Thinking we could escape the cold snap in Iowa (another fantasy, as it turns out), we headed south on Wednesday into Missouri and stopped at Bennett Springs State Park just south of the Lake of the Ozarks. This is a huge trout fishing area, so much so that the waitresses in the restaurant (love state parks with restaurants!) wear really cool shirts with a repeating pattern of the park name and a border of trout printed on them.
There are five campgrounds here. The first, at the river level, suited our purposes perfectly for this particular stay. Each site has a nice level concrete pad and full hookups so set-up was quick and easy. We only planned to stay one night and so did not need to get out the extra lawn chairs, step covers, awning, lights, clothesline, tables, or grill. You can see why it was quicker and easier. But the trees range from very young to pretty small and the sites are close together. Campgrounds 2 and 3 are partway up the hill, are more wooded and spaced farther apart, and have some electric sites and some without. Campground 4 was my favorite, farther up the hill, all electric and more wooded. Campground 5, at the top of the hill is heavily wooded with very secluded sites and could probably be used for an RV Parking Rodeo. There were some intrepid souls up there with motorhomes but most were tents and popups.
As I said, the draw to this park is the trout stream and we drove up to the spring that gives the park its name. The water there is incredible shades of blue and green. The stream was full of fisherpersons, perhaps practicing for this weekend's "Troutapalooza." Their skill is obvious and while I love eating trout, I am glad that my hobbies of knitting and writing do not require standing waist-deep in ice cold water.
So after viewing the offerings of the park, we packed up again (also very quickly) and headed west and south to Indian Point Campground, a Corps of Engineers facility on Table Rock Lake near Branson. It's a pretty site but I am still in shock at discovering that Silver Dollar City is a theme park with a $56 entrance fee! I thought it was like the Amanas or something. Perhaps we will go take a hike in at Table Rock State Park. More later.
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