Outdoor Adventures in the Ozarks

     Today the weather forecasters are calling this 'the pick day’ of the week for outdoor activities with highs near 70° before more snow arrives later in the week.  I’ll head up to Drury Mincy and do some nearby hiking while I have the chance (for more at Mincy C.A. see: 111 Bee Creek   & Cornell Road ).   Off Gunnison Road, I head up the steep gravel road into Mincy Conservation Area, about half a mile to the parking/trailhead area on the south side of the road.  This is ‘Bear Mountain Trailhead’ with parking for four or five vehicles. Bear Mountain Trail with white blaze      Bear Mountain Trail heads out south in the woods then downhill pretty quick, the trail is easy to follow with white  ‘hiking trail’  blazes .  The steep trail has lots of loose rock, soon arriving at what I’m assuming is Bear Cave shown on the very ‘basic’ Conservation Area map.    From here standing on the trail it doesn’t look...

     Drury-Mincy Conservation Area (4,089 acres) is across the state line in Missouri next to Bull Shoals Lake, another ‘close to home’ place I have been wanting to check out.  Today looks to be a good opportunity, since most of the snow has melted and weather predictions say: 'sunny with highs in the low sixties'.    Drury-Mincy has two separate sections: Drury Conservation Area (DCA) to the northeast, and the larger Mincy Conservation Area (MCA) farther south, at the south end of Mincy is Bee Creek, that’s where I start exploring. Bee Creek at Bull Shoals Lake      Pulling into MCA along Bee Creek I follow the road as far as I can, Bee Creek flows into Bull Shoals but the road turns north before reaching the lake.  Crossing Bee Creek four times with no bridges each ford is deeper than the one before.  After the fourth  crossing the road leaves Bee Creek heading up the hill covered in sheets of solid ice.    Near the...

     It’s Christmas Eve and the weather is just beautiful, so nice in fact it would be a shame not to get out and do something.  We go for a drive around the Buffalo scouting possible parking spots for future hikes.   A little over 3/4 of a mile on Tyler Bend Road, Peter Cave Road heads off west and down into Calf Creek drainage.  At the bottom after crossing a little creek we notice an old house in ruins off to the south in the woods near the creek, and just beyond an intersection. short trail to vista      We pull off Peter Cave Road and park on a side road at a cable gate that’s open, this looks to be a possible hike for the future.    Just about 100 feet farther on Peter Cave Road the OH/BRT heads off the road northeast up to Collier’s Homestead,  going the other way northwest from here, Peter Cave Road is the Ozark Highlands/Buffalo River Trail.  We are now driving  on the trail and soon cross Calf C...

     After my hike here just last week (see:  108 Boozer and Big Music ) , I found a map online showing this Natural Heritage site's boundaries, and sure enough most of my route down into Boozer Hollow wasn’t even in the park .   So today I’ll be staying smack dab in the middle of the natural area and shouldn’t even get close to any private lands. moss covered rocks in a small drainage      From the parking lot I head southeast parallel to Highway 14 and go downhill into the first hollow I come to.  This little hollow is pretty ‘trashed out’ here close to the highway, it also has a lot of undergrowth making for some slow going.  Then it starts raining, just a sprinkle I keep going, it should let up soon.    It isn’t steep, as I progress down into the hollow the brush thins out as does the trash making for fairly easy hiking. low bluffline       Along both sides of the  creek,  are low broken bluffs...