Road Trip?

[oneshot]

Ok have never been to the St. Francois Mountains. Walking and Floating are out.

Would we enjoy a day Road Trip from Lebanon with Driving and short Walks or would it just be a drive?

oneshot

[oneshot]

Ok thinking get on up I-44 make a right. Go to a couple mills.

oneshot 

[Flyfisher for men]

Surely you'd find some way to misbehave or some other fine way to get into trouble.

 

I'm not from Missouri, but looking at an Old Delormes i can see a couple of wineries, several caves, Meramec State park, Missouri Mines state park . There's bound to be other stuff. 

[jdmidwest]

Always something to look at in that area.

Make it an over nighter and shack up in a motel.  Enjoy the local flora of a small town.

Arcadia, Caledonia, Fredricktown.  Mountains old as the world's beginnings.  Mining, Parks, Elephant Rocks, Shutins, and just simple folks enjoyin life.

[Al Agnew]

Well, some fairly easy walks that really give you the feel of the St. Francois Mountains...Elephant Rocks State Park--paved walking trail through the huge red granite boulders.  People wonder how those boulders, which are mostly BIGGER than elephants, got there.  They've always been there.  The granite was once one huge mass.  Stress cracks appeared in the mass.  Weathering widened the cracks to chasms, separating the granite into the boulders, and rounded the boulders.  Really cool place to see.

Millstream Gardens Conservation Area--a paved trail to the overlook of the huge shut-ins is about a quarter mile.  It's the St. Francis River running through the shut-ins, site of the whitewater races each spring and the wildest whitewater in Missouri (unless you have guts enough to tackle some of the much smaller creeks that also have shut-ins after a big rain).  Absolutely gorgeous spot.  You can also drive to the parking lot at the upper end of the shut-ins and look downriver and see the beginning of the canyon anyway, if you can't walk a quarter mile.  "Shut-ins" is an Ozark term for a deep, narrow canyon, and shut-ins are typical of streams in the St. Francois Mountains, where the streams run through volcanic rock that is more than billion years old and very hard and highly resistant to erosion.

Johnson Shut-ins State Park--another shut-ins, this one on the East Fork of Black River, a smaller stream than the St. Francois.  Pretty easy walk to view the shut-ins.  And as a bonus, you get to see where the Ameren Electric Taum Sauk upper reservoir failed and the water scoured a path down the side of Proffit Mountain and through the shut-ins.

Other than that, just drive the roads and look at the "mountains".  Far different landscape than the rest of the Ozarks.

[Bushbeater]

I like that area. 72 east out of Ironton, Stouts Creek, St Francis river and Silver Mines.  In the day the record Walleyes were caught there. Some really neat CCA or WPA granite fences along the road.

[Bushbeater]

Anyone from Lake Killarney  on the boards. A place close to my heart. Curious about floating to the St Francis.

[oneshot 1]

Need to get there. Was looking at a place to rent couple nights but my wife said just make a day trip of it.

Didn't realize a person could drive most way to these places. Probably be best to go during the week.

Been hunting along the state line by Arkansas and have Camped in Arkansas couple times.

Spent the night in Success around 30 years ago. Went there to buy a Truck. But I think that is West of where I'm wanting to go.

oneshot

[jdmidwest]

8 hours ago, Bushbeater said:

Anyone from Lake Killarney  on the boards. A place close to my heart. Curious about floating to the St Francis.

From Killarney to the St Francois?  Pretty skinny water in normal flow.

[jdmidwest]

8 hours ago, oneshot 1 said:

Spent the night in Success around 30 years ago. Went there to buy a Truck. But I think that is West of where I'm wanting to go.

oneshot

West of Current River on the Piney.  Still good scenery.