Roaring River SP- MO

28 & 29 July

 

Roaring River State Park, Missouri is the second of three state parks dedicated to trout fishing. Like Montauk SP, there is a fish hatchery in the park, a lodge where you can stay if you do not like camping, and three very large campgrounds. We stayed in campground 1 way back in a holler that narrows at the very end. Our site was right up against a dry stream bed.

  There were very few other campers around us, mainly because the showers and bathrooms were far enough away that one has to drive to them but with plenty of woods around there is was plenty of trees nearby in case of emergencies. One word of caution though, I took a walk behind our camp site to the dry creek bed and ran into a not so friendly neighbor, a Copper Head. I was just about to put my foot down when I looked and saw this little guy all coiled up and head raised as if to strike. Lucky for me it was cold and a light rain had began so I think he was just a bit too cold to strike. But if you stay in this park and your camp site is a it out of the way as ours was, you need to watch where you step as mother nature rules these woods.

 We ate the lodge one night, it was good but not as good as Montauk State Park.  The lodge was built by the CCC and it was a beautiful lodge. Massive columns of stone and a fireplace in the center are the highlight. I wish I had my camera with me so I could have taken a picture of it all.

 After dinner we walked along the river where all the folks were fishing. The water is very clean here as it was at Montauk SP.  One can see all the trout in the river just waiting to be caught. We were even lucky enough to see a fisherman reel his catch in while we watched nearby.

 All in all, if you like to trout fish this is the place for you. But the real draw for us is this state park is only 19 miles away from Pea Ridge National Battlefield and makes a great place to stay and visit this park.  And if you really want to take a road trip, as we do and did, you can drive two hours to Tahlequah, Oklahoma to visit the Cherokee National Museum and George Murrel Home.