Traveling Opportunities

My wife was going to Branson Missouri for a conference for work and suggested I go along. At first I thought what am I going to do in Branson? Shows and tourist traps aren’t exactly what I would call a good time! But then like I always do when traveling to a new area, I began to look for natural areas and parks in the area to spend my time. Surprisingly there are some great natural areas in and close to Branson that are well worth the time to visit.

Roberts Cemetery Savanna

But first, if you have the time when traveling like we did on this trip, look for stops of interest along the way. Since the conference didn’t start until mid day on Wednesday and it is nearly 700 miles to Branson, we left early Tuesday morning and made some stops at prairies and savannas in Illinois. Some of these prairies I had visited a few years ago while taking my daughter to band camp in Illinois, but it is always interesting and a learning opportunity to visit places at different times of the year. If you always vivit at the same time or season, you will not see new or different flowers in bloom and I believe the best way to learn about and understand natural environments is to observe them in as many seasons as possible.

We made it to five places in Illinois as we passed through the state. Three of which had recently been burned and vegetation was already beginning to grow again. As we stopped in a couple of areas further south there were Trilliums in the savannas and woodlands, but they were not yet blooming. Based on location and leaf description I concluded they are likely Trillium recurveatum or Prairie Trillium. There were many other species of spring flowers along the way at most stops as well.

Rainbow Trout

After checking into our room overlooking Table Rock Lake, I headed out check out the area and see what I could find. The Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery, Table Rock Dam and visitor center and the Sate Park where all within five minutes of our room. I always enjoy a walk through a fish hatchery and Shepherd of the Hills was no disappointment. They have a nice visitor center with displays of not only the trout they raise, but also snakes, turtles and other things found in the area including three venomous snakes and an Alligator Snapping Turtle. Next to the hatchery you can also gain access to the river.

Bald

The Ruth and Paul Henning Conservation Area is well worth the visit when in Branson. This 1,534 acre area just on the edge of the city is a wonderful and diverse place. The Roark Creek begins here with some bottomland forest and small waterfalls. There are forests with spring wildflowers and a six story observation tower that yields a great view of not only Branson but the surrounding Ozarks. There are also White River Balds here. The balds or glades are dolomite glades where the dolomite rocks protrude from the mountain sides, not a lot of soil for plants in many places. This is a very specialized ecosystems with many rare species and many prairie species as well. In some ways they are reminiscent of the Maxton Plans on Michigan’s Drummond Island, except they are anything but flat.

There are many other conservation areas within a short drive of Branson that are worth the time as well, such as the nearly 6,000 acre Drury-Mincy Conservation Area. Here I found Sessile Trilliums and many other flowers of the riparian zone woodlands and balds.

Ozark Green Trillium

On the morning of the last day with only a few hours before leaving for Tennessee, I found two great places near the Table Rock Dam for spring wildflowers. One of these is in the State park and the other next to the fish hatchery on the opposite side of the river. There is a nice little water fall and a lot of spring flowers. On the Caneback Trail next to the fish hatchery, I found the Ozark Green Trillium giving me three new Trilliums in the wild so far on this trip. In the Missouri area I found nearly 60 flowering plants and 26 of those were blooming.