Mort Walker Trail

Bicentennial Conservation Area is part of the land that once belonged to Camp Crowder. It is now a well-maintained part of the Missouri Conservation Department. This trail is named after one of Missouri’s own — the cartoonist Mort Walker who created Beatle Bailey. If you’re a fan of the funny papers, I encourage you to come and hike this trail just north of Crowder College. 

Abstract Hope

When Spring is just around the corner, these strands of fescue pick up the low-angled sunlight just enough to make them pop out against the gray trees.

Last Shout Out to Winter

Today I decided to give you a picture representing the last hangings on of life during the cold winter months. This is a sprig of Honey Suckle wrapping up a short grape vine. Grapes grow wild in this region, but they can sometimes become a nuisance. The problem is when nature isn't allowed to take its course with fires and clearings. There are records in the diaries of settlers coming into the Ozarks and crossing paths with large groves of briars, grapes, and thistles. They would coat the creek lands and riverbeds, but among the prairie, things were fair and wide.

Old Mississippi River

The Mississippi River has wound its way around Missouri with so much force that it left traces of its path wherever it has gone. This is one of the few little pieces of the "original" river route further west than it currently flows. This is located in the central eastern portion of the state.