We spent most of the winter at our home base in the Chicago suburbs and by mid-February we were itching to get back on the road. We had a conference back home the first weekend of March, so we couldn’t go too far, but we wanted to at least spend a couple nights back on the road. We ended up spending two weeks in southeast Missouri with our main goal being visiting Missouri’s high point. We ended up having a great time in this area, there is a lot of really cool geology and nature here. Plus, it helped that it was regularly 10+ degrees warmer than back home!
Monday: The Campsite Shuffle
After spending the night at a Harvest Hosts site in Livingston, Illinois, we arrived in Missouri. We had booked our campsite at Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park and when we first pulled in we were thrilled to see how nice the campground looked. It was clear that Missouri was putting a lot of money into their facilities. We started getting set up, and then realized we had a problem. We have both T-Mobile and Verizon internet, but even between the two there was ZERO cell service here. We had none on our phones either. If we were just vacationing, that’d be fine and we’d use it as a chance to unplug. But since we actually live in our RV, that means we also work in it and internet is kinda important. There was WiFi at the campstore, but it was closed for the season and the signal outside was too weak for working there. It was just enough, though, for us to spend some time frantically searching for another option.
Our first mistake was not checking internet before starting to get set up, and our second mistake was arriving at a campground just a couple hours before Josh had a board meeting. While we hopped on a quick call with his boss, I scoured the internet for campground options that might actually have cell signal. Those didn’t seem to exist, but I found Echo Bluff State Park which has free WiFi and was about an hour away. Campground WiFi is known for being pretty weak usually, but from photos it looked new and like there were a good number of poles throughout the campground.
So we took the gamble, hurriedly packed up, and headed over. We made it in time for Josh’s meeting and the campground WiFi not only existed, but was really good signal too! Echo Bluff is the newest state park in Missouri’s system and all the facilities were really nice. We ended up being really happy with our campground, even though it did mean more driving for a lot of the activities we wanted to do. You can read our full campground review here: The Ultimate Echo Bluff State Park Camping Guide
Tuesday: Devil’s Well, Welch Springs, Groceries, and Pasties
Tuesday we needed to get groceries and the closest big grocery store was Walmart in Salem, about 35 minutes away. So I planned a few stops along the way for our evening activities.
Our new campground put us right in the middle of the Ozark National Scenic Riverway, which has a bunch of different units near the Current and Jack Forks Rivers. Our first spot to check out was Devil’s Well. Since I’m the one who does all the activity research, Josh got the excitement of not knowing what to expect and thought maybe it’d just be a pond- so he was especially awed when we actually got there. Even after seeing photos, for me it was still incredibly cool to see in person! It makes me think of the Devil’s Kettle scenes in Jennifer’s Body.
Next up, was Welch Springs and the Welch Springs Hospital ruins. This spot was a little harder to figure out exactly where to go, and although the way we went worked, we knew we would want to come back the other way. We ended up taking the gravel road to Welch Landing, where we parked and walked to the spring. From this direction, the ruins are across the spring and there is no safe crossing- but it is a good view! The trail was very covered in downed trees and other storm debris when we went, so it was quite an adventure getting there. When we left and continued on to Salem for groceries, we found the spot that better matched the written description from the NPS website, which says to ,”xxx”. We passed a gate with a brown National Park service road sign, which must be the gate they were talking about. We could see that there’s an interpretive sign and picnic table next to the ruins, so we knew there must be another access point somewhere.
I wrote more about Devil’s Well and Welch Springs in my post on 8 Unforgettable Wonders to Explore in Ozark National Scenic Riverways.
We always like to judge towns by their Walmarts, and Salem passed the Walmart test! It was a nice, clean store. The best part, though, was in the parking lot. After we came out we saw that there was a food truck selling pasties. We got two of their modern flavors (one pizza and one cheeseburger) to try and oh my goodness they were so good. The pastry was cooked perfectly and was just the right amount of tender and flaky. I did not expect such good food from a Walmart parking lot.
Wednesday: Round Spring, Echo Bluff
Wednesday we only had a short time in between Josh’s meetings, so couldn’t do any activities too far away. We headed over to the closest Ozark NSR unit- Round Spring.
Round Spring also has a cave and offers tours in the summer, which unfortunately meant no cave for us. We did walk down to see if there were any interpretive signs by the entrance, and there was one, but because of storm damage it was entirely unreachable.
Round Spring ended up being a shorter adventure than planned, so when we got back to Echo Bluff we did a little driving around to see more of the park. We stopped at the Blufftop Pavilion, which has a great overview of the park. This area is famous for being home to the Shannon County herd of wild horses. The horses are thought to be descendants of horses that were abandoned by farmers during the Great Depression. We drove around multiple times during our trip looking for the horses and never found them, which was pretty disappointing.
Round Spring is also featured in my Ozark NSR post!
Thursday: Rainy Day at Home
Thursday was a rainy day, so we stayed home in the camper. I worked on my National Parks puzzle I had gotten for Christmas.
Friday: Another Rainy Day
Friday was another rainy day, so this time we pulled out a board game. For years Josh has talked about a board game called Bonkers that he remembered playing with his grandparents as a kid, but they never remembered having it. Last year at an antique mall we came across it and finally got around to playing it on this day. Besides having amazing vintage graphic design, this was a surprisingly fun game!
Saturday: Adventure Day at Taum Sauk, Missouri Mines, Johnson’s Shut-Ins, and Elephant Rocks
Saturday was our first big adventure day. This whole trip ended up accidentally geology themed since there is just so much interesting geology in the area.
