Missouri - Ozark National Scenic Riverway

Since it would take a week to ten days for the parts to come in to repair the coach, we decided to see more of Missouri and to get all the Missouri stamps for our the National Parks book.  Our first stop was Ozark National Scenic Riverways in southeast Missouri.  What a treat!  We stayed in the Big Springs campground and had 50-amp power (no water or sewer) for just $8.50/night with our senior pass.  Big Spring became a Missouri’s first state park in 1924.  The Ozark National Scenic Riverways was established in 1964 to preserve the free-flowing Current and Jacks Fork rivers together with their caverns and high-volume springs.   Big Spring, along with Alley Spring and Round Spring state parks, were placed under National Park Service Management in 1969.

Big Spring is the largest spring in Missouri and one of the largest in the world with a daily average flow of approximately 286 million gallons.  The water literally boils from the base of a bluff, with a temperature between 55 and 58 degrees year round.  The water is a glorious aquamarine color thanks to the minerals dissolved in the water.    

Beautiful Aquamarine Round Spring

Many other springs feed into the Current and Jacks Forks rivers, including Blue Spring, Alley Spring, and Round Spring.  The rivers are a favorite destination for kayaking, canoeing, and tubing.  It is not unusual to have over 1,000 people on the river on a                  -

Swimming in the Current Riv

summer weekend.  We visited Round Spring and took a two hour tour of the Round Spring Cave.  The cave stays at 58 degrees year round and was a welcome respite from the 95 degree heat we had been experiencing for over two weeks.   Every day I enjoyed an afternoon or early evening swim in the Current River.  The cool temperatures and clear, clean water felt so good after all the heat and humidity of the day.  The river bottom is gravel, not sand or mud, and so the water is amazingly clear.

We spent an afternoon at Rocky Falls where the Rocky Creek cascades about one hundred feet into a pool of clear, cool water.  The water was unexpectedly warm, much warmer than the Current River.





The Ozark Riverways Heritage Days were held in the park while we were there.   This festival pays tribute to the traditions and heritage of the Ozark hill pioneers with demonstrations of their skills and stories of their lives.  We watched traditional Appalachian clogging, listened to blue grass music, fiddle and banjo tunes, dulcimer music, and storytelling.  We saw craftsmen making beautiful fiddles and mandolins, split oak shingles, dutch oven cooking, pottery, crosscut sawing, blacksmithing, and even cedar box turkey call making.  There was a display by the local fiber guild from “sheep to shawl” that included shearing sheep, carding the wool, spinning, knitting, and weaving.   There were vendors selling hand dyed yarn, finger-woven scarves, hand-made baskets, wooden spoons, candles, soaps, fiddles, giggers (used for gigging, a method of fishing), and more.   We enjoyed Friday’s program so much that we decided to extend our stay so we could come back on Saturday.  


This is a wonderful place to spend a week or more.  It is definitely on our list of places to return to.