Hiking Branson

FINALLY, it is warm enough to spend extended amounts of time outside. I was beginning to think it would never happen, but it has, and just in time. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I'm not really into cold weather so I have spent a lot of time indoors this winter and cabin fever was rampant in the Dossey household--even the dogs were about to go stir crazy.

Now that we're venturing out into the outside world again, we figured we might as well get some exercise so we decided to explore the different walking trails in the area. Branson is developing a master trail system which will eventually connect all the trails around the city and the surrounding area. Several new trails are in the works, the most extensive of which will be a trail stretching northward up the Roark Creek Valley and connecting with trails in Stone County and Reeds Spring. For those of you who don't know the area, believe me, that would be quite a walk. It will probably be years before this trail is completed, and I am pretty sure it will be years before I'll be ready to walk it! In addition to the Branson trails there are trails at Table Rock Lake, Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery, the nearby Ruth and Paul Henning State Forest, plus
Big Cedar Lodge and Dogwood Canyon which are both owned by Bass Pro Shops.

I have discovered that the internet is a great source of ideas for hiking spots. Here are two links that will give you some additional trails to explore. http://www.linkpendium.com/hiking/USA/MO/ (Scroll down to Taney County if you want to stay fairly close to Branson) and http://www.localhikes.com/getHikes.asp? Search=1&getreporter=Stargazer&getHikebyReporter=Yes ( these trails are 35 miles or more away, but easily doable from Branson).

We've only attempted a few of these hikes so far. First, we went to the Fish Hatchery. Turns out that the bridge got smashed by a tree during one of the storms this winter making the trail impassable so we walked to the bottom of Table Rock Dam instead and then  back by the rows and rows of fish ponds. Hopefully, they'll fix the bridge so that they can get the trail opened up again soon.

(Fishing in Lake Taneycomo beside the fish hatchery)



(The trout ponds at Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery below the Table Rock Dam)



(View of Table Rock Dam from the Fish Hatchery)

Next, we decided to go to Stockstill Park. Its  paved trail  winds around softball fields, pavilions, and a large  children's playground and then follows alongside the Roark Creek. If you stay on it long enough you'll end up at the Skaggs Hospital. You can continue on from there to the Roundabout and on the the Branson Landing and its waterfront walk.




(Jake, Kaylee, and Byron beside Roark Creek in Stockstill Park)

The Lakeside Forest Wilderness Area was an interesting hike through a 130 acre park. If you go down one unpaved trail you can walk past an abandoned house built  of stone and see crumbling stone walls that once  surrounded the property. The other trail leads you to 300 historic stone steps that will take you all the way down to Lake Taneycomo. We chose not to do the steps, because we had the dogs with us and dogs are restricted from the steps. The decision  had nothing to do with the fact that even if I managed to get down 300 steps, I would then have to drag myself back up 300 steps!



(Trail and steps at Lakeside Forest Wilderness Area)


Our next adventure was on the new Waterfall Trail. It was an adventure just trying to find the trail head. We drove around and drove around trying to spot the sign and when we did finally see it, we weren't sure it actually stood at the beginning of a trail. This path is classified as rugged, and rightly so. It was often difficult even to see where the path was! I don't recommend taking your dogs on this hike, because we spent a lot of time just trying to untangle ours from the surrounding brush. We also had to cross the creek which both dogs were reluctant to do at first.After a little leash tugging we finally made it across. They weren't so hesitant on the return trip although they didn't want to spend any more time than necessary in the water. In fact, Kaylee took off just as I was stepping on a slippery rock and down I went. I  walked  the rest of the way in soggy clothes and covered in green slime! I had to sit on my jacket on the ride home, but we now have a roll of trash bags in the car just in case we have future accidents. We turned back before we reached the waterfall because it was just too difficult with our dogs on leashes, but we plan to return sans dogs and to make it all the way to the end.


(Waterfall Trail crossing where I soaked myself)
(Byron and Jake on the Waterfall Trail)

If I could figure out how to make my nifty  hand-held Garmin GPS system work (I've had several people besides my technically challenged self try to get it set up), we would love to go geocaching. Geocaching is a high tech treasure hunt using a GPS device to follow coordinates to a hidden "treasure." I really, really want to try it so if you have one bring it with you when you come to visit (hint, hint Kim and Michael) and we'll see how many we can find around here.

I am sure there are more trails that I haven't discovered. If any of you have suggestions about new places or thoughts about the ones I've already mentioned, please leave a comment in the comment box. Byron and I would really like to keep trying new places as long as possible.