First up, we headed to Taum Sauk State Park to summit Missouri’s high point. It’s a super simple to reach high point, but one of our goals this year is to check off more high points. For a while we weren’t sure if we’d actually be able to, because when we first got to Missouri the park was closed because of ice on the gravel road. Luckily it opened in time for our weekend free day!
After the high point itself, we headed over to the Taum Sauk observation tower so Josh could do a quick climb up (no heights for me please).
Our next activity was Missouri Mines State Historic Site. We had a mix of guided and self-guided tours and checked out the museums. This site was so cool. The history itself is interesting, but we especially love old abandoned buildings. Missouri Mines got its own blog post, which you can read here: Digging into the Past at Missouri Mines State Historic Site
The adventure continued at Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park. Even though we had technically been here before when we first got to camp, we didn’t take time to explore. Shut-Ins are a unique geological feature in Missouri caused by the rocks squeezing the river through them. The coolest part of Johnson’s Shut-Ins is that in warm weather you’re actually allowed to swim here. It’s been on my bucket list for years, but I’m keeping it on there still until we can come back when it’s warm enough to swim.
Johnson’s Shut-Ins also got its own post: Visiting Johnson’s Shut-Ins? Here’s What You Need to Know!
Our final adventure of the day was Elephant Rocks State Park. The name comes from the large boulders that look like a train of elephants. The geology here felt absolutely unreal and it was so fun to explore. Of course, Elephant Rocks also has its own post: Climbing Giants: How to Make the Most of Your Visit to Elephant Rocks
Sunday: Pilot Knob and a Missing Phone
Sunday was a very unique adventure, but I’m still waiting for Josh to get me photos from it.
One of the things Josh always does when we go to a new place is to reach out to local members of the non-profit he works for. This time, the local chapter president offered to take us somewhere really cool. He’s a retired geologist who is volunteering with the US Forest Service so has special access to Pilot Knob National Wildlife Refuge, which is usually closed to the public. Pilot Knob is a former mine and is now home to the federally endangered Indiana bat. It’s closed to the public partly because of safety with the now collapsed mine and partly to protected the bats. Our guide has been doing climate study work at the openings to the hibernaculum of the bats, so we tagged along while we collected data and reset his sensors
We started with a super steep mountain hike up to the locked fenced area. Then as we worked our way around the mountain to the various openings we did a lot of super sketchy rock scrambling. It was a tough trek, but so fun.
The reason I’m waiting on Josh for photos, though, is because on that steep walk up the mountain I dropped my phone somewhere. Once I realized it, I figured it was fine I’d just grab it on the way back. Like I said before, the site is closed to the public so we should have been the only ones there. Except, of course, lots of people like to trespass here and someone picked it up. They texted the friend I had last messaged with and he texted Josh to let them know. Apparently, they were ATVing and dirt biking the mountain, so there was a lot of waiting back and forth until we finally heard back to meet up with them. We had already left the mountain to meet some other chapter members for lunch by then, so had to run over real quick to meet up to get the phone back. They were so nice about it, though, that we didn’t mention that they were trespassing on federal property.
Monday: Alley Spring and Mill
On Monday we visited another Ozark National Scenic Riverways site, Alley Spring and Mill. Since we were off-season, the mill was closed but it was still fun to walk around. This was also an exciting stop for because they have a 24/7 accessible National Park passport stamp on the porch of their store! I’m obsessed with getting NPS passport stamps and these were my first two of the year.
More on Alley Spring and Mill is in the Ozark NSR post.
Tuesday: Painter Ridge Trail
After work Tuesday we decided to do a little hiking at Echo Bluff itself finally. We did half of the Painter Ridge Trail, which was a nice quiet walk through the woods. This trail is also used for mountain biking and the connectors are different obstacles- which I actually think are super fun to do on foot too!
Wednesday: A Nothing Day
Wednesday we just hung out at home. As boring as that sounds, it’s good to remember that full-time RV life is still life- it’s not just a vacation.
Thursday: Pizza Day
I’ve been into making homemade (well semi-homemade since I used store-bought crust) pizza with fun ingredients. Since we didn’t have any activities planned Thursday, I made this pizza which features leeks, white sauce, and bacon.
Friday: Dinner at the Lodge
By Friday we had decided to cut our visit short and head home early. We were supposed to roll out on Tuesday, but there were snow storms in the forecast we wanted to avoid. We decided to have our last Missouri dinner at the Echo Bluff Lodge restaurant. We both got the catfish special and it was so good! They also had the nicest staff there.
We like to try local beers when we can, so we tried two from Piney River Brewing which was on special. Float Trip is a good basic ale- very drinkable and would make a perfect summer beer. Black Walnut was more unique and we ended up buying a six pack of it. When we were in Croatia, we tried a black walnut liquor at this reminded me of that. Black walnut has a surprisingly sweet taste, but also kind of dark. It’s hard to explain, but it was really good!
Saturday/Sunday: The Drive Home
Saturday and Sunday were our drive days back home to Chicagoland. We stayed over Saturday night at Slaughterhouse Brewing in Auburn, IL, which is a Harvest Hosts site. We really enjoyed their unique beers and friendly staff, even though the actual parking situation wasn’t the greatest since it was right next to train tracks. We made it home Sunday and were glad we did since Tuesday there was a blizzard we would have been driving through otherwise.
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