead, we found the exact opposite. Sites 2, 3, and 4 had great tree coverage.

Amenities:

There are a total of three stores in Johnson’s Shut-Ins. One inside the Visitor Center, one by the Shut-Ins and a large general store in the campground. The Campground General Store does have wi-fi available but you do have to go and visit the store in order to get the wi-fi. Our teenage boy spent a lot of time sitting outside the general store!

The general store also has a coin laundry room. There is a changing room outside the store at the Shut-Ins.

Each camping loop has one showerhouse with a separate restroom. We visited the showers during our stay and found them to be very clean and nice. Due to our too close encounter with some of the parks wildlife, we took early showers so that we were not walking around the park in the dark.

There is no pool. Visitors/guest of the state park have access to the Shut-Ins. Parking is limited at the Shut-Ins. I am told that day visitors line up for parking spots. The good news, registered campers are given passes to special parking that we found to be easily accessible.

The Visitor Center is a nice amenity that should not be overlooked.There is so much history and science alive in this area and the videos and displays do a great job of helping to educate the public, young and old. New history has been added as well. The entire 2005 reservoir breach and subsequent efforts to recover have been documented and are available for viewing. We found the visitor center to be informative, entertaining, and a cool place to hangout on a hot day!

Overall Thoughts/Feelings about the Campground/Visit:

We loved this campground and this park. We went into our trip expecting to love the Shut-Ins but not loving the campground. As I indicated earlier in this post, knowing this was a “new” campground we expected to find a stark campground with no shade or trees. I can’t even express how happy we were to find the exact opposite. The campground sites were concrete and spacious. We honestly felt like we were at a private campground with the extra space of a state park. We had a fire ring and a picnic table. We had a pole with a hook that allowed us to hang both a lantern or our trash.

Going into the vacation, our research taught us that hundreds of people visit the Shut-Ins each weekend so we made plans to visit them during the week. Swimming in the Shut-Ins was fun. It was a new adventure. The water is cool and clear and the force of the water create the most spectacular water park you can imagine. The only thing to remember is; this water park is not made from tubes or pipes. This water park is made of rocks; and some are sharp and jagged. I am glad our children had life jackets and we all had water shoes on. In the end, we only played in the Shut-Ins once. Perhaps if we were staying a full week at this park we would have gone another day but due to our limited four days we had other exciting things to pack into our trip. We like camping at state parks and enjoy our contact with nature. We have been fishing, caught crawdads, observed birds, gotten close to deer, spied lizards , and maybe even inadvertently feed a raccoon or two. During this trip, we learned our limitations….snakes. On our first night, as the kids were busy riding their scooters around our loop and the adults were sitting by a campfire talking about our travels to the park, the Park Ranger stopped by. He pointed out to us that a copperhead snake was right in front of our campsite heading in our direction. Of course the majority of us had flip flops or sandals on our feet at the time. Thankfully the Park Ranger used a stick and safely scared the copperhead away from us but we decided to call it a night and go to bed early. Interestingly enough, the snake appeared again but never bothered us.

Daily, the camp rangers came by and invited all the kids and adults to the educational program of the night that was held at the parks amphitheater. Ironically, the first show was about snakes! The kids went and learned a lot of information. The second night the show was about comets. The show was high energy and involved glow sticks and again, the kids came back talking about the stars all night long.

Regional Activities:

We found so many activities in the surrounding Arcadia Valley that we honestly were busy every day during our stay. Other than stopping by a few convenience stores for drinks, we did not eat out on this trip so we did not visit any local restaurants. Here are a few of the things we found and highly recommend:
- Float Trip: Nothing says summer in Missouri like a float trip down a river. The Black River is perfect for floating; cool and clear water. The Shut-Ins prevent canoes from passing through the part of the river that runs through the state park, you actually need to go into Lesterville to find a canoe outfitter.
- Taum Sauk Mountain: Taum Sauk Mountain was approximately forty-five minutes from Johnson’s Shut-Ins. We packed a picnic lunch and spend the afternoon hiking one of the trails to the highest elevated waterfall in Missouri. Taum Sauk Mountain also has the highest elevation point in Missouri and you can access it easily from a parking lot near the elevation point.
- The Ozark Trail runs through Johnson’s Shut-Ins in continues through the region. Wayne has actually added hiking from Taum Sauk Mountain to Johnson’s Shut-Ins to his bucket list.
- Elephant Rock State Park: Another short drive from Johnson’s Shut-Ins (25 minutes) is another state park that is for day use only. Elephant Rock State Park is scattered with giant red granite boulder. There is an ADA braille trail that winds throughout the park. Children and adults have enjoyed climbing all over rocks that look like elephants from a distance. All of us loved visiting this park. When we ran our of steam from climbing and exploring we found ample picnic tables for our midday meal.
What we did not like:

Our main complaint was with the dump stations. There was no spigot of water to flush the black tanks. Luckily for us, there were openings in the full hook up sites and we were able to pull into one of them and empty and clean our tanks. It does baffle me that this campground and park that is so newly rebuilt and amazing for a state park does not have water at their dump station.

The playground is a secondary concern of ours. There is a playground and it was nice but it is near the campground store and not near any of the camping loops. The distance was far too far for us to feel comfortable sending the girls to play there.

We did have a near close encounter with a poisonous snake, a copperhead. We drove 300 miles (clear across the state) to visit this park. That is important because copperheads are just not that common in Kansas City and they were not even on our radar. Thankfully, nothing happened and a very nice Park Ranger educated us in the nick of time. I wish we had been warned about the copperheads at the time of our check in. I would really have like a brochure on the types of animals we might encounter and safety precautions to avoid contact or minimize contact. I know during my visit to Yellowstone National Park we were given ample brochures explaining how to interact with the animals in the park and how to keep ourselves and the animals safe.

In closing, this was our favorite trip of the year. It is high on our return list. If you are planning a trip to Missouri, or if you are a Missourian, we encourage you to get out and head to this state park.
February 18, 2016