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JK3045's avatar
JK3045
Explorer
Jun 08, 2015

Missouri....

We have not spent a lot of time in Missouri...going next week for two weeks from Michigan. Any one with suggestions for campgrounds or things worth seeing or doing. No place in particular on my mind.

Thanks ,
John
  • Bob806's avatar
    Bob806
    Explorer III
    We visited Missouri last fall (October 2014), stayed at a nice campground in Annapolis called Big Creek RV Park- it was very nice and in an area called the Arcadia Valley.

    Attractions near there were Johnsons Shut Ins SP, Elephant Rocks SP, and the Ozark Scenic Riverways National Rec Area. We had a blast, and if you love the outdoors its a great area to explore. All kinds of canoeing, golf,hiking, and the folks were friendly and helpful. I'd like to visit that area again someday.
  • Being from Missouri and camping primarily in Missouri for over 60 years I could recommend several spots, depending on you likes and wants, RV requirements and comfort levels. All the previous posters are correct and there are a ton of things to see and do. DW & I are constantly finding new places and interesting thing to see & do.
    A nice quiet park 60 minutes south of St Louis if Hawn SP. Nice trails and a nice quite park. Not far from Ste Genevieve, historic MO town. As mentioned before Roaring River SP is our favorite, but we trout fish. Beautiful area and not far from Eureka Springs, AR.
    I could go on and on. PM me, if you wish, with your requirements, interests and questions.
  • The state parks are very nice in Missouri but don't overlook the Corp of Engineer parks. They have some very nice campgrounds. Any place around Lake of the Ozarks is a zoo - very busy.
  • Missouri is almost as big as Michigan. Where would you recommend I go in Michigan for two weeks and what is worth seeing or doing? Never mind, I lived there for almost a third of my life, I know the Michigan places I like to visit.

    What do you like to do? For water sports, there is Lake of the Ozarks, a huge resort area SW of St Louis, but also drawing a KC crowd.

    Do you want to visit major metro areas with urban culture, historical significance, city amenities? Missouri has two, St Louis and Kansas City. St Louis is still an old urban center much like Detroit was in the 1950s and early 60s, before Detroit crumbled into a POS. KC is a modern sprawling metroplex in the Houston-Los Angeles-Las Vegas style though not yet quite that large.

    Looking for something like Nashville, Dollywood, or a minor scale Disneyworld, or a Las Vegas without the sin? Missouri has the Branson area. The Branson area (Table Rock Lake) also has some very nice water/forest areas on reservoirs feeding the Arkansas river system, though if that's what I was looking for I would go into NW Arkansas or NE Oklahoma, to get the reservoir "wilderness" experience without having to take in the tourist traffic Branson draws.

    My own favorite place in Missouri is the Hannibal area, where the Mark Twain connection has made for the historical preservation of a late 19th century river port (most others have either died or evolved into something quite different). I stay there one to three days at a time, often, but have not extended my visits to two weeks or more. If I am not in a large city, I like to keep moving. There is Mark Twain Lake just west of Hannibal, but if I am staying on a lake, it would rather be Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, or more likely Grand Lake O the Cherokees in Oklahoma.

    There is Chillicothe, home of Sliced Bread. St Joseph, starting point for the short-lived Pony Express. Independence (now kind of a KC suburb) home of Harry Truman. If you look around you'll also find the home towns of Walt Disney and General Pershing (all near US-36). Drift over into Atchison, Kansas, and you'll find the birthplace of Amelia Earhart, just across the river from Missouri.

    If you follow the route of US-66 (now I-44) you can still find many of the 1950s-60s Route 66 tourist traps and modern additions: amusement parks like Six Flags, large cave complexes, safari parks, the walnut bowls factory, original home of Bass Pro Shops, Precious Moments at Carthage, and a few of the largest motor coach resale and RV wrecking yards in the Midwest. I've traveled this route at least fifty times in the past 30 years, have found many places to visit for a few hours, but none where I would be compelled to stay for two weeks.

    So I find Missouri an interesting state, passing through it hundreds of times going to and from Michigan, many places I will stop for a day or two, but no place that might tear me away from home for two weeks. But that's because the places I might stay two weeks in Missouri, the parks on the reservoirs, I have the same thing closer to home in NE Oklahoma.
  • Missouri is a hard state to EXPLORE, lots of history and activities in all four corners, not a lot in between. Someone suggested you visit Lamberts while you are there. I would suggest that would be the equal of getting Pasties while in Mackinaw City. It's a must.
  • The rivers are probably to high to float but the Jacks Fork and Current rivers are beautiful. Alley Spring campground has a loop with water and electric. The trout stream campgrounds are real nice. Bennett Spring isn't too far off the interstate. The lake of the Ozarks state park is nice. So pick any state park and you can't go wrong.

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