Road Trip to "The Lakes"

Well, we had a nice week of weather and now it has turned to s#$! again.  Back in the teens and twenties this week.  However, Saturday was a nice day in the sixties and we did enjoy it.  We didn't go for a hike, but went for a road trip to check out the campsites that we have booked for this spring and summer.  In April we are going to Lake of the Ozarks State Park and in July to Truman Lake.  We love road trips, so we packed up the WHOLE family, dogs and all and headed west for the day.  After seeing the campgrounds and the lakes, I am very excited and can't wait to go camping.  Lake of the Ozarks also has lots of trails that we will have to check out while we are there in April.  We didn't have time to hike Saturday because we wanted to check out Truman also.  Our sites at Truman are at the Bucksaw campground and we are most excited about those.  Lots of area for the kids to play and water views, very nice.  So here are some photos from our latest adventure.  We will get out to hike again sometime:)

Our campsite at Lake of the Ozarks.

The best part is we are right by the playground!

A tree had broken by the playground.  Both campgrounds have lots of clean up to do before camping season.

My cutie on the playground.

A trail!  Sort of.

The Beach!

Heading into Bucksaw campground at Truman.  Beautiful view!

Our campsite at Truman.

Throwing rocks into the lake, good times.

Colby showing them how it's done.

Blake was disappointed that we didn't go for a long hike.  He had to try out his new hiking poles.

King and Queen of the mountain!

Enough Winter Already!

I love winter, for a couple of months anyway, but this year has been ridiculous!  I am sick of cold and snow and ready for longer, warmer days.  We haven't been able to get out and hike, and it doesn't look like we're going to get a break in the cold and snow at least for the next 2 weeks.  So I decided to relive one of my favorite Missouri hikes with the kids.  It was Father's Day weekend of 2012 and it was our first camping trip to Johnson Shut Ins State Park.  We took a hike on the Scour Trail, which is a long 2 miles through the scour channel that was left after the Taum Sauk Reservoir broke in 2005.  The 1.3 billion gallons of water left a 3 mile long treeless channel and geology that hasn't been visible for millions of years.  The hike is very scenic with lots of different terrain and even a view of the surreal looking new Taum Sauk Reservoir.

I don't know if anyone remembers the summer of 2012, but it was HOT.  At the time, Blake had just turned 5 and Leah was not even 2 yet.  Luckily Leah was still small enough to be in a backpack carrier, and Blake, well he was such a seasoned hiker, even at 5, that he did fine.  I was a little bit of a paranoid mom that day, however, because of the heat.  There is no shade on the scour part of the trail, so if you try the hike, bring plenty of water, it is only 2 miles, but it was almost like hiking in a desert for a small portion of it.  Or, just go in the spring, I'm sure it will be beautiful!  Still, one of my favorites, I would love to do it again.

Leah ready for the hike.

The view into the scour.

Heading into the scour.

The view down the scour (top) and up to the new reservoir.

We weren't sure of which way to go at first, the trail marker had been knocked down when we arrived.

The end of the scour and ready to head into the shade!