We got up and had breakfast and coffee. So good to have our own kitchen again. We miss it when we’re in hotels for days at a time. The weather is beautiful today but going to get worse during the week. We decided we were going to do the Dogwood Canyon Nature Park today, while we could.
The drive to Dogwood Canyon Nature Park was about 25 miles from Stormy Point Resort. The roads were good and the drive was lovely as for most of the way we followed along Table Rock Lake and caught glimpses of it. The trees are blooming and it’s pretty spectacular around Branson, Missouri.
A great oldie on our way out.We really like the stick built homes at the resort.Nobody below, nobody above, just a neighborhood.Good place to stay, got it through II.A play lighthouse, 75 steps tall.Can’t tell for sure but it feels like Branson is growing and changing.The lake has many fingers that reach out in all directions.A few bridges.In total it is a huge lake.
The Canyon is well signed.Easy to find.Kind of get the sense you are entering Jurassic Park.Looks dinosaur like.And then you enter the world of manicured wildness.
We got to the Park and easily found parking close to the entrance. We were able to get a slight old person discount on the entrance tickets to the park, but it was still close to the $10.00 per person price. We then asked about the bike rental for $15.00 a person and were told we needed to go to the gift shop and rent it from there. We decided to do the bike rental for $15.00 per person instead of the $10.00 per person for just the walking fee.
With beautiful stone bridges.10 to get in and another 10 to go for a walk.A high end non profit, makes it easier to spend.Lots to do.
Good place to see pretty women!Very picturesque.Our Dogwood selfie.
As we were walking towards the gift shop, we went through the museum portion and enjoyed looking at the displays. The person who owns Dogwood Canyon is the owner of the Bass Pro Shops and it kinda looks like a Bass Pro Shop in that there is a lot of beautiful wood, rock, and copper. Spectacular buildings. Just outside the door of the museum was a pretty awesome waterfall. We also saw a water snake and some hungry fish.
The construction inside is fantastic with outstanding exhibits.Stuffed animals in a display of a nature scene.Great mix of stone, beams and displays.Good read.A rare full skeleton of an extinct Stag moose.Tools found.Lots of Indian bronze statues.My favorite.
Just outside the building, very beautiful.We didn’t have any change, for a quarter you can buy a handful of fish food and feed the fish.Indian Cliff Falls.SNAKE!Good swimmer.Manicured wildness.Edie took their picture for them. When they hand her their camera I always admonish her not to run off with this camera like she did last time. I always get a chuckle and a nervous look.Waterfall selfie
Today’s restaurant.It is a lovely and lively water fall.
As we were walking back through the museum, we were getting hungry and decided to have lunch at the restaurant. Prices weren’t too bad and we felt good in that all the money goes to the conservancy to keep this beautiful place up. Michael got a turkey/swiss sandwich, and I got an avocado/vegetable sandwich. We swapped half of each sandwich with each other. Yummy. Mine came with fries and Michael got fruit with his. Just enough food to get our engines going over to the gift shop to rent the bikes.
Fantastic notching putting the two pieces together to form the curved portion.Custom hardware.Indian shovels.A little hard to read, “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.” John MuirGruesome.Elk and bison are located in the park.Lunch view.Reasonable and interesting.
Turkey and swiss on thick cut wheat bread with fruit.Avocado, tomato and onion on thick cut wheat bread with fries.A wedding just took place.Bison burger with homemade chips at the table next to us.Pro Bass logo carved on the chairs.Logo on the fireplace screen.Displays.A bison from the park.
All the building materials are beautiful and expensive in the hunter/sportsman theme.When we got here at 10:30 am we asked and the next opening they had on a tram was at 4:30 pm
After signing our lives away at the gift shop (in case we kill ourselves), we got on our bikes and realized it had been awhile since we’ve ridden. It was funny in that we were like drunk people going all over the road and almost crashing. I felt really proud that we made it the whole way without hurting ourselves our anyone around us.
Blooming trees, not sure if they are dogwoods or not.Grumpy, headed for a fun ride or disaster.
The ride was pretty awesome. It was hard going to the end of the trail (about 3-1/2 miles, uphill and flat), but the ride back was a piece of cake as it was mostly downhill. Along the way to the end of the trail, we met some wonderful people from Wisconsin (Sue and Mike), saw some beautiful waterfalls, scenery, flowers, butterflies, trees, and general beautiful nature. We also briefly crossed into Arkansas.
First bridge in the park, built by Amish workers from recycled beams.The wedding chapel called HOPE Wilderness Chapel.Great alter, certainly nondenominational.They must have completely engineered the stream, creating pools where they wanted and falls to aerate the water and be the dam for the pools in the stream.We like the humming bird and flower design in the fence.Logs and mud for construction.Lots of oxygen in the water.
Wonderful bridges up the valley floor.
A tram crossing too.Sue and Mike at the Falls.Edie took several.Sue and Mike headed out.Our Thunder Falls selfie.Thunder Falls.They sign the paths trying to keep the bikes and pedestrians out of the water and separate from the trams.Paved smooth paths, mowed lawns, trout rich stream and the natural woods beyond.There are several of these stone bridges.We stop at every bridge and take a picture.
And pretty flowers too.Lots of nice limestone formations.Great aeration for the fish.
Several small waterfalls.Bike and foot bridges made out of recycled tires.This lady had a bike with gears, we were really jealous.Called Turtle Rock because the stone used looked somewhat like turtle shells.A tram crossing.Just noticed the snorkel on the front fender of the Toyota.The best view is for the folks in the very back to see the disturbed water.Lots of nice signs.Interesting white stone band at the bottom.The actual Arkansas state line.Twin Falls at the very back of the park for us.They are called Wish Bowl Falls.Pretty woman coming in, the last bit is steady uphill.A lot of golden trout live and get fat here.A sign and a gate stop us.There are many caves in the area and they totally discourage spelunking.This is exactly why I fell in Indianapolis! She needs direct and constant supervision. Pretty woman is riding her bike, taking a selfie with her phone, and making sure she captures me in the photo. She is not a great multi-tasker and this is dangerous. (Edie here – I see lettuce in my teeth from lunch.)Clover, troublesome that I didn’t see any bees though.Heading out, nice view of the falls behind the building.
Headed out to the car.
Fun. Perfect day. So glad we did it. So glad we saw it on Facebook. And so glad my beloved husband is so willing to do crazy stuff with me. We drove home.
Table Rock Lake
Big.The hand invites sitting.Shades of King Kong.View from just above our resort.Hilly here.
We are sore and have already taken our Ibuprofen. Michael is going to make some chili for dinner. That was our day. Hope yours was great!